Resurrection, Anthropomorphism, and Cold War Echoes in Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Abstract

Of C. S. Lewis’s seven novels comprising The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), the film adaptations thus far include The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Adamson, 2005), Prince Caspian (Adamson, 2008), and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Apted, 2010), with further adaptations under consideration. The first film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was the most successful of the three, its total worldwide gross of $745,013,115 currently standing at 44 in all-time, worldwide box-office rankings, while it was the third worldwide highest-grossing film of 2005.1 It was also nominated for three Academy awards, winning one for Best Makeup. Conversely, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader fared moderately, currently ranking at 144 and 146 respectively in all-time top-grossing box office.2 Like The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter film franchises, The Chronicles of Narnia films have undoubtedly benefitted from the novels’ success, Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe having sold in excess of 85 million copies.3 Since the novels were written in the 1950s, the films offer opportunities for nostalgic revisitation by older audiences, who read the books as children, as well as interest for new readers. Moreover, the first adaptation in 2005 followed the final episode of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2003) and was released concurrent to the Harry Potter films, arguably tapping into an audience demographic that was receptive to the fantasy epic.