"It's not a Christian film and the Narnia books aren't Christian novels....Jack didn't intend the Narnia books to be an evangelistic fantasy... The myths of Narnia are partly those of the great man-made religions - Norse mythology, Hindu mythology, as well as the true myth of Christ. Exposure to man's myths will make young viewers ask questions about themselves - and only later will the seed of faith take root.
h/t http://clivedavis.blogs.com/clive/2005/12/in_out_of_the_w.html
I should say in reply to my own post, that Lewis' stepson has been agitating for years for the Christ references, metaphors, etc., be expunged from the Narnia series. Some recent print runs of the book series have actually complied with this.
It is to Disney's credit that they resisted this pressure, and did not flinch from including the messianic portions of LWW. (I'm not doubting that their considerations included monetary issues, mind you...;)