I hardly ever physically cry while watching movies, but this one did it in the first five minutes with the children being evacuated, a very real thing that happened during the Blitz. And this is all new material that the book covers with just its opening line: "This is a story of what happened to four children when they were sent to the country during the air raids." It was published in 1950, just five years after the war ended, and that was all anyone needed to know exactly what the situation was.

The gal who played Lucy (Georgie Henley) as a young woman was actually her older sister (Rachel Henley).

There are seven Narnia books, but the movies only managed to get through three before diminishing box office killed this version. Disney bought the rights a few years ago and have been setting up to make their own, which is why these are now on Disney+. I do wish they'd at least been able to do the prequel The Magician's Nephew, which reveals that the Professor, Diggory Kirke, was actually there when Narnia was first created and built the wardrobe from a tree grown from a seed he took back, which is how it can become a portal.

You nailed it with the Christian allegory. CS Lewis was an atheist in his early years but then became a hardline Catholic due to his friendship with JRR Tolkien, and in particular gets less and less subtle about Aslan being Jesus in each book until he outright says "I also exist in your world, but there I have another name." Luckily, he's a good enough writer that it hardly ever gets in the way.

I give Edmund a pass on his first telling of Tumnus to the Queen because he didn't know who was good or bad yet

I highly recommend "The Neverending Story".

When my daughter was in the 4th grade, she played Edmund in the school play

Re: your question about why the CGI looks so good despite being so old - it's because unlike many movies today, the special-effects team was given plenty of TIME to work on every little detail, instead of being rushed and squeezed to finish everything as cheaply and quickly as possible (which sadly is very often the case with CGI in movies these days).

The most satisfying thing to me is that expression of sheer fascination on the Witch's face at the moment before Aslan finishes her. Her eyes seem to say "Truly. It really is you!" LAWL!!! And I also love how Aslan does pause for just a moment. It just shows how wonderful he truly is. He HATES to have to bring the sentence of death to anyone. So much so that his heart actually took sincere pity on her. Even on the likes of her! For just a moment.

also fun fact- Older Lucy is played by the sister irl of young Lucy .. in the books it’s mentioned that the White Witch’s food and drinks were magical and made those who consumed them always want more and more, kind of like a drug, so that’s why edmund repeatedly asked for turkish delights and why he acted the way he did

Why does it never cross anyones mind that the food the witch gave Edmund was enchanted? That was my first thought when she fed him. child who has something she wants + witch with candy = enchanted food. It feels pretty obvious.

OGB Reacts I'm glad to see you again.

"A new player has entered." I loved playing this on the GameBoy Advance. It was written using the same engine as the original Baldur's Gate.

The lore of this world is nuts! Like not going into too much detail, the Witch’s origins are completely unexpected and subvert whatever you think it’s gonna be like. The lamp post is in the same boat as her. It has such great significance to the entirety of Narnia that you don’t really get that when seeing it in the movie. Also fun fact about it; If you look towards the lamp post’s base, you can see it has roots. That’s because it’s actually a tree. I won’t go into any more detail in case you end up deciding to listen to the Narnia Audiobooks or watching the newer versions on Disney+ when they come out. Great reaction as always OGB, glad that my first ever vote on your polls helped make this reaction happen. Have a great start to your December!

Try "The Man who invented Christmas" interesting movie about Charles Dickens. worth a watch.

I watched this with my class years ago on DVD and we loved it! We even read the book before we saw the movie. There are 2 more films in the series, PRINCE CASPIAN and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. I watched Voyage Of The Dawn Treader on DVD, and I was hoping for a fourth and fifth film, but it never happened. However, Netflix is producing a reboot of The Chronicles Of Narnia with Greta Gerwig co-writing, producing and directing the project.

Great reaction, OGB! I loved this movie as a kid. I also loved reading this book to my younger cousins. It seems like in the story, any time spent in Narnia would "pause" time in our world. In almost every instance seen, any span of time in Narnia is no time here. That's just how Ive understood it. You're also right on the money with the Biblical connections. I'm sure people have said it already. C.S. Lewis was a Christian in his youth, walked away from his faith as a teenager, then in adulthood became a Christian again, by being friends and contemporaries with J.R.R. Tolkien. This story was more allegorical, but as the series goes on, (in the books anyway) it becomes more definitive that Aslan is Christ himself. I think people can enjoy this story without having to necessarily be a spiritual person or a person of faith.

I feel the need to mention Edmund was basically given the magical equivalent of hard drugs. It was cut out in the movie entirely and is my only real complaint about the movie haha. Directly from the book: "Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves. "

I grew up in Narnia and Middle Earth. I love reading and rereading these books. I read them all to my wife before we were married, and read them to all my kids.

Glad you picked up the uber-Christian themes in this. I loved the CGI of the centaurs and the whole battle was cool This is the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia. My favourite book in this series is actually Book 1, The Magician's Nephew. It basically answers all your questions about how it all comes to be - it's literally the creation story of Narnia. Major spoilers for that book from here on. The witch in this story is Queen Jadis, who comes from a different world visited by Polly and Diggory (the old professor) when they were children. They were able to visit other worlds through the use of magical rings created by Diggory's uncle (hence Diggory is the Magician's Nephew). Jadis is able to follow them back to England and wreaks havoc until they are able to pull her out of this world and into a new one, one in which there is nothing. Then Aslan starts to sing, and Naria is born of his song. Jadis escapes into the new world while the children and others meet Aslan and the first king and queen of Narnia are crowned. The whole book is driven by Diggory's search for a cure for his mother, who is deathly ill back on earth. Aslan gives him an apple to take back with him, and when he feeds it to his mother she is cured. He plants the core in his backyard, and from it grows a tree. When he is an adult, this tree is later felled (I think in a storm), so he gets the wood made into a wardrobe - which I'm sure you can guess, is the titular wardrobe in this story - which becomes a new doorway into Narnia. The other books in the series aren't as good, but they are all different and there are massive time jumps. The final book is literally the end of the world of Narnia, so we see both its beginning and end (LOTS of christian mythology in that one too). Anyway, it is a fun series. You might really enjoy reading it as an audiobook. I find those are super easy to listen too, especially while you are doing other things like driving or household chores, gaming etc.

I feel like there's kind of a symbolism with the timing between when you're in narnia VS when you're back in our world, that it's like one day is a 1000 years in heaven. Something like that.

i'm dead Mr Tumnus- I'm kidnapping you .. Sam -ooh Okay.. 🤣🤣

So to get a wardrobe like this all you need to do is plant a tree from a newly birthed realm overtop some dimension-hopping magic rings aaaaand wait a few decades. Wood, wardrobe. Boom. They'll be at IKEA any day.

The wardrobe comes from an acorn in Narnia the professor and some girl brought back from Narnia it grew into a tree and the professor turned it into a wardrobe, I can't remember how they originally got to Narnia but that wasn't the first other world they went to, they went to a world that is described as very ominous and dead, they found statues of women, and a bell or horn is sounded and one of the statues came to life and this is the witch, they go baxk to earth where she breaks a lamp post, and now everyone goes to a world that is darkness, then they hear a beautiful song turns out it's aslan singing the song of life creating Narnia well the witch throws the lamp post into the ground, and since aslan is bringing life into the world the lamp post is alive, that's basicly the first book chronologically

The author of the books (C.S. Lewis) was often using Christian symbolism in his works, mixed up with a lot of other legends, folklore and religions. As I understand it his ideas was a little controversial at the time if you were a conservative Christian, as they sometimes seemed to fit in more with some of the new age thoughts of the late 20th century. Him and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends and their books sometimes shows great similarities. At the time Tolkien was working on The Lord of the Rings, Lewis was doing his own trilogy; a science fiction adventure that turned into theological philosophy in the second book, and social commentary in the third*. For someone who only knew him for his fantasy-like children's stories this trilogy came as a great surprise. I love it, even if the second book can be a little slow at times. But in it are some passages that reminds so much of Tolkien's LotR writing that I wonder who came up with some of the concepts. But as a fan of both authors, I'm just happy their friendship helped them both in their work. A win-win-win situation! They both benefited from it, and so did their readers. :) * His "The Space Trilogy" consists of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.

The witch's back story is good and it involves the professor in the house. Hopefully netflix does a good job. Read the magicians nephew if u wanna hear the beginning of narnia and the witch and the wardrobe. Btw the fox is prince charming from shrek 2. Nice voice.

C.S. Lewis was an atheist but became friends with J.R.R. Tolkien who was a Christian and wrote the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. He was convinced to accept Christ and become a Christian and studied the Bible and then came up with these books about Narnia. This is the adaptation of the first book

I know you said you are not a reader, and neither am I. I have read/ listened to all the audio books. I highly recommend them. Give them a try.

30:18 "Nock her out" Love the (unintentional?) pun Speaking of James McAvoy, when's It Chapter Two?!

the old gentleman is Diggory from the first book in the series "The Magicians Nephew" he and his friend Polly discover the White Witch and lead her to the "Creation" of Narnia when Aslan sang and created the World.

If you like reading i can't recommend the origin book i can't even remember what it's called but this movie was the first book writen then many years later the origin book was writen and really changed things up

“You forgot your dad??” lmao

This is one of my favorite Fantasy movies. While I probably heard of the books way back as a kid and teen, I never read them ( same for LotRs and The Hobbit). I'm pretty certain like many, this was the first thing I remember ever seeing James McAvoy in. And he was just wonderful in it. My favorite parts with him is when he stomps his little hooves on his doormat to get the snow off. 😊 Sam....I think most everyone gets teary at the awful Aslan sacrifice scene. I still do. (Not just because I'm a Cat lover, and a Leo sign lol.) Gotta tell you, funny thing....I just watched grown- William Moseley (Peter) in a new Hallmark C'mas movie last week lol. He's still super Cute btw, even at 35 yrs old.😁😍 The 2nd Narnia movie, is fairly good but lags a bit storywise at times. Will say though- Ben Barnes was a hottie in it lol. 🙈😛 Sorry, can't help myself lol.

You remind me of two of my favorite comedic actors: Mindy Cohn most famously known for playing Natalie on "The Facts of Life" and Robin Thorsen who played Clara in the web series "The Guild." I kept feeling I had met you before, but then I realized it was just your comedic timing and facial reactions I had seen before with them.

The creatures that were on her side were the darker creatures, trolls, giants, the dwarfs, werewolves, hags, I'm guessing polar bears because of the eternal winter. The dwarfs would have been mad because they were close to humans, so during the years, no son of Adam is around to be king. They felt they should rule Narnia as the most human of the sentient beings. Giants and Trolls are just naturally aggressive and hags and werewolves love violence and blood shed. There was a couple other groups fighting with her too but again there the ones who usually hate humans and are probably part of the reason there are no humans currently in Narnia before the 4 children arrive

Officially speaking, its not meant to be an Allegory. The writing group the author was a part of didn't really look favourably on those. However, it was meant to be part of the real world and how the christian god would interact and handle other worlds including Narnia. Buuuut, its kinda an Allegory despite best intentions XD.

Great reaction. This is definitely the best of the three movies, but the other two are well worth a watch.

I grew up on The Chronicles of Narnia book series along with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I watched the old movie adaptations of the Narnia series as a kid, too. Very good *and* cover much more of the series than the three movies Disney made before giving up. As I recall, the wardrobe was made from the wood of a tree that the professor had grown from the seeds of a magic tree from Narnia. The professor had his own adventures that haven't made it into movie form. Edit: As for why people would side with the White Witch, why do people usually side with an oppressive dictator? Fear is one motive. Getting to be an oppressor rather than the oppressed is another.

Since you said you wouldn't likely read it anyway, I think it's safe to say that it's not entirely Edmonds fault. In the book, it explains that the queens food is enchanted, once you eat or drink of her enchanted food and your hers. First thing Edmond did was drink and eat her magic food. He gets a double dose of loyalty right from the start.

The trigger to open the wardrobe is that you can get in when it's time for you to get in. The time difference is that time in the real world doesn't pass while you're in Narnia. Time in Narnia passes as fast as it needs to, so next time you go, it's when you're needed there. The creatures allied with the witch are with her because ...well, it's the world, and there's evil in it. Evil attracts evil.

this is fiveth golden age of Narina David mccullough

I love it when babies react to the 2000's CGI as if they're watching a movie from the 1980's LOL. We pretty much had CGI down by the 2000's and it really hasn't gotten better since. Anyway, hope to see you watching Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

If you want to experience the books in a dynamic but more faithful way than the movies, check out the full cast audio dramas by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. They're amazing and immersive, musical score, effects, the whole nine yards. They're really good, especially since there are three books that have never been made into movies, four that were not done recently.

Aw, what a treat-had no idea u were watching this! Yaaay! Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask…how u feeling this *go around* on KZfaq? I know it was grueling before & I was worried…WE [gestures around] were worried ab u.😉 Adore u, Sam. Want u around. Need ur sassy self around. Hugely. 🖖

In book three The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Edmund himself says he was a traitor when he first arrived in Narnia.

You’ll love reacting to the badass series that came before this movie. It’s cinematic transition between each episode is so beautiful

Great video. I'd have to say that this is the best reaction channel. I remember seeing this in theaters. Loved the movie but I haven't seen any of the sequels. "Thomas got jumped, thanks Edmond" had me laughing. Liam Neeson is a great actor.

My fourth grade teacher read us this book over SEVERAL class periods in the 80’s. It is one of those books that I, for some reason, never thought could be made into a major movie. I was glad to be proven wrong!! 😅. Fantastic movie adaptation!!

There is a BBC version of these books, low budget pretty much like a play but has so much story that the major movies left out, plus they go all the way to the silver chair book

Ding! Ding! Ding! The Narnia series is a Christian allegory! Greet books!

Edmond truly is the worst lol. The books are really good. I've always been a voracious reader, but I didn't read the whole series until 10 or 15 years ago. I read them all in a couple months while I was in jail. I was struggling with addiction and these books were such a great escape for me. They got me through a really hard time. I got released from jail before i finished the last one. When I got out I went and bought the book, and I still have it. You're right about the Christian parallels. I'm an atheist but I still love this story. Hope you watch the other movies some time!

This first one was pretty good, it's a shame the rest did not fair as well. I've loved the books since I was a kid. I'm still hoping to get a proper adaptation.

One of the most darling fantasy stories ;-)

My 5th grade teacher read us this book in the sixties. When the made spoke in the house for the first time, I completely remember that from the book

Hi, Sam! ✌🏽💖🦉 I suggest "Suspect" with Cher, Liam Neeson and Dennis Quaid, "Leon: the Professional" with Jean Reno and Natalie Portman and "The Help" with Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Chastain be added to the poll. Sorry, I can't join patreon right now.

I love to see that you're a fan of yoshis as well!!!☺

CS Lewis wrote the seven Narnia books in part to introduce Christianity to children. The books include many religious references. There other ways to Narnia. How they are opened is when Aslan wants them there. Earth time and Narnia time are independently monotonically increasing, but without a strict relation. The second book is in the children's near future on Earth, but they arrive in Narnia long after they had left. However long a visit to Narnia lasts in Narnia, the visit ends just moments later on Earth. One of the books is the creation tale and because how it was created, Narnia is best run when ruled by a human, or Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve. There have been many false starts on adapting the books. You either read the books, or pick up bits and bobs off youtubular to kind of get the whole history. I strongly dislike how the next two books are adapted. The various creatures are from folklore, and the ones evil in folklore are evil in the books, like werewolves, wolves, minotaurs, hags, etc. Like orcs or battle droids, it's simpler for an author to have the designated bad guys who are a threat but can be slaughtered without remorse.

Read or listen to "The Magician's Nephew", and you will get the backstory to this one.

The casting is excellent for this. Liam Neeson is the voice of Aslan (“The Lion…” of the title.)

Yaaay one if my favs....though the older series was much better. Even if the special effects wasn't as good as the new one, really wish they would re do the whole book set not just the main films they did in with Harry Potter and the Tolkien books.

The next two follow-up films are good as well.

In voyage to the dawn treader Aslan says in Lucy’s world he is known by a different name and always with them indicating he’s Jesus

A fun reaction! Glad you enjoyed the movie. And yes strong Christian parallels. Looking forward to you watching the rest of the trilogy!

I grew up watching and loving the cartoon movie version of this book. I've also read the books though it's been too long and i want to reread them. When my brother's three kids were starting to get more of a hold on reading, these were the books he read to them and they also read at least some to him even.

I hope you'll also react to the other 2 movies. Next is Prince Caspian and then the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Even though some critics slammed these movies for not following the books enough, I still thought they were good. I think that's saying something since I usually dislike things with such overt religious symbolism.

Watch The Chronicles Of Narnia two and three ❤️

I know you don't do music reactions, so just for your own private enjoyment, the closing credits have an Alanis Morissette song that is not to be missed! 'Wunderkind', the lyrics of which are about Lucy. Such a great song! Never fails to raise a lump in the throat!

Hello OGB ,I would like to make a movie recommendation that no one else has reacted to yet. " The Brass Teapot" 2012

Tumnus got jumped!

The Lion is the symbol of Christ.

Hope you do Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader next time

I never had been a C S Lewis book reader, but I enjoyed this movie. Seeing it again I was mostly struck by the difference with James McAvoy then (2005) vs in Split (2016). I recommend Atomic Blond (2017) in which he costarred with Charlize Theron.

Love the reaction ❤ gonna do the other two next?

Please watch Narnia 2 Prince Caspian ❤😊

With what you were saying about why creatures would side with the Witch. C.S. Lewis wrote this as a children's story that adhered pretty tightly to the classic dichotomy of good and evil. Creates sided with the witch because they're the "bad" creatures and the beings that sided with Aslan are the "good" creatures. He expands upon this and it evolves some across the series but for this book that's basically all the explanation we get.

27:51 idk tbh…seems like the cgi people were really trying to make it a real as possible and not just passible

Look up the BBC radio drama of these books. Then you can get into it without reading. :)

Yes, this is an allegory of Jesus, and just as Aslan gave His life for Edmund, Jesus gave His life to save you!

It wasn’t the kids who weakened the witch’s power. It was Aslan just showing up.

This video has 8 thumbs down. What kind of ****** thumbs down Narnia!?

How do you get a wardrobe like that? You need to read the Magician's Nephew, it's explained there (IIRC). Nice reaction, Sam.

All the movies came put at christmas like lotr. So yes christmas movie

Publisher: What do you have for me, Mr. Lewis? CS Lewis: Get this, it's like Lord of the Rings, but Jesus is one of the main characters. Publisher: That doesn't make sense. CS Lewis: Wait, get this: Jesus is a LION! Publisher: That still doesn't make sense. Shouldn't he be a lamb? CS Lewis: Shut up! You're just not getting it! Publisher: When can I have it?

Thank you so much for this reaction! Watching this film introduced me to the world of Narnia. I’ve read every book, seen every screen adaptions, and I was Fenris Ulf (Maugrim) and Father Christmas for a stage play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe . Unfortunately, complications and Covid prevented us from performing; I hope to finally perform it one day. I would love to see you react to Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I hope this franchise can get a tv series treatment where each season is a book. Also I don’t know if it’s been mentioned that this entire chronicles was an allegory based on the Bible. Also that C.S. Lewis was friends with J.R.R. Tolkien the author of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Hobbit. 👩🏻‍🦰🧑🏻‍🦱👩🏻‍🦱🧑🏼🦁👸🏼🚪❤️💛💙🩶

Every time my son says something I've known since i was his age I quote aslan and tell him don't quote the deep magic to me i was there when it was writen

glad you liked this ... i enjoyed all the trilogy... and yes more is explained in the books but you got the main point with the religious tie ins and of course more is explored in the next films

To get a wardrobe like that.. hmm. Well, first have a mad uncle, play with some strange rings, meet Jesus's fursona, make a huge mistake, plant a tree, use said tree to make wardrobe and retire to a big house in the country with your childhood friend. More or less. ;)

On "getting such a wardrobe": a) do you want it WITH or WITHOUT the "other exit"? b) do you have the ROOM to "go with the wardrobe"? American houses are TERRIBLE and unstylish ... and are "beneath" such a wardrobe! c) IF you have a proper room for it ... build it yourself or marry a craftsman with a workshop. [yes yes ... I know ... the latter isnt your thing]

"Why does the CGI in 2005 look better than some of the stuff that is out now?" It's because as CGI became more advanced, filmmakers began to become lazier and ever more reliant on CGI making it more noticeable and less believable.

The professor was around the age of edmon when him and the girl went to Narnia it's set around turn of the century so Narnia is only around 40 years old

"Santa" in this is Actually called father christmas.

Almost every fantasy story has been inspired by Christianity in some way. Which if I funny how a lot of hardline Christians call the Harry Potter Series satanic, despite never actually reading the books or watching the movies. If they did, they would see a lot of Christian influences in that series as well. Harry was practically a combination of Jobe and Jesus.

Narnia is a world of PARENTS ... a.k.a. RULES!

It wasn't the crown thst caused edmon to leave, it waa the Turkish delight

The Original four founders of Hogwarts 3:46 ❤❤❤💚

Time in Narnia has no rhyme or reason, the next movie takes place 300 yeara in the future but maybe a year past in the real world and the time the professor went to now was 40ish years, but the beaver said the lake been frozen 100s of years

Can't remember how long they were kings and queens, but they should have been much older than portrayed they had grey hair

Aslan represents Jesus Christ who took my place on the cross and died the death I so richly deserve. But the hope I have is that on the third day Jesus Christ was resurrected and He walked out of that tomb overcoming sin and death.

Leam neson trained both batman and obi won, saved some Jews found his daughter from other side of the planet he was Zeus and aslan, and he's going to be a bumbling detective real soon

There is a reason only some of the animals can talk and some can't long story short aslan said so