i pretty much disagree with all your nitpicking...particularly the humor. i thought the beavers were wonderful and the humor was a delightful surprise. of course, the books are humerous, but i didn't think they could catch that in the movie. but they did!
oh no don't get me wrong, i liked the Beavers too and chuckled at much of the humor throughout the film...just that some of it i thought was overused, or rather, was used in situations where humor didn't really seem to fit (such as when trying to escape from wolves or about to fall into frigid waters)
but then again, maybe i really am a humbug ;)
1. If the world seems a bit calmer tonight it is because Walt Disney has, at least for the moment, stopped spinning in his grave. I seriously think this is the first movie in a very long time to be associated with the Disney name, which Uncle Walt would not only have approved of, but would have been extremely proud of.
2. It struck me at the end of this movie that I could not remember the last time I attended a flick which had the audience applauding at the end.
3. As stated elsewhere on this thread, the battle scenes may not be as choreographed as dramatically as some more recent productions, but the cineophiles will definately recognize the tip of the hat that the opening scenes of the battle pay to the 1970 movie, Waterloo.
4. Liam Neeson makes a decent Aslan. I can think of a select few whose voices may have been better...Connery, Patrick Stewart. Somehow a British Isles accent seems right since Lewis was English, and the lion symbol is so strongly identified with the British Empire and throughout English heraldry. Had Aslan been a Grizzly bear, an American accent would have been the way to go (Jacka Palance or Eastwood). I hated Roger Moore as James Bond, but his accent and voice do have a sophistication and dignity which may have been optimum for Aslan.
5. The first time I saw the trailer for this pic, I was stunned at how closely the images on the screen mirrored the images that had been formed in my mind's eye during my readings of TLTWATW. When those images started popping up on the screen, I relly felt like someone had been inside my skull. On reflection, I think it merely speaks to the power and discipline of the imagery in Lewis's writing and his ability to make his readers envision things exactly how he wants them to be imagined.
6. The special effects are a technical tour de force and yet, are skillfully incorporated to support and augment the telling of the story rather than overwhelming or becoming the story, a problem I've seen with many recent movies.
7. On first day at the Professor's house in the country, the Pevansie children are housebound due to heavy rains, which eventually prompts them to play hide and seek. The opening shot of this scene is of rain falling against a window while in the background, a radio broadcasts the latest war news, reporting German bomber strikes. The voice of the radio announcer is Doug Gresham, step-son of CS Lewis and co-producer of the movie.