The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion,
The Witch & The Wardrobe (Disney Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C+ Film: B-
This film
has been previously reviewed twice on this site now by two different critics
with two very different opinions on the film.
This critic once again found the film great, but not out of this
world. As previously explained the film
does quite a nice job of following the C.S. Lewis books and did not bastardize
the novels by stripping out the more religious centered undertones like recent The Golden Compass film has. If a studio is going to make a novel into a
film, then leave it alone; there is a reason that people loved the literary
work in the first place. Novels are
constantly being altered to shorten films or make then more politically
correct, but fans don’t want that (maybe the religious right does), they want
an unaltered, true representation of the thrills the novel gave them brought to
life. Even when such small tidbits of
storyline are removed to shorten a film (like has been done with the Harry Potter films), fans notice. In the end, if nothing else the first Narnia film does a pretty nice job of
sticking to C.S. Lewis’s vision; now we will see if the heavier religious
undertone of the sequels makes it to the big screen.
There is
nothing new to say as far as plot for this review. Nothing has been added or deleted from the
theatrical release for this Blu-Ray Edition of The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, also meaning that this IS NOT the
extended edition of the film, but rather more closely follows the 2-disc DVD
release of the film. The extras are also
the same as are found on the 2-disc DVD release, with the exception of one
added ‘Battle for Narnia’ game that is neither necessary nor interesting. To recap, the extras available on the Blu-Ray
include Bloopers, Narnia Fun Facts, a six part ‘Creating Narnia’ featurette, a
two part ‘Creatures, Lands, & Legends’ featurette, and two distinct audio
commentaries from the director, stars, and filmmakers. The extras are of a good quality, but do not
compare to the extensive nature of the 4-Disc release, as reviewed at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4830/Narnia:+The+Lion,+The+Witch+&+The+Wardrobe+(4-Disc
The other
technical features on this Blu-Ray release are definitely an upgrade from the
previous visuals and sound seen on any of the three previous DVD editions. The picture is presented in a bright, clear,
and crisp 1080p High Definition 2.40 X 1 Widescreen with the bonus features
presented in a 480i & 1080p High Definition. There are times when the picture quality
leans a tad too far to the bright side and throws off the color scale, but this
effect is minimal throughout. The sound
is presented in an English 5.1 Uncompressed 48 kHz/16-bit, with the bonus
features available as either an English Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 track. The sound is a very nice upgrade for fans of
the film, especially in the battle sequences or in hearing the booming roar of
the lion. There are a few sound issues
here in there, at times the dialogue being too soft, but overall a definite
upgrade.
With a
few more sequels on the way this may be the time to hop into the wardrobe and
find out what all the fuss is about. The
film is pure fantasy fun and at this moment there is no better way to enjoy it
than on Disney Blu-Ray.
- Michael P Dougherty II
