In my quest to catch up on The Chronicles of Narnia series because Greta Gerwig is coming like the White Witch to destroy it and turn it into her own icy, feminist wonderland, I re-read the book and watched the original movie that came out in 2008 to see how well they stood together. Thankfully, the movies, though they were produed by Disney, were quite acurate to the original story and didn’t subvert it into oblivion. Let’s get into it.
#1: The Pevensie Siblings
In the book, we don’t get much backstory for Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. It starts of with them being sent to the English countryside and the only reason we’re given for it is the fact that World War II was happening at the time. C.S. Lewis wastes no time getting into the main story, which is something that I somewhat enjoyed. The quicker pace of the story was somewhat refreshing after reading the sometimes tedious bits of Nature of Middle Earth.
In the movie, however, we get a bit more backstory. The Pevensie siblings are being sent to the country because of World War II and their father is in the war. Peter is in charge of taking care of his younger siblings and Edmund is a moody 10-year-old. While this wasn’t in the books, I did enjoy it since it set up the characters of the children. The girls try to stay on the safer side of thins, Peter does what he’s told to protect his siblings, and Edmund is impulsive and envious of his older brother.
#2: The Way Into Narnia
One of the big differences between the books and the movies is the way the kids find Narnia. While the movies stay close to the books in the fact that Susan and Peter think Lucy is nutty, the way they portray them going into Narnia is very different.
In the books, the Pevensies are running around and hear the maid coming with a group of people, so they decide to hide in the closet to escape them. When they are all pressed into the back of the closet, they discover Narnia.
In the movies, Peter hits a ball too hard (the English version of the baseball breaking a window I guess) and they try to hide from the maid so they don’t get in trouble.
#3: The White Witch
The White Witch stayed pretty much the same in the movie as she did in the books. In both, she’s manipulative and only acts sweet to get people to do her bidding, such as when she treats Edmund to the Turkish Delight only to lock him up when he doesn’t bring back his siblings. She doesn’t understand the meaning of love or sacrifice, and her ultimate goal is domination.
#4: The Flight From the Wolves
This was also one of the big differences from the book. In the book, their flight is relatively uneventful and the wolves come nowhere as close as they do in the movie. However, I’m not that angry about the difference, because the flight from the wolves had to be made more suspenseful – in my opinion – to be good for the movie. Though I think it was an artistic decision, it’s one that I can stand with that didn’t take much from the story. In many ways, it highlights Peter’s bravery and protective instinct.
#5: Aslan
My favorite thing about this movie is the fact that even though it was being produced b a secular company, it stayed very close to the original story and even kept the theology in. Aslan remains the same as in the books an you can see why churches to this day use the movie version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as an illustration for Christ. The scene where Aslan is sacrifice in Edmund’s place was very well done and you could tell that there was a lot of talent and love that went into making the film that you don’t see much of today.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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