The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: December 9, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
A generation-spanning journey that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly original. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Plunges into an imaginative landscape as large as all creation - and never slackens its barreling pace or shrinks its panoramic scope. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A movie of intelligence and power, of beauty, universality and largeness of spirit. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The picture goes exactly where the prose does, enticing all of us, kids and adults and atheists and believers alike, down below the brittle surface of our cold logic and into a richer world of imaginative wonder. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Spiritual redemption is a big theme of Narnia, but on a purely entertainment level, the movie also goes a long way in redeeming the current sad state of children's fantasy filmmaking. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
What is lightly sketched in the novel, where much is left to the imagination, blossoms into full-blown, richly detailed life in the movie. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Robust, engrossing, and surprisingly restrained in saving most of its effects for the grand finale, the first Chronicles of Narnia installment eschews Harry Potter's satanic subtext and "The Lord of the Rings'" Wagnerian cosmology. It may be as close to adult-friendly kid fare as Hollywood will ever get. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
What's best about it is that it seems real by the logic of childhood - it looks as things SHOULD look, if kids had it their way. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
If you're a fan of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, all you need to know is this: Disney has done right by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's impossible to imagine it done much better, in fact. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
By staying focused on the children -- frightened evacuees from the London Blitz whose parallel war in Narnia both taps into and finally quiets their unspoken terrors -- Adamson keeps faith with the humanity of Lewsis' tale. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Well told, handsome, stirring and loads of fun. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There's nothing too clean or too overbright about it. It's magic, but not the loud, shiny kind: It has the texture of worn velvet, or a painstakingly hand-knit sweater stored away for years in tissue paper. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
An entertaining, emotional, and surprisingly intimate movie--an epic saga of fauns and talking (Cockney) beavers and evil sorceresses and triumphal resurrections and massive, sweeping battles that nonetheless feels … small. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An array of supporting craftspeople pull the viewer into a credible alternative world, even if the film itself is more prosaic than inspiring. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Generations of readers have found The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe to be a gripping adventure that reaches well beyond its religious underpinnings, and this robust version respects both aspects and finds the same winning balance of excitement and meaning. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The next two hours might not have quite delivered on that initial promise of wonder - we grown-ups, being heavy, are not so easily swept away by visual tricks - except when I looked away from the screen at the faces of breathless and wide-eyed children, my own among them, for whom the whole experience was new, strange, disturbing and delightful. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Narnia, brightly lit and kid-friendly, has an appealingly old-fashioned feel to it. Adamson, codirector of "Shrek," wisely doesn't try to hip-ify the tale, leaving its curious blend of medieval pageantry, Christian fable and children's bedtime story intact. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie, for all its half-baked visual marvels, remains remarkably faithful to Lewis' story, and the innocence of his passion begins to shine through. It's there, most spectacularly, in Aslan, the lion-king messiah. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
On balance, more of the movie works than doesn't, but this isn't 140 minutes of unqualified successes. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a film situated precisely on the dividing line between traditional family entertainment and the newer action-oriented family films. It is charming and scary in about equal measure, and confident for the first two acts that it can be wonderful without having to hammer us into enjoying it, or else. Then it starts hammering. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
An engaging and exciting family film that at times feels a bit like "The Lord of the Rings Jr." Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A loving interpretation of C.S. Lewis's beloved parable for children, and it's almost perfect in every detail. Yet there's the one difficulty: It's almost perfect in every detail, fully realized in too few. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Working for the first time in live action, under the constraints of a classic novel, he (Andrew Adamson) proves himself to be a capable visual storyteller but no Peter Jackson. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The extensive CGI work is well used and the children are exceptionally well cast, especially the girls. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A gracefully subtle metaphor about life's Deep Magic has become a war film; what was a one-chapter battle toward the end of the book is now a ripsnorting Armageddon that looks like something Hieronymus Bosch might dream up after a heavy meal. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
That's not to say that this first visit to a live-action Narnia on screen isn't enjoyable, or promising for the future of what will surely be a successful franchise. But there's not a lot of humor along the way, and the epic struggle between good and evil plays out in battles more impressive than thrilling.
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The Christian themes of forgiveness and sacrifice are tastefully conveyed, and the opening sequence of Nazi bombs falling on London, an event only alluded to in the book, helps dramatize Lewis's fascination with power. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Overlong, poorly paced and woodenly acted film. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The menagerie of mythological beasties in Narnia don't seem quite genuinely, three-dimensionally real. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
There's little warmth or depth to the characters who, for the most part, trudge through the film with little wonder at the magical journey they're making. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This PG-rated movie feels safe and constricted in a way the story never does on the page. It leaves out the deep magic of a good movie, or a good sermon: the feeling that something vital is at stake. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Freer
It's a more dynamic adventure than Potter IV but lacks the majesty and richness of LOTR. Still, it's an enjoyable adaptation and good enough for us to welcome this new franchise. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Younger children getting in on the ground floor of fantasy will enjoy the film. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Though it's handsomely made and peppered with seamlessly achieved visual glories, Narnia is ineptly acted, crudely staged and burdened with a score that only a masochist could love. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The problem with any allegorical plan, Christian or otherwise, is not its ideological content but the blockish threat that it poses to the flow of a story. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The problem with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is this: The closer the many-hands screenplay gets to the Christ-like sufferings and resurrection of Lord Aslan, the lion (voiced by Liam Neeson), the more conflicted the filmmakers' efforts become. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Narnia is nearly saved by those immensely likable and altogether stiff-upper-lippy Pevensie kids. Read full review
40
TimeRichard Corliss
Disney is trying to lure the disparate audiences of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (kids) and "The Passion of the Christ" (Evangelicals). But on either level, Narnia fails. There's no fire, no passion and not much fun. Read full review
38
PremierePeter Debruge
The movie is a leaden, slow-moving beast. Read full review
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