Book Review - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

As promised, I finished reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and wanted to give my review of the book and how it compared with the movie.

First, I found the book like The Magician's Nephew to be excellent. I suspect I'm going to enjoy all seven of the books. C.S. Lewis shows pleasant humor while at the same time keeping the story moving along. The book is also surprisingly short. My copy only has 206 pages. This makes it a very easy read. The short page count appears to be standard throughout all the books. I suspect this was done because I believe the books were intended for children who are less likely to like reading long books. It should be noted that adults will enjoy the Narnia books just as much as children would. I would definitely recommend the book to young and old readers.

Second, how does the book differ from the movie? There are some interesting differences though no major ones. In the movie, Edmund gets to meet Mr. Tumnus who he betrayed to the Witch. In the book, he doesn't. In the movie, there is a different area where the stone that Aslan has to go for his execution. In the book, the stone is located in Aslan's camp and he has his army move before he returns to the area to be killed. In the movie, the Witch kills a fox that was an ally of Aslan. In the book, there is a fox who is a member of a group that were celebrating thanks to Father Christmas. The Witch summarily kills the entire group and smacks Edmund for speaking up for them like he does for the fox in the movie. In the movie, the wolves attack the beavers and the children in the beaver's home. In the book, the beavers and children get away from the beaver's house. There is also a big chase scene in the movie between the Witch and the children. There isn't in the book. The movie also has one of the wolves who support the Witch talk to Peter before he attacks him. In the book, the wolf doesn't talk to Peter, he just attacks. In the movie, there is a centaur who is Aslan's captain. There isn't any mention of such a captain in the book. Also, at the end of the movie, you see the four now Kings and Queens riding in the woods where they find the lamp post. In the book, the now Kings and Queens are chasing after the White Stag that will grant them 2 wishes if they catch him. In the chase, they find the lamp post. These are just some of the differences. In my opinion, none of the changes they made in the story for the movie took away from it. I think the chase and battle scenes added to the movie's suspense. I continue to recommend the movie to anyone who hasn't seen it.

One final note, I read some where that Disney has been ecstatic of the success of the Narnia movie. The unnamed Disney executive revealed that Disney has the film rights to the other books. A blogger named Will Robison (his blog is: http://iconnoone.blogspot.com) revealed that Disney plans to shoot the fourth book Prince Caspian sometime next year. I'll be looking forward greatly to that movie.