The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens on December 9. You may have read some news stories (like this one or this one) that Disney has been aggressively marketing the movie to Christians, with a campaign modeled on the one used by The Passion of the Christ. At the same time, the studio and the filmmakers are trying to play down the movie’s Christian themes.
For example, the film’s website has an Educator’s Guide, which includes this quote from Producer Mark Johnson: “This movie really is… about empowerment and about kids… taking charge of their lives.” Uuuuuhh, nope.
Author C.S. Lewis was a renowned religious writer and the Narnia series is filled with Christian themes. I remember when I read the series as a kid, all of that went straight over my head, but years later, it wasn’t too hard to figure out. You can read a very good analysis here.
You may be scared off by seeing some movie that is to your standard fantasy film as Christian Rock is to Mainstream Rock. I just re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday and found it as charming as ever. I was a little surprised by the looming pagan elements, which might shock some Evangelicals.
But first, let’s make clear that Lewis didn’t intend to write a Christian polemic. To quote from A Reader’s Guide Through the Wardrobe:
Too often readers assume that Lewis began writing his children’s stories with an intentional Christian objective and then crafted a story to express his meaning. This was decidedly not the case. As Lewis recounted, when he wrote the Narnian stories “everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.”
As soon as Lucy enters Narnia, the first creature she meets is a faun. There are also dwarves and giants; some are good and some are evil. The most direct biblical reference comes when Aslan (a lion, just as Jesus is referred to as the Lion of Judah in the Book of Revelations) is betrayed by Edmund (Judas) and then lays down his life willingly. He is mocked and killed cruelly and then rises from the dead:
At that moment [Lucy and Susan] heard from behind a loud noise — a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate…
The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan.
But the good news is they don’t have to wait endless millennia for their messiah to return; Aslan shows up in about two seconds and then leads an army into battle.
Do I have a point? I don’t know. If you care about the Christian message or are potentially put off by it, I suspect the movie may offend you either way. On the one hand, there are all those pagan creatures. On the other hand, Father Christmas (a.k.a. Santa Claus) shows up at one point to help out; as he rides off in his sleigh, he cries out, “Merry Christmas! Long Live the true King!” Sounds a lot like the “Keep Christ in Christmas” slogans.
I personally enjoyed re-reading the book, so we’ll see how good a job the film does. The Narnia series is not without its flaws and this article does a good job of describing them, as well as its influence on today’s popular fantasy series.