So says Mrs. Macready to the children, but thankfully they do not listen in the book, or in the movie, which is perhaps most notable for clinging so closely to the original. My kiddos and I have been enjoying the Narnia books over the past several months, and they are big fans of them; so they were naturally drawn to the movie too, which I hadn't seen before. Lucy steals the show in both media, and all of us thought she was the best acted; as the youngest, of course, she guides the others with her imagination, which is validated by "the Professor" before all four siblings take the plunge into the closet. Probably the most striking scene is not Aslan's death, but Lucy's initial encounter with the faun, Tumnus, in which not only the wonder between the two but also the tension and potential menace is given its space. In fact, the Christianizing elements which are often pointed out by Lewis's critics and supporters take a clear back seat in the movie, which instead chooses to go even further than the book in "classicizing" Narnia with figures from Greek mythology, from centaurs, griffons, and satyrs fighting for Peter to the minotaur general and cyclops fighting for the Ice Queen. Both my son and daughter pointed out that virtually the only added scenes were London being bombed, at the very beginning, and the parallel vision of griffons "bombing" the Queen's army with rocks before battle was engaged.
