The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe DVD Review

Lately there has been such a quick turnaround for sequels to successful films. In fact, often the success of a film can be determined by how fast a sequel begins production after the first weekend. There have been many instances where a sequel was planned before the film was even released, and seeing as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was just the first of a set of books, the material for a sequel was already prepared and waiting, but it seems that either a great deal of pre-production is required for the sequel or the ticket sales weren’t high enough on the first film to justify rushing the sequel, which is in pre-production right now and set to be released in 2008.With the next installation of the Chronicles of Narnia so far away a Four-Disc Extended edition of the first film in the series has been released to stall fans from losing interest temporarily.

C.S. Lewis created a magical world which translates fantastically onto screen. When a group of kids stuck in a stuffy mansion discover a wardrobe which leads to another world, they get caught in a battle between good and evil. A ice sorceress (Tilda Swinton) threatens all of the good creatures in Narnia, and it will take the strength of these children to save everyone, hopefully able to return through the wardrobe afterwards.

The extended version of the film only adds ten minutes, but they are more exciting than most additional footage put in extended versions of films on DVD. Among the footage added back in is an extended battle scene between the kids and the bad guys, including one-eyed trolls. The film is now 150 minutes, making it far to long to be a traditional family film, as does some of the violence, but it is a far better film than many adult epics have been in years past.

The first of the four discs contains the extended version of the film, as well as a commentary track with director Andrew Adamson and the kids and some bloopers and other fun features. The second, third and fourth discs all contain special features, including a number of feature length documentaries with exhaustive amounts of information. Disc two takes an in-depth look at the land of Narnia with plenty of stories from the cats and crew. It is more about the characters and the actors rather than the production on this DVD. The third disc has a feature length documentary on C.S. Lewis, never seen before this DVD package. The final disc has a complete production experience, with an exhaustive amount of information on the special effects and other production factors.