The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979)

Dir. Bill Meléndez

As a child I was never very fond of the first half of the animated version of C. S. Lewis' most famous work. Even now, as an adult, I feel the same.

And while the traditional static backgrounds are fine, the actual character animations atop them are very poorly done, especially the eyes.

The second half of the film, however, despite the same dodgy line work and the overpowering Christian allegory, I loved and even today I feel it's the best part. It's then that the story really picks up the pace and the Pevensie siblings, with their four different hair colours, are no longer required to be the main focus of the story, a task for which they aren't particularity well-suited.

The script is adapted from the revised US edition of the novel. If you're stuck with the Region 1 disc, then you have a different voice cast than the rest of the English speaking world - except for Aslan, the best of the bunch, who's voiced by British actor Stephen Thorne in both versions.