Watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe For Free

Absolutely brilliant

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This collection gives us the complete set of the BCC adaptations of the Narnia novels by C.S. Lewis in three miniseries of six episodes each, plus some extras. The first is "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (1988) about the city Wardrobe in the country Spare Room. The second (1989) brings together "Prince Caspian" (two episodes) and "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (four episodes). The third concerns "The Silver Chair" (1990).The first adaptation sets the tone and the main characters. The tone is that of the novel and it is done for children. It sounds slightly naïve at times because the storyteller is no longer constantly present and is not C.S. Lewis at all when there is a voice over. The regular "we" or "this world" or even the "lions of Trafalgar Square", meaning the real world, addressing the children's audience from an external adult point of view, reminding us of the fact that this is all a story, disappear and I think it is a loss.The second adaptation makes two full novels into one story with a shift from the first one to the second that is at least abrupt and the packing up of the two in six episodes makes psychological details and descriptive details scanty. The story becomes a story line more than a fully developed story. The dragon though is a good nice creation, and that was necessary since it was an essential element and it had to fly properly, which is not the case with other flying animals, particularly Aslan. They are mostly simple and stiff. It keeps the story of the Dawn Treader the way it is in the novel and the end is the real end including the final pilgrimage of the mouse Reepicheep and the return of the children. It is a lot more respectful of the spirit of the story than the ending of the recent long feature that can be seen in cinemas.The last adaptation gives details and the witch is a marvel though her becoming a serpent and being killed is less impressive since no green blood is shed and only Prince Rilian takes part in that execution. Eustace and Puddleglum taking part is nice but in the novel. The escape from the underground city does not try to explain the even deeper world of fire and incandescence into which all the gnomic slaves of the witch jump back happily. I miss the big celebration outside the hole from which they extract themselves, with fauns, dryads, satyrs and dwarfs all dancing together. But well at least they keep the details of King Caspian X's death and his resurrection in Aslan's country though they soften the harsh commentary of C.S. Lewis on the English school system and the incompetence of school principals and inspectors, or MPs.But these adaptations are interesting nevertheless. They insist on the fact these stories are not heroic fantasy but only children's literature. That is important because then the values that are presented in the films are pedagogical and not only entertaining. It is also important because it avoids, like the books, any subject that is not childlike or child-friendly. No love is wasted on anyone and even friendship is rather kept lily pure. No kissing, please, we're British.Ut also defends the basic humanistic values of the books in fair contrast with the the world at the time or the literature of Lewis's time. A fair and clear condemnation of slavery and the exploitation of animals. But since the novel "The Boy and His Horse" is not there the rejection of political totalitarianism is absent. The allusion to the usurping uncle in Prince Caspian is by far not enough. Lewis's books are deeply committed to a democratic system. The films are far from being as clear as that. Calormenes are absent for example.The films are also a lot less clear than the books that only people having some human blood can rule Narnia, including the White Witch of the first film who is a descendant of Adam, mixed with other bloods, including jinn blood from the sexual partner Adam had to procreate that line of descent. The absence of "The Boy and His Horse" also deprives us of the description of the four initial human kings and queens of Narnia, including Queen Suzan who is definitely not served very fairly.But for me the main absence is in fact "The Last Battle" because it reveals two essential things in these seven novels: the idea that all worlds have a beginning and an end, including Narnia, that this end can only come from both inner strife, invasion and political manipulation of the masses that are shown as basically easy to manipulate into divisions or obeying absurd commands. The masses make history but only when some individuals and foreign forces join their efforts to conquer the minds and imagination of these masses.This last novel was Lewis's testament and he showed in it that he did not really believe in democracy, i.e. the power of the people, for the people and by the people, because he did not trust any politicians but preferred an aristocratic monarchy in which kings and queens are of a different sort from the people and the masses. The main difference between Calormenes and Narnians is that The Calormene "master" (who is a Calormene by genetic birth) governs Calormenes as slaves, with a very narrow aristocracy, and the Narnian "king (genetically different from all Narnians by at least some human genes) grants them freedom and diversity.To avoid in anyway the bleak atmosphere of "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Time Machine" they produced a brave new world that lacked most of its pith and marrow. The series are interesting but only as entertainment for children and they lose the pedagogical dimension the books constantly keep.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This version of the chronicles of Narnia was a TV series that was produced by the BBC and aired on television around Christmas 1988. It was directed by Marilyn Fox and produced by Paul Stone.Although the effects are not as good as they look considering most of the special effects were made from animation, there are times where the children fly which was most impressing at the time especially for BBc productions. Although this version was classed as a series it was later put together to be known as a 2 hour long film and was put onto video cassette classed as a film, however later DVD releases of the production were separated back out as as a TV series and the DVD contained it all but in episodes as a series. It won the BAFTA Award for "Best Video Lighting" in 1988. In the snow scenes the children were so cold that even the boys wore tights under their sorts and socks and they wore hot water bottles and teabags apparently?The witches costume was made from pure nylon and on a TV breakfast show Barbara Kellerman who played the witch actually said that the beautiful coat she wore was actually made from pure nylon and that she was absolutely freezing during her performance, but she still managed to uphold a fantastic performance as the wicked white witch.After the lion ,the witch and the wardrobe BBC released from 1989-1990 the next narnia stories including prince Caspian,the voyage of the dawn treader and the silver chair.Actors and acteress' who appeared in more than one narnia were mainly Ronald Pickup who played the voice of Aslan in all 4, Ailsa Berk and William Todd Jones who play in all 4 the body of Aslan and Barbara Kellerman who played the white witch,the hag in prince Caspian and the lady of the green kirtle in the silver chair.Although there has been many video releases of this version classed as a film , this version of the lion,the witch and the wardrobe will always be a TV series by BBC television!!

I must agree with all the past comments on how great this film is compared to the 2005 version. This film is full of magic, joy, hope, and just enough terror to make even me still a little scared. Unlike the 2005 version that felt me feeling as though I had missed out on the true magic of Narnia.The performances by all the children and the white witch are superb and perfectly catch the essence of the characters as described in the book by C.S.Lewis.It is clear that the special effects do not stand up to the CGI effects of today but I think even now children will be as enchanted by the story and amazing costumes as I was as a child.I still love watching this film and recently purchased it on DVD so I didn't have to swap the tapes half way through.This is a must buy for any children's film collection.

After having read the "Chronicles of Narnia", I always hoped that a film or TV movie would be made capturing the story on screen. When this BBC version came out in the US in January of 1989, I couldn't believe how well it was done. The acting, the music, and the spirit of Narnia were all there and on-target. Of course, Aslan is a mechanical lion, of course, some of the fantastic beasts were animated instead of computer-generated, but the movie still transported me to Narnia, because it had distilled just enough of the magic of C.S. Lewis' work to make it all work. I'm sorry, but if you criticize this film on it's special effects alone, then you are sadly missing a wonderful story. These days, even if there is NO story, films can make hundreds of millions of dollars on computer-generated effects alone. But capturing the spirit of a great work like this doesn't rely on much more than the grand story Lewis intended. Read the books and see if you don't agree that this version is warmer and more heartfelt.