The Lion, the Witch, and the Case of Narnia

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Well, it’s January, which means it feels like it’s always winter and never Christmas. This week, we’re heading to the wardrobe to grab a look at the 2005 fantasy epic, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe!

This highly ambitious live-action film adapted the story of the four Pevensie children that discover a magical realm in the back of an old country wardrobe. The film was overall a box office success and led to two sequels. It’s a great example of mid-2000s CGI, and it captured the imagination of audiences with its state-of-the-art effects. It also renewed interest in a beloved book series at a time when viewers were still hungry for high fantasy content after the mega-successful Lord of the Rings film franchise. 

So, pull on your winter coat! It’s time for tea with Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia. 

The Book Behind the Movie 

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first of seven books in a series called the Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, released this children’s fantasy novel in 1950. Since the first book’s release, The Chronicles of Narnia has become one of the most influential and widely beloved children’s series of all time. Even though there had been several TV and stage adaptations of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the story hadn’t made it to the big screen until 2005. 

  • Lewis claimed that from the time he was 16, he started to envision a fawn walking through a snowy wood, carrying an umbrella and packages. By the time he was 40, he decided to sit down and write the story. It took him about a decade to put the story together. He struggled to complete it until he started having dreams about a lion, and he added the character Aslan, the creator of Narnia. Aslan is actually Turkish for Lion. 

  • Other parts of Lewis’ life also influenced the story. During WWII, three children came to stay with him for a short time, just as the Pevensie Children stayed with Professor Kirke. Kirke himself was based on Lewis’ high school tutor. Lucy Pevensie was also based on Lewis’ Goddaughter, and the book was dedicated in her honor. 

  • As he was writing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis was also in a writing group with JRR Tolkien. Both men would become well-known for their fantasy writing, though they were critical of each others’ stories. In fact, Lewis threw out the first version of the story because his colleagues and friends disliked it. 

    • There is a lot of speculation as to why Tolkien didn’t like The Chronicles of Narnia. Some believe it was because Tolkien was meticulous about his worldbuilding in The Lord of the Rings, while Lewis combined several different mythologies and fairytales to create Narnia. Even Santa Claus makes an appearance in the series, which frankly, feels a little strange. The White Witch storyline borrows heavily from Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen as well. 

  • Narnia is known for its overt Christian themes. Lewis himself embraced many Christian and Catholic beliefs, although he never formally entered the Catholic church. When Lewis first met Tolkien, he was not religious at all. Tolkien, a Catholic, influenced Lewis to become a Christian. 

    • Lewis explained that Aslan the lion is a Christ-like character, just as many readers suspected. However, he vehemently denied that The Chronicles of Narnia was an allegory, but rather a supposal. He wanted to imagine what would happen if a fantastical realm like Narnia needed redemption, and who/what their savior would be. 

  • The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe had five sequels and one prequel. The Magician’s Nephew explains the origins of Narnia and The White Witch. Even though the book was written sixth in the series, it is chronologically the first book and many box sets place it first. In the 2005 film based on The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the story of The Magician’s Nephew is inscribed on the wardrobe. 

Summary

  • During World War II the Pevensie children are sent away by their mother to be safe from the London Blitz. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and the youngest, Lucy are sent to live in the countryside with Professor Kirke. In the Professor’s home, they find a magical wardrobe that brings them to the land of Narnia. Here the siblings must fulfill the prophecy by defeating the White Witch in Battle with the help of Aslan, the creator and one true King of Narnia. 

Making Of

  • The Chronicles of Narnia series is some of the best-selling children’s books of all time. So, it was only a matter of time before the story would be adapted to the big screen. The film, like many in Hollywood, took on a few different forms until it became the version that we know today. Originally, the rights to the story were owned by Paramount and not Walden Media. Paramount’s version was to be set in the modern-day United States instead of 1940s England, which would have been a major change to the story. 

    • CS Lewis’ estate reportedly disliked the idea, and this version of the story never came to be. When WaldenMedia picked up the project, a screenplay was crafted by Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, and Christopher Markus. 

  • Andrew Adamson was chosen to direct the project, although there have been reports that Guillermo Del Toro was asked first and declined. 

    • Adamson’s vision was very faithful to the source material, setting the film in the UK during the London Blitz. The writers made a few creative changes, like starting the film with the bombing of London to “wake up” the audience. Another difference between the book and the film is that Aslan is resurrected during the climactic battle sequence instead of before. This was to add more dramatic tension to the story. 

  • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was filmed mostly in New Zealand, with scenes in the UK and the Czech Republic. 

    • New Zealand was the home country of Andrew Adamson, and coincidentally held the filming locations for The Lord of the Rings franchise. Because of this, the crews were careful to make the sets look as separate from The Lord of the Rings so that no comparison would be made. 

      • When Lucy first sets foot into Narnia, she walks through three sets. One is the wardrobe in the country house, then the larger wardrobe build for the crew to capture her walking through the coats, and then the set of the Narnian forest. The Forest was built in a horse barn! The crew had to dig several feet down to make the space bigger. Beyond the initial forest, Lucy and Mr. Tumnus walk through the Czech Republic before arriving at his house for tea. 

    • The film was shot in almost chronological order, which is pretty rare for film productions. Because it was done this way, the actors were able to grow up with the film. This worked especially well with William Moseley who played Peter Pevensie. Audiences can see a change in his physical appearance from beginning to end, symbolizing his growth as a character. 

  • The film came out in 2005 which was an interesting time for CGI in major motion pictures. Many big-budget movies at the time were moving away from practical effects because computer graphics were becoming more accessible. The Chronicles of Narnia still made use of hand-built sets, with the biggest exception being the professor’s house. The exterior was CGI while the interior was a sound stage. 

    • Most of the animals that the children encounter in the film are also computer-generated. During filming, Aslan the lion was mostly played by an unmoving lion head with an actor reading lines. The character is fairly stylized and his design doesn’t try to replicate a real lion. 

    • Andrew Adamson wanted all the animals to be portrayed first and foremost as animals that happened to be able to talk. Whenever possible, real animals were used in the film, like the mice that bite through Aslan’s restraints and the White Witch’s wolves. Special effects artists did have to use CGI to make the wolves look angry because they kept wagging their tails while filming. 

  • Actors

    • Andrew Adamson and his team spent a year and a half looking for actors to portray the Pevensie siblings. Pippa Hall, the wonderful casting director, scoured schools and Theater groups. In total Adamson and his team saw about 2500 kids on tape and approximately 800 in person. When they got it to 400, they workshopped them and found Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. 

    • In order to know that the four would work together well as a family they did not offer the job to them separately. They were all hired on the same day.

    • It was a concern that over the course of production, the four children would grow up too fast. This is why the film was shot in chronological order because it subtly suggests that Narnia has changed them. William Moseley, who plays Peter, becomes a great leader and knight and is eventually crowned King of Narnia. Anna Popplewell, who plays Susan, is crowned Susan the Gentle and believes more in magic. According to IMDB, Skandar Keynes who plays Edmund grew 6.5 inches over the course of the movie and needed his armor altered weekly. Georgie Henley is the sweet youngest Lucy Pevensie. Georgie made friends with everyone on set but had a great friendship during filming with James McAvoy who plays Mr. Tumnus.  

    • Tilda Swinton is the controlling White Witch. Adamson decided that inconsistency and emotional distance is the scariest thing for kids. This prompted Tilda to play the Witch in a way that was unpredictable. She was purposely kept away from Edmund at first so they didn’t form an emotional bond in the beginning.

    • Jim Broadbent is the kind-hearted Professor Kirke that takes the children into his home. Broadbent was only on set for a relatively short time but his character and what he did was significant. Adamson said that as Broadbent put on his costume he just slowly turned into the character. He was also good-natured because near the end of the movie when he was throwing the cricket ball to William Moseley he ended up hitting Skandar at one point by accident. Instead of apologizing he pointed and laughed. 

    • Liam Neeson voices Aslan the creator. Originally the part was given to Brian Cox. After Brian recorded a bit in the studio, Adamson realized that the voice was not quite right in a Scottish accent.  The scene of Aslan rising from the dead was going to be before the start of the battle but it was much more emotional after the battle started. It was more emotional when you don’t know he is coming to help at first. 

  • Music

    • The music was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Before film composing he spent years teaching music in Africa and Egypt. After being inspired by Hans Zimmer, he discovered that composing was a career that was achievable and fun. He’s composed a lot of children’s films. Adamson specifically asked for Harry after working with him on Shrek and Shrek 2. Harry would sequence his music up on computers so that Adamson could hear what it would be like. This allowed Adamson to quickly know how it would work and give notes if he wanted slight changes. Chronicles of Narnia is very much held up by the music that flows throughout the movie. The music in the second act holds a sense of excitement and fantasy as the children discover Narnia. 

    • Harry gave the Pevensie children as a whole a motif, as well as Aslan, Tumnus, the White Witch, and the prophecy.  

    • The score makes use of the standard instruments in an orchestra. It also included different elements like a flute for the Tumnus scene or large drums in the sacrifice of Aslan. 

      • During the scene when Tumnus plays the flute to have Lucy fall asleep, James had been fiddling with it for a couple of days and it just had regular whistles coming out of it. Harry Gregson-Williams in the meantime was working on the music. So when they shot the scene, the actors heard the actual music that would play in the film. This startled Georgie after expecting to hear random flute sounds. 

      • When editing the shot and the music, Harry changed the composition slightly to match the hand movements that James did while “playing” the flute.

Reception

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was made with a budget of $180 million and earned an impressive $745 million worldwide. In 2005, it was the 55th highest-grossing film of all time and it is still the highest-grossing movie of the Narnia franchise.

  • The movie has a certified fresh rating and is at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7 out of 10 on IMDB. The consensus among critics is that with some great special effects and a compelling story that remains pretty faithful to the source material, it will please moviegoers everywhere. 

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe won many awards including the Academy Award for best makeup. Some other awards are two Saturn awards for Best Costume Design and makeup, a Costume Designers Guild award for Best Fantasy Film, and a BAFTA award for hair and makeup. 

  • The DVD was released in 2006 with one disc with both full-screen and widescreen options, then in December of the same year, a four-disc extended version was released. This version runs about 150 minutes and includes longer establishing shots of Narnia and footage of the Pevensies' travels. The two additional discs include a segment called “The Dreamer of Narnia”, which was a previously unreleased feature-length film about C.S. Lewis as well as some production featurettes. 

Fun Facts 

  • Adamson was doing a press junket for his movie Shrek 2 and Rupert Everett, who voices Prince Charming in the 2nd and 3rd Shrek, asked why he was not in Narnia. So Adamson gave him the only voice left which was the voice of the fox.

  • The white witch was originally going to have dark hair, but the makeup supervisor Howard Berger’s children visited the set one day and thought that she would look better blond. Ultimately he agreed and thought the dark hair would look “too gothic”.

  • Georgie Henley had been kept from seeing Narnia and Mr. Tumnus, so when she sees them for the first time in the movie, her reaction was genuine. 

  • The filmmakers planned to ship in 12 reindeer to attach to the White Witch’s sleigh. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in New Zealand refused to grant permission, stating the deer posed too much risk to the native wildlife.

  • During the air-raid sequence, the photo of the Pevensies' father, which Edmund risks his life to retrieve, is actually the real-life portrait of editor Sim Evan-Jones's father.

  • The movie had two fake working titles in order to keep it a secret while in production. They were "The Hundred Year Winter" and "Paravel."

  • Anytime Georgie heard anyone on set swear she demanded they put $2 in a potty mouth bucket!

Conclusion

The Chronicles of Narnia is the kind of story that inspires kids to read. It made an immeasurable impact on children’s literature and became one of the most treasured book series of all time. Its debut on the big screen was highly anticipated. And overall, it didn’t disappoint. The film reminds us of how wonderful it is to imagine that even during the darkest times, we might be able to find magic and adventure in the most mundane places (like the back of a wardrobe). 

This series of Narnia films, unfortunately, fizzled out as interest waned over the years. But, this first entry reinvigorated an old story and introduced it to a new generation of children. And with a story as classic as this one, it’s only a matter of time before the next retelling arrives on our screens. But until then, let this version transport you back to Narnia. 

Film History, PodcastBlack C. DiariesThe Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, Mr. Tumnus, WWII, The Lion, Narnia, Aslan, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Andrew Adamson, Jim Broadbent, Liam Neeson, Harry Gregson-Williams