20 Years Later, An Iconic Fantasy Epic Is As Good As You Remember

"In the mid-2000s, family films seemingly had one goal: find the next Harry Potter. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies proved there was an audience for large-scale fantasy novel adaptations, and the Harry Potter movies proved that magical stories about British children were the hip new thing. Twenty years ago, one movie got closer than any other to capturing the hearts of children everywhere, and 20 years later, it's still a diamond in the rough that's about to get a makeover."

"From the minute you meet the Pevensie children, evacuated to a mysterious professor's mansion during WWII, they feel like your best friends, especially Lucy (Georgie Henley.) When she discovers the land of Narnia inside a wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek (a change from the original book), it transforms the movie as drastically as the reveal of Oz in The Wizard of Oz."

"Adamson filmed most of the scenes in chronological order, so when Lucy walks into Narnia and meets the scarf-wearing faun Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy), it's actually Henley's genuine reaction to seeing the amazing world and creature effects by Wētā Workshop. But as the other children enter Narnia and explore it, they discover the land is a snowy hellscape ruled over by Jadis the White Witch (a terrifying Tilda Swinton)."

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a major Disney gamble that blended large-scale fantasy filmmaking with intimate child performances. Andrew Adamson, fresh from Shrek, directed with mostly chronological shooting to capture authentic reactions, notably Georgie Henley's discovery of Narnia and her meeting with James McAvoy's Mr. Tumnus. The screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely adapted C.S. Lewis's novel into a visually magical film realized by Wētā Workshop's creature effects. The story follows evacuated Pevensie children who join Aslan (Liam Neeson) against Jadis the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), culminating in a massive battle and their ascension as Narnian rulers.

Read at Inverse