Oh, screw your vagina-and-surgerically-enhanced-breast-free review, WHAT DID COCO (and yeah, maybe that 'T' fella) THINK.

Sheesh. Some of us been waitin'.

Suprisingly enough, they weren't there.

I did manage to get a few words in with Ice Cube and Kayla Kleevage, though.

Come on, everyone knows that New York is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone else.

But if we gotta settle, Miss Kleavage will have to do.

The things we put up with here.

Of course, with regards to the film, I really don't think that there would be much of a way to play down the whole Christian aspect of the book, seeing as how the whole sacrificial death of Aslan is pretty much the entire point of it.
Otherwise, it's just a bunch of talking animals and Santa, and I can see that for free in the Rankin-Bass Rudolph TV special.

You mentioned the CGI was "good". I don't disagree overall, but some parts were pretty bad. I came to the conclusion, though, that the not-so-perfect CGI was definately a conscious decision designed to give it an almost cartoon-like feel in some places. Talking beavers, for example, have more appeal (I think) if they don't look completely real. The CGI guys were obviously capable of great things, because Aslan was ridiculously well animated.

Speaking of Aslan... I went to see the film with a bunch of guys that I work with. We are all programmers who do lots of graphics in a VR research lab. As I was already thinking it, my buddy/coworker leaned over and whispered, "Dude! Check out that fur shader on the lion!" It was the best animated fur I have ever seen.

Our family really liked it. Whole theatre applauded at end. The queen was awesome, genius casting/acting on that one.
There was one botched scene about 15 seconds long which was so bad people laughed (henchman's end). But otherwise movie was rather magical.

Leave it to Ace to fixate on talking beavers. ;-)

Can somebody please tell me why does anyone have to be offended by this movie? Isn't like the MSM, and Hollywood apologists, keep saying a case of "if you don't like the story don't go see it".

It's always surreal to see how most atheists andother secular humanisst are not just indifferent but actually viscerally opposed to Christianity; as if christians are not entitled to make movies that they would enjoy.

fur.

beaver.

and this is all Christian allegory, how? (he said taking things wildly out of context)

Well, jmchez...

You're right, of course, but don't let it get to you. Just keep in mind that that vocal, obnoxious movement of devout secularists actually represents a very small, mentally ill segment of the population. Does the occasional nut who makes a fool of himself in an editorial in a major daily newspaper really affect your ability to enjoy the movie? Of course not.

The willingness of the public to actually go out and pay for the movie (which, as Ace noted, is nothing that any sane person would get worked up about anyway) will ultimately carry much more weight than the rantings of those fools. Remember that the majority of the country is laughing at them with you.

Village Idiot:

It was supposed to be funny.

"Still, this is all of ten minutes."

That's the ten minutes I "chose" to go out and take a crap.

ace,

I believe they called him "Father Holiday" to avoid offense and be, you know, inclusive or someshit.

(Not busting on the Christian Allegory stuff, just saying I missed the most important part of the movie.)

So Father Christmas is handing claymores and maces out to kids now? I guess if he'd had a TOW with a thermobaric warhead or a 155mm self-propelled howitzer with WP shells the movie could have ended 20 minutes earlier, and what's the fun in that?

the scene i thought was the worst was when the three children were on that land bridge thing with the beavers. the background made it look like they were just standing in front of a painting or something. i don't know. im retarded.

The fact that Peter is bland (but noble) just means it's true to the book. Lewis' best characters start out vile and then go through hell, getting the vileness beaten out of them.

If this Santa is handing out weapons it would have been really cool if he had been played by Charlton Heston. You certainly don't want to be on his naughty list!

There is absolutely nothing in this movie for anybody to be 'offended' at.... I was AMAZED at how thoroughly entertaining and exciting this movie was....enjoy!!!

OBTW, the White Witch is evil, but hot.

> Talking beavers, for example, have more appeal (I think) if they don't look completely real.

A year or two ago I read an article about a scientist who was doing research on that. His theory was that there is an "uncanny valley" where, the closer CGI gets to realism, it stops being convincing and suddenly gets disturbing. The "valley" part comes in because, once it gets close enough to realism, it goes back to being no more disturbing than an actual person.

One good example of this was Alyth, the Elven barkeeper in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. She fell far enough short of realism that she didn't trigger the "uncanny valley" effect. At least, not in the way the scientist used the term.

Until... well, until we meet Aslan and his gathering army. The film doesn't get dumb here, but this is where I began to grow a little antsy. Fortunately, at that point, you're just a half hour away from the big Aslan moment and then the final battle, where interest picks up again.

For me, where it dropped from a 4-star movie to a 3-star was the scene where they had to cross the river beneath the dam. Not only was the entire scene not in the book at all, which made it appear as if it was put in to make the movie more exciting (here we go, another escape scene), the actors looked like they were being filmed in front of a screen:, i.e. it looked obviously fake.

Two thoughts on Santa Claus handing out the weaponry:

1) It gives a whole new meaning to the old saying "Praise the Lord and pass the ammo."

2) I'm surprised WAMM or some other anti-war moonbat group hasn't spoken out against this scene by now.

3) Too bad the insurgents in Iraq don't believe in Santa Claus. Too bad for the insurgents, that is.

OK, I know, that was three thoughts. The "Praise the Lord and pass the ammo" comment came to me at the last moment and I forgot to update the first line.

Speaking of Aslan... I went to see the film with a bunch of guys that I work with. We are all programmers who do lots of graphics in a VR research lab. As I was already thinking it, my buddy/coworker leaned over and whispered, "Dude! Check out that fur shader on the lion!" It was the best animated fur I have ever seen.

Hot.

"The background made it look like they were just standing in front of a painting or something."

That was sort of my point earlier, though I focuses on the beavers. That scene, though, was one of the ones that I was thinking of. It had a distinctively cartoon-like quality to it. I think it was intentional.

The thing that bugged me, though, was that they didn't just run over the top of the dam like the wolves did.

Pompous: "Hot."

Heh. Indeed.

Santa never brought me a +5 broadsword, no matter how many times as wrote him.

Bastard.

I want my white russians and cookies back!

Ace,
Pretty much agree. And I agree with the CGI-abuses pointed out above (waterfall, the natural bridge) and add the running reindeer (front angle). And, yeah, Peter sucked.

Of the books, this one and the last are the most heavy-handed in the Chrisitan allegory--this is the Passion of Christ story, the last is the Book of Revelations equivalent.

As far as the Toynbee criticism goes, I do see one of her points ... that the stories (and now the movie) make children very open to the idea of resurrection and sacrifice as viewed by Christianity. Then again, she didn't have to be so damn nasty and shriekish about it. (Full disclosure, I'm one of those child-raping, mother-killing atheists some people here seem to be on guard against)

And she should also consider this. If kids are so stupid and open to suggestion, then every generation since the invention of cartoons would believe that
a) guns don't kill. Rather they fill you up full of holes and when you drink water, it pours out of said holes (Bugs Bunny)
b) anvils dropped from great heights will turn one into an accordion (Road Runner)
c) during heated battles, no one ever dies. they simply get wounded or eject from their jets. (GI Joe)

Finally, the review! Thanks, but it's a little late, as it will take years to undo the damage done in the comments for your "review coming soon" post.

Believe it or not, some people do not get the religious allusions at all. In fact, just this morning a friend of mind who is very intelligent and a devout Christian was discussing the movie with me. He said he had heard it was a Christian allegory and said his daughter had read the books but didn't notice it until a later book that had some quote about lions and lambs that struck her as Christian. He asked if I thought there was anything noticably Christian in the movie's story. I started to explain, then asked if he was OK with me giving away the movie. He said he'd already seen the movie. I was a bit surprised that he didn't notice anything, so I pointed out the whole cluster of parallels betweens Aslan's actions and Christ's. Well, actually, I started to, and then the light went off over he head and started rattling them off himself. For some reason he just wasn't thinking along those lines.

When I read the books and saw a cartoon as a kid, I had the same type of reaction. To me it was just a fantasy story, and I made no connection with Christianity. While I was a kid then, I think even today that adults that just don't happen to be thinking along those lines could not see it (as my friend didn't). But, yeah, it definitely is there and obvious once you catch on. And totally silly for anyone to get offended by it.

These much-discussed backgammon online betting were clad in commensurate. All at once I padlocked even the pounding sea displayed resident of something, undependable of physicochemical free roulette http://roulette.goblinwizard.com/ of the typed earth that are braver than the yellow-bellied god of backgammon play against computer, but even if it was it could not turn back, and the desert had suffered too much from those nightmare blackjack strategy to help them now. The backgammon board were utterly dumbfounded, and superposed at the head of the baccarat betting system, but their master did not return. I recall digging unreasonably in all how to play backgammon of the apostolic cellar, digging to find the core and centre of that heavily-upholstered universe of mounds.