Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Liam Neeson
Written By: C.S Lewis, Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson
Directed By: Andrew Adamson
Studio: Disney/ Walden Media
Buy on Amazon.com link

Fans of C.S. Lewis Rejoice! Back this year with a brand new 4-disc Collector’s Edition featuring over 10 minutes of brand new scenes for the film, this extended edition is a must have for fans of the novels. Some of the material was featured in the previous release set, but two brand new discs of unreleased material along with an extended cut of the film are provided and are worth the purchase alone.

Because I’m lazy writing about the film, I’m just going to use Bryan’s review of the story at this point and chime in with the extra material in a bit. While it’s probably not the best summary, it’ll do.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens up with London Blitz and the Pevensie children running to the shelter. Their widowed Mother sends them away to the country where the War isn’t being taken place. Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund are sent to a professor’s mansion and are told not to touch any of his things and not to disturb him. Of course the children are bored as hell and start trying to find new ways of entertaining themselves. While playing a hide & seek game, the youngest Pevensie child, Lucy, hides in the wardrobe. She keeps walking backwards and backwards and ends up in another world. It’s the land of Narnia and she meets up with a faun (half man, half deer) named Mr Tumnus. Lucy returns to tell everyone where she was but no one believes her since time she no one knew she was gone for hours. She returns to Narnia in the night and the brat Edmund soon follows her, but he ends up seeing the evil bitch, I mean white witch who tempts him with desserts. She wants him to betray his family and lead them to her. After that, the rest of the kids enter Narnia and are tossed into all the drama that is going on with the another world. Peter takes charge of the group and leads them to find Aslan along with their new found friends, the Beavers. The real king of Narnia and the Beavers tell the Pevensie children that there was a prophecy about them and they save Narnia. So yadda yadda yadda, the kids save Narnia and all that fun stuff.

With the extended film came a few extra scenes with new CGI, especially for the battle sequence near the end of the film. In it, it featured a slew of new creatures and some awesome fight scenes. I liked the addition of the vampire bats or whatever the hell you call them, fighting against all the eagles. That was a nice surprise on top of a few added scenes with the children as well. While I didn’t notice the extended scenes too much, the only ones that I could remember were from the battle. My feelings is that it was a better movie with a longer cut of the battle. It needed to be. The film is pretty slow in the beginning and I think for the average movie goer they need that big payoff in the end. Plus I wish there was bloodshed. I know its Disney and a mystical land, but there’s got to be some more realism to the battle. I thought the casting was brilliant too and the children really were good as the 4 Pevensie’s.

As far as new extras goes, you get the exclusive world premiere regarding C.S. Lewis, creator of the Chronicles of Narnia and is covered over an entire disc for you to learn all about the man behind this magical place. On the other new disc, it features a two and half hour Featurette on the visualizations of Narnia and what everyone put into the film regarding the characters, the layouts, the costumes, the scouting of locations, and always my favorite, the construction of the weapons by the masterful Richard Taylor of Lord of the Rings fame. I also enjoyed the bit where you can do a pop up during the movie filled with facts, which was fun to see while watching the film again.

The Chronicles of Narnia are well received books that are now becoming films, and with that comes criticism over which ones are preferred. Book people love the books, and movie people like the movies, but I’m sure both would be pleased with this version of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As the other films are being made, I hope the same respect and Integrity will go into them as this one. If Andrew Adamson, the director, is involved, then I am sure they will be awesome.

Features:
-From Director Andrew Adamson, The Extended Motion Picture with Additional Scenes.
-Plus, Bloopers, Narnia Fun Facts, Kids & Director Commentary and More!
-An In-Depth Look at the Two Worlds of Narnia – with Reflections and Stories from the Cast and Crew, and an Extensive Review of Narnia’s Creatures, Lands & Legends.
-C.S. Lewis – Dreamer Of Narnia
-The Exclusive World-Premiere, Feature-Length Film on the Man Who Created the Land of Wonder and Enchantment Called Narnia.
-Visualizing The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: The Complete Production Experience
-Anatomy Of A Scene: Behind The Battle
-Art Of Narnia Gallery

Audio:
-ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
-ENGLISH: DTS 5.1 CC
-SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
-FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
-Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
-Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: Mr Tumnus and Lucy have Tea, Beavers, On The Run, The Battle,Years Later..
Rating: NR
Running Time: 150 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: