"They open a door and enter a world.
NARNIA...the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy...the place where the adventure begins.
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever."
The entirety of this book is a magic in and of itself. However I think the dedication is one of the most endearing I have ever read:
"To Lucy Banfield
My Dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales agin. You can then take it down from the upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to ear, and too old to understand a word you say but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis"
The opening scene the movie actually elaborated on, but it was for good reason. However in the movie Professor doesn't come down to greet the Pevensie's as they come to stay with him. My favorite characters so far in this series are Queen Jadis, Lucy and Mr. Tumnus. I think I fell for Mr. Tumnus in chapter two because of this:
"Meanwhile," said Mr Tumnus, "it is winter in Narnia and has been for ever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow. Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"
I thought when I watched the movie, and even more so when I read this in the book, that just the way Mr. Tumnus talks and misinterprets the words Lucy says is just adorable and funny!
The walk with Susan, Lucy & Aslan was clearly a reflection of Jesus's final walk, when he carried the cross, crown of thorns and was in pain. Although Aslan wasn't physically bearing pain or torture, it weighed heavy on his heart. It was clear to see the significance. Then there was the part where Aslan offers himself to Jadis only to be resurrected. Among that and the broken "Stone Table" and no Aslan, it proved again to be a reflection of Jesus in the tomb, the boulder moved and yet there was no Jesus in the tomb! Reading this makes C.S. Lewis's christian symoblism made even more prevelant.
The castle scene where Mr. Tumnus was a statue was portrayed differently via the movie. Edmund & Mr. Tumnus where held prisoners, not statues, in seperate but adjoining cells in the movie. Another difference between the movie and the book was Mr. Fox. In the book he was turned to stone during a Christmas celebration; in the movie he was made into a sort of "treacherous" hero. He would help the Sons & Daughter's of Eve but then somehow cause trouble out of it all, what else is a fox for- very sneaky and untrustworthy.
A big problem for me in the book was the battle at the end with Aslan and his crew versus Queen Jadis and her crew. The book had the battle so brief and short. I think it was summed up in a whole two or three pages. The battle in the movie was much better and prolonged. I have four books left in the series to go. As each one passes I grow more and more eager to continue on with a slight sadness; knowing that once I hit book seven I will not have any more of the wonderful land of Narnia to "live in."
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