At just over 200 brisk pages, C.S. Lewis’ novel invites movie adaptation far more easily than, say, the Harry Potter books, so that a movie version needs only to let its source story breathe. Director Andrew Adamson (Shrek) does that right from the start, expanding on the book’s brief prologue to introduce the four sibling heroes while they are under a Luftwaffe attack in London. Once the children enter the magical world of Narnia via a mysterious wardrobe, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe unfurls one amazement after another, becoming an even clearer evocation of how imagination can be our only refuge in times of turmoil.
