The Chronicles of Narnia (DVD)

In order to enjoy this set of films the most, we need to keep in mind that the writer C.S. Lewis had been an atheist for a long time, and then went through a religious conversion and became a devout Anglican. (Anglo Catholic if you prefer.) We have 4 good movies in this set. (Though Part 2 is only 1 hour.) The saga begins with the first movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." The 4 Pevensie children, (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) journey through a wardrobe into another world where it is always winter and never Christmas. An evil queen sees to that. Though the children learn from beavers who can talk, that Aslan the Lion will set all things right. (Aslan is obviously suppose to be Jesus.) Edmund (the brat of the 4) falters and finds himself sympathetic to the queen. (Possibly from feeling bullied by his older brother Peter.) But when Edmund sees the evil of the queen, he is moved into sympathy for her victims and begins his convincing path of repentance. We then have a surprisingly disturbing and convincing reenactment of 'The Passion.' But Good Friday is soon followed by Easter Sunday. Truth be told, I prefer the old animated 70s "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." And I feel the animated one stays closer to the book. This version doesn't quite follow the book as closely. And while the more recent one had some great moments, it deviates from the book even further. But I digress. (2) "Prince Caspian" While only an hour, this 2nd chapter is the last film where we will see the 4 children together. This film stays surprisingly close to the book. (Much closer than the more recent 'Prince Caspian.') The young Caspian has been warned that his usurping uncle Miraz has a son of his own, and plans to kill of Caspian. (Undoubtedly, C.S. Lewis was thinking of the fate poor King Edward V suffered at the hands of King Richard III.) Eventually, he is forced to seek help from our 4 heroes. Caspian faces those who would rather accomplish their ends by the use evil means. (Namely bringing back the evil queen Aslan defeated in the last film.) And we have the final fight between Miraz and Peter. Deviating from the book a little, we have a cliffhanger scene that gets us ready for Part 3. (The more recent film "Prince Caspian" had some good moments. But I prefer this version, and even though it's much shorter, it follows the book more. I feel the recent film hurt the story with the dissension between Peter and Caspian, and also the romance between Caspian and Susan. (Neither of which are in the book I may add.) (3) "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" This is the first film where Peter and Susan are gone. And Lucy and Edmund must venture in without their older brother and sister. But they are joined by Caspian, (who of course is now the king), and Reepicheep. The basic thing of this film is that Caspian is looking for 7 lords who fled the area during the reign of Miraz. Caspian must face not only slave traders, but a corrupt government, as well as a pool that will test most men. Eustace (the cousin of Lucy and Edmund) is an unwilling member of the group. He behaves much like Edmund did in Part 1. (A bit nasty to put it mildly.) But like Edmund, Eustace will have his chance at repentance. And Edmund has to be the older and forgiving male here. Being honest, I actually liked the more recent film better. But this BBC film follows the book better. (4) Onto the last film. Jill Pole finds herself picked on without mercy at school. The reformed and much kinder Eustace tries to help her, and they end up in Narnia. After they lose each other, Jill is met by Aslan himself who gives her 4 signs to remember. She and Eustace find each other, they later find that Caspian has grown old, and they basically need to find Caspian's lost son and heir. They team up with a funny complainer Puddleglum. While some may laugh at his constant complaining, or even be annoyed by it, the truth is that Puddleglum rather often makes valid complaints. (Sometimes, the complainer in the group is right!) They briefly get off track (something which Puddleglum protested, AND WAS RIGHT ABOUT). But they get back on track and enter into a hell that is more a place of sorrow than anything. And it's here that Puddleglum (the complainer of all people) knows that even though they are in this terrible place, they must keep their chins up because they know they are following Aslan's directions. Without ruining this 4th chapter, I should point out that (just as he does in the book) Puddleglum has a really articulate passage that undoubtedly reflects C.S. Lewis's own turmoil as he went from being an atheist to being a Christian. He's an interesting character in that he complains to no end in ordinary situations. But in difficult situations, he keeps his head together, and really comes through for the group. Some parts of the 4th book were snipped. (Probably for time.) But all in all, this 4th film follows the book rather well. One deviation I agree with, is that this film set takes a beautiful passage from the end of Part 3, and moves it to the end of Part 4. (The last movie in the set.) As the saga is ending, Aslan tells us that he is in our world, but we have to learn to know him by the name he carries in our world. All in all, this is an excellent 4 film package that stays really close to the books.

Rather than the cartoons of Snow White, Cinderella, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Bambi and so on, I was a resident of the land of Narnia when I was a kid. And not because my family is ultra-religious either. In fact, we never really picked up on the biblical parallels until we read about them on this website! What we saw was a basic battle between good and evil and a great group of kids who had to conquer their shortcomings to become the best people they could be. They faced adversity and had to stand on their own against even their own friends and siblings to do what was right. And in the end, they triumphed! For me, this series contributed much more to my sense of self, my take on right and wrong, and my maturity than any Disney cartoons ever could have! I first saw these movies on Public tv, PBS, when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old and my Mom had the foresight to record them to video tape for me. Over the years, I watched the tapes so much that they were really beginning to have poor quality, plus some pieces of the movies were missing. That's why I was delighted when these came out on DVD! Even at 20 years old, I still like to revisit my childhood for a time and I hope to share them with my children when the time comes, that being when I become a Mom. I think my favorite would be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the adventures are so varied and the ship is just beautiful! I love to see Eustace's transformation and all the islands they visit have so many different things and people to discover. Like Deathwater Island, the Island of the Dufflepuds and of course the Silver Sea and the underwater Warrior Sea People. This part of the film also leaves the least out. It includes most of the adventures from the book and allows time for plot development. I was disappointed that Prince Caspian is really that short, I wish they had made it longer. My main complain is, why aren't The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle included? Why weren't these books made into films? However, I have even more compliments for this particular set. The actor who plays Puddleglum is FANTASTIC! I remember watching him in Dr. Who as well, do any of you remember K-9 the robotic dog? lol But honestly, he does do a superb job in being a wet blanket! There are a few cheesy effects in this set, like the scene where Prince Rilian kills the serpent witch, it's SO obviously a dummy. Also, some of the cartoons are a little lacking in imagination. But, I do know that these are BBC films and that there was no such thing as complicated computer animation in the early 80's. Back then, we had black screens with green writing on them and dot matrix printers! I remember using those things in grade school. But anyways, all in all this is a great set! I'm so happy to be able to preserve some of my favorite movies from childhood on DVD and see them whole and clear again after all these years! The story is timeless, engaging and non-denominational! BUY THIS SET, you will NOT be disappointed! Also recommended are Rigoletto, The Rogue Stallion, Black Beauty and The Black Stallion (guess I don't really like cartoons!) Enjoy!!!

Great collection of the classic BBC Chronicles of Narnia TV shows. I watched them growing up on TV and my family has them on VHS, but we don't have a VCR anymore. So, it was nice to see this at a good price. The animated characters really look out of place and some of the talking animals are blatantly people in suits but despite that it does a good job portraying the stories from the books. (Did they spend all the money on Aslan?) Well worth watching if you're willing to forgive the obvious flaws.

The "3 disk set" contains 4 of the, I believe 5 stories by C.S. Lewis. though lion witch wardrobe is a bit on the cheesy side "never forget to wipe your sword" the rest of the stories are pretty good-superb. Baker is the best at "puddleglumb" and not because I asscoiciate him as Dr. Who, in fact, I forgot he was Dr. Who and saw only the pathetic, yet suprisingly courageous Puddleglumb in his ridiculous banter hilarity for the young, youthfully old, and maybe the old and childish too. That said, I think the main central roles had a very good choice of actors from Lucy, who some people don't like because of her buck teeth but it is a prostetic, and even if it weren't, this little girl(Sophie Wilcox) is a good actress for three movies(a long time for a little girl). Some have dumbly asked(on IMDB) how she lost her crooked teeth, it is easy to answer for anyone with 1/4 a brain and it was part of her character to "not be as pretty as Susan, explained well in "Dawn Treader" where, odviously, she had strait teeth, so what? Eustus(actor's last name unusual) and Jill Pole(Camilla Power) were surprising as well, espcially Camilla Power who performed as good as any adult! If "Last Battle" had been made(and why was it not??!) David Thawties???(if spelled correctly) would have also been through 3 films! (Power 2) I always wonderd who would play "Jill Pole" in the new 2011 movie and have suggested Decoda Fanning since these two(Eustus and Jill) are not physical characters as Edmund, Susan, and Peter, but brain users(well, as Dr. Who) Fanning would be perfect for the reason also that she is simply a superb actress for any age group! She would be a good performer for a believable Jill Pole as well. Caspian was portrayed by three actors, most notably in Dawn Treader, the young adult actor(Samual West) who sounded almost identical(in voice) to Prentis Handcock in every way from the gravely shouting to throaty normal tone of voice though West looked only 20 his voice was more mature, and if you closed your eyes you'd think it was Prentis Handcock when, in fact, it is not. Jean-Mare Perret(pronounced Peray as in Chevrolet I am thinking) was the youngest Caspian, his voice had changed from the Prince Caspian story to the end of Silver chair indicating much time had passed in the filming of these movies, it was over a year, 1989-90 I believe. Peter Wolfe was also in this(from Dr. Who: Sunmakers) as Cornilious I recognised his voice and mannerisms in Cornileous instantly from the bald wheelchair riding reptile-humanoid "Company Overseer" from Doctor Who to the bearded dark dwarvan tutor here in "Caspian". Prince Rilin(or jokingly Rittlin) is portrayed by Richard Henders(sounds a bit like the actor who portrayed Christ in the "Martian Chronicles" in 1980) and the Green Lady/Ice Queen(Barbra Kellermann) were also played by good theatrical quality actors. I am assuming Barbra Kellermann's role as both the Ice Queen and the Lady means they are one in the same, never made clear to one who has not read the books. The effects were horrid, especially the "talking' animals the raccoon(with her head screwed on backwards) was the most annoying, not Lucy's teeth! The worst, sadly The Lion God-king himself, Aslin, who was miss voiced and looked like a stuffed toy with flat toned speaking.(Liam Neeson does better as the "voice of God", meaning Aslin the Lion King.) The BBC version of him is very unconvicning. The director of the new movie said in the DVD extras there he was "reluctant to work again with talking animals" probably because he did not realise how beleivable they could be(and are not here) until he himself tried it in the new Prince Caspian movie(and they were!!!). Lewis's step son, the co producer of the new films is also on this DVD speaking in the "bookworm" reflection of C.S. Lewis. He also narrates the new Caspian DVD's Extra #2, "character section" which I like. If you have watched the new films(and there will be more in the future) do not be too put off by this 1989 production, it was made long before CGI and is just as good, especially if you were old enough to have watched it IN 1989/90 when these were crafted. Back then I thought it was great, despite being shot in "video" and not film a no no in on location (usually).The New Zealand-like outdoor scenes near the "Ettins" in "Silver Chair" where Eustes, Jill, and Puddleglumb traversed/conversed/transacted and so forth looked great in wide shot video! Location environmental sound was a nice little touch, not some big music and explosions production # or what not as in CGI B.S. where environmental ambeince would now days be totally absent in place of the odvious for morons of "now" Pre-CGI Lucas days were best! This BBC non-disney non francise production. For example, in this version of "The Lion The Witch and The wardrobe", the sound the snow makes when it falls as Peter, Susan, and Lucy walk toward the Beaver's home in the forest. Or Edmund when the witch confronts him and the winter wind whisps around her tossles(in sound) giving the feel of cold.(with a good RMS speaker set, even in 2.0. as this is formatted it is descernable to the appriciating ear.) Though the visual FX were shoddy at best, the locations(and in cases the ambience and lovely music) and the acting were what made these films! The Dawn Treader ocean scenes wernt' half bad either! I can't wait for that movie and I am to assume many video game spin-off ideas about "pirates" partaining to the Dawn treader! I cannot IMAGIN why they didn't do the last story of the Chronicles. I am to assume the "DVD Enhanced" edition to this is a clearer picture, though i do hope CGI "edits" and "Add-in junk" doesn't mosh up a classic nostalgia as it did in Doctor Who 5 doctors and Lucas Star Bores which was an insult to any real person, son of Adam, daughter of Eve or whatnot.

I wish I could give this 4.5 stars, but I'll go with 5 since I think Narnia fans should buy it. The cinematography is very corny, but it was made in the 1980's and it can't compete with the CGI movies of today. Story-wise, it's terrific. It is basically the first four Narnia books put onto television. There is very little added dialogue, and in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I think nearly every line from the book made it onto the screen--very true to the book! The bad special effects are a little distracting, but my kids didn't care because the story is so good. Prince Caspian was slightly disappointing for a couple reasons. They did the whole thing in one hour (2 episodes), which meant a LOT of the book got cut out, but they did manage to get a surprising amount crammed in. One more episode would have made it feel much less rushed, and I feel that some of the story and deep meaning wasn't clear in all of the hurrying. But, this is probably most people's least favorite Narnia book, and the most difficult to do without CGI (how does an army of trees defeat an army of men without some computer generated help?) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader got more screen time, and it helped. Again, they stayed so true to the book, which was refreshing because it's such a good story, and because the recent Disney version mishmashes the story so much that it was barely recognizable. Haven't watched The Silver Chair yet, but I'm looking forward to Puddleglum! The acting is quite good--Barbara Kellerman as the White Witch really stands out.

This series is definitely not like the new movies recently made, but the charm of the stories still come through. Over all I like this series. There a few things that not so great. What is bad? Well in absence of CGI realistic animals they take humans and put them in animal costumes. Sometimes it actually adds charm to the work. The characters of Mr. Beaver and Reepicheep work well with this method. They chose fine actors who fit the parts. Other times the results are disastrous. The acting of the leader of the White Witch's secret police, by the name Morgrim, was absolutely disastrous. There was a scene where Peter was reading a letter left by Morgrim saying how Mr. Tumnus was arrested for treason and it was read where we see the face of Morgrim and hear Morgrim reciting what was in the letter even though Peter was supposedly reading it. At the end of the letter Morgrim roars. This was OH SO BAD!!!! Through the Wardrobe story when portraying the wolves they cut between real dogs and men (walking on two legs I might add) in wolves costumes. This, in my opinion, doesn't really work. They also mixed cartoon animation with live actors (similar to Mary Poppins or Pete's Dragon kind of thing) I feel like this approach makes it harder to take the work seriously. In all fairness though, this was an ambitious undertaking to make these movies and you work with what you've got. They had a lot of creatures that needed to be used in the stories and if this is all you've got, then fine. Okay, that was my take on mostly the first story. The other stories namely - Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader and Silver Chair. I overall have very little complaints about. The actor playing Reepicheep does such a great job that I almost don't mind that it's an actor in cheezy costume. One thing I thought could've been better was that Aslan's voice was not very powerful. The actor sounded like he had difficulty saying his lines. Sometimes he just sounded creepy which was definitely not the goal. In the Silver chair I liked the choice of actor for the character of Puddleglum; he was ideal. My only complaint with the way they did it was that in the book, Puddleglum had extra large feet, but in this movie he did not. I guess it would have made making the movie too difficult for them. Anyway, even with its faults I feel it captures the heart of the Narnia books. What truly makes these Narnia stories so great is the Christian metaphor of Aslan as the Christ figure. I also am glad that they included in the film where Aslan said he knew the children in Narnia so they could learn his name in their world and better understand Him there. That is the purpose of these stories, is to interest children and even adults for that matter, in knowing Him (Jesus) and see him not just as an historical figure, but as a personal savior. I just wish they could have made a movie of "The Last Battle" in this series which, I think, is the best story of all of them.

Let us begin by agreeing that computer-generated images have both added to and taken from filmmaking, in ways similar to the effect performance-enhancing drugs have had on sports. We might thrill at the modern athlete who hits the ball out of the park, but we still wonder how he'd compare to Babe Ruth. This 1980s-era BBC production is in many ways superior to the more recent cinematic version of Lewis' great fantasy; in particular, a number of elements, both major and minute, which are altered or removed in the film are faithfully represented in the BBC video Chronicles. This is no unimportant detail -- the Chronicles of Narnia is first and foremost a story; anything C.S. Lewis included is probably significant and ought not to be left out or redefined at the whim of a Director. In producing these versions of four of the seven Chronicles the BBC was careful to tell the story without incautiously rewriting it. The technology of the 1980s, and the budget constraints upon the BBC, do play their own role in these productions, of course. In particular, the recent film's seamless blurring of the line between humans and talking animals is simply beyond what could be done in the BBC version. While Aslan is very nearly equally realized in both the Disney and BBC productions, and the BBC's Tumnus is in some ways superior to (though certainly not "better than") Disney's, other characters do not fare as well. Beaver and his wife are almost embarassingly silly in the BBC version, and Maugrim's transitions border on the painful. Some of the peripheral characters are portrayed by beautifully but unrealistically drawn animations, and most of the "magic" could be duplicated or bettered today by a tenth-grade film class. Nevertheless, these are matters not of substance but of presentation; the stories themselves are accurately presented in convincing settings by actors who range from highly competent to superbly skilled. Backgrounds and scenery are very well done, both interior and exterior, and distracting elements, such as those mentioned above, are kept to a minimum. The real, the nearly-real and the purely animated are delicately balanced. The 3 disk set reviewed presents four of the Chronicles: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe;" "Prince Caspian;" "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader;" and "The Silver Chair." Also included are a fascinating film about C.S. Lewis from the BBC's "Bookworm" TV magazine, trivia games, numerous stills from the productions and, perhaps most intriguing, a detailed recipe for Turkish Delight. This set is best enjoyed by true lovers of C.S. Lewis and of the Chronicles, but those who fit that description would be glad to own it. My only true regret is that the missing Chronicles were not produced, but perhaps if this set is purchased in sufficient numbers that omission could eventually be corrected as well. I have no doubt one of the new generation of fans could someday do so; perhaps this set will start them on their way.

Excellent condition and still in the plastic! I watched these as a kid and had no idea that they were available on dvd! So happy to own the series!

Great

This is the OLD chronicles of Narnia, the low budget ones produced by the BBC in the 80s. If you’re looking for the new Disney ones, you will be sorely disappointed. However, I was looking for these old gems and I am so happy! Discs worked great and had all of the movies. After rewatching them for the first time since I was a kid I can say that if you’re looking for nostalgic value this is five stars. Looking for a cinematic masterpiece? Probably not the version you want, haha!

Fantastic DVD and such good value for Money, arrived on time.

Timeless stories by C.S. Lewis

Love the BBC series. Not all the books were made into movies.