Time to drag up this thread for my official review. As people on this board typically seek information on the values inherant in a movie along with its actual value as a movie, I'll be posting both, but seperately.
Value as a movie review:
This movie is awesome. It's like "Lord of the Rings" for a younger audience. It's quite a fascinating story about 4 siblings thrust into a conflict that they don't think they're prepared for. One moment, they're bored out of their skulls from being stuck in a mansion with a cranky woman and a reclusive professor (to escape the horror of WWII London). The next, they're the objects of a prophecy to end the tyranny of a powerful witch and the century long winter she has created in a world where fantasy creatures are real and the animals can talk. While the overall conflict may be strange and fantastic, there's more suble tone to it as well. The four of them have the same problems that any group of siblings has with each other, and must overcome them in order to defeat the witch. Not to mention the fact that they must go to war, the very thing they were trying to avoid, to do so. All in all, it's a classic story of good versus evil that's clean enough for your children to enjoy, and the heavy, epic plot is often relieved with a bit of light humor. Be warned, though, it's PG for a reason, and some parts of the movie will scare small children (stupid people couldn't keep their 3 year olds quite anytime something scary happened). As just a movie, it gets a 9.5/10.
Values review:
This is a great movie for families. The values are finely in tune with the ones expressed by C.S. Lewis in the original book. For the kids, it stresses the value of family and getting along with your siblings. Throughout much of the movie, sibling rivalry and blame-throwing get in the way of what the kids are desperately trying to accomplish. First, the younger brother's (Edmund's) contempt for the "childishness" of his younger sister (Lucy) pushes her away from him, especially when he lies about having been to Narnia. This incident also causes the older siblings to question her honesty and even her sanity. Later, their constant disagreements get in the way of acting in the direction they need to go, towards victory for Narnia. For the adults, there's a valuable message about both the ugliness and necessity of war, as the children are constantly reminded that war is an ugly business, thus the whole reason they left London, yet at the same time, they must reluctantly accept that it is the only way to free Narnia from the witch. As Father Christmas said of Peter's sword and shield, "These are tools, not toys, and the time to use them may be near at hand." He also told the two girls that, though they were given weapons, they should not fight in the battle. For everyone, there's the common values of personal sacrifice, aiding others, and battling evil. For values, it gets a 10/10.
:arabia:
