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I saw it this afternoon and agree that the actors portraying the sons and daughters of Adam were wonderful (by the way i was amused at the beginning of the film when they showed the director's name, which i hadn't known of beforehand...i had seen his name in one of the reviews that i was skimming through last night but thought the reviewer was referencing Peter or Edmund, who i imagined had been given the nickname Adamson by someone in Narnia...lol).

All in all, keeping in mind that it's based on a children's book, i thought it was well done and in fact in some ways i liked it better than the book. The audience seemed to enjoy it too as many were clapping at the end.

*SPOILERS FOLLOW*
I did have a few quibbles with the movie however. For one, although a lot of humor worked well most of the time i thought some of it seemed forced and used in instances that seemed inappropriate (such as when Beaver husband was bravely risking his life by walking across an ice-covered river which was breaking under his weight and Beaver wife joked that he had perhaps been overeating of late).

Another thing is that when the kids broke the window and fled into the wardrobe in order to escape the wrath of the housekeeper, it just struck me as out of character for the two older kids to run away and hide like that instead of facing up to whatever punishment was in store. Besides, what good would it have done? They were the only kids around who could have broken the window and so hiding would only have delayed their inevitable punishment for a little while. Anyway i'm pretty sure the book handled it differently but since i can't quite remember how Lewis did it i can't say his version would have been better.

Perhaps the major quibble i had though was with Father Christmas showing up - now this was something which was in fact in the book but i always felt it was a weak part of the story. I can't quite explain why it rings so false to me. Perhaps it is the mingling of one fantasy (Santa Claus) with another (the land of Narnia). Or maybe it is because Lewis went out of his way to allegorize Christ with Aslan, a lion, but for St. Nick he just used St. Nick. Or maybe because it makes you pause and wonder why they even celebrate Christmas in Narnia in the first place? I mean, isn't Aslan their version of Christ? But then since they know who Adam was i guess it makes sense that they would know of Christ too but still, it just seems to muddle things up a bit by throwing Santa in there and it took me out of the "reality" of the movie for a few minutes, so to speak.

Putting those quibbles aside it was an enjoyable movie and one made even more so by some great casting. While the special effects and the battles scenes were all excellent, to me it was the human actors that stole the show. Lucy was adorable and had a very infectious smile. Edmund was a likeable brat. Emily was played just right and so was Peter. And the way they genuinely cared for each other, without being too mawkish about it, was the aspect of the movie that i think i liked most (and related to that, the lesson of forgiveness as they were able to forgive Edmund for what he had done).

Finally, just wanted to say that i'm definitely looking forward to seeing more Narnia movies; especially The Boy and His Horse (i think that's the name of it) and Prince Caspian, which i thought were better stories.

I agree with some of your quibbles - in the book the children were trying to stay out of the way of a house tour, not running from punishment. And Father Christmas - Lewis's fault - if you see him as Father Yule for a pagan winter celebration, it works better. The children do need to get their gifts from him, so you can't take him out.

The children, Tumnus and the witch were superb. Aslan as a CG character sort of insubstantial and waving in the wind - his dialog rather modern fuzzy. CG landscapes I didn't mind, but I want more of a real lion!

A lot of the dialog suffering from a modern breeziness and smart-aleckyness - even at the end when the children are grown kings and queens and in the book were talking in a very elevated and antique style.

Feminism has crept in - no more "Battles are ugly when women fight." As a child I would have been wholeheartedly in favor of the change, not sure now.

Christianity was not blatant - you could easily see this as one particular sacrifice for one unworthy person, not for a world of them.

I would have loved it if so much of the dialog hadn't grated on me. It didn't bother my children.

Mrs VS

you are definitely right about the rock throwing, breaking of the window. it was out of character for the children. and to be running to hide from responsibility, rather than the visitors coming through the house, made the children seem more like ungrateful vandals rather than escapees from war.

i know what you mean about father Christmas...felt the same way when reading the books.

but i sort of balanced it in my mind because it made it seem to me that lewis was interweaving both our mythology/fairy tales/legends with the fairyland that is narnia. more i thought about it, more i liked it. father Christmas is a tradition that transcends most cultures and, thus, creates a bridge between the two worlds.

so i don't mind it. i just wanted him to be seen as FATHER CHRISTMAS, rather than SANTA CLAUS, who has become a symbol of materialism lately, imo.

i can't believe i misspelled humorous in my last post. i must have been really tired.

I think you missed part of the story. The White Witch didn't outlaw Christmas; her magic was preventing it from coming. The breaking of her magic was that Christmas was coming. And as C. S. Lewis would have pointed out, who came at Christmas? To take Father Christmas out of the story would be the same as taking John the Baptist out of the Bible. They are both heralds. One of the things I didn't like about the movie was the way Father Christmas looked. Lewis described him fatter and jollier than the ones you see in our world. This guy looked like a grump just off the fat farm. There should have been more joy on the face of Asland's herald.