As my entire family will
attest to, doing things bass-ackwards has been my lifelong rule
rather than the exception. For example, though
possessing a degree in English literature, I have never read any
of C. S. Lewis’ seven books in The
Chronicles of Narnia series
and was familiar with his work primarily through The
Screwtape Letters.
There always persisted this conception that the Narnia books were
meant
for children.

So it was that I found
myself playing Disney’s The Chronicles
of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe without any beforehand
knowledge of the characters or the plot, and then found myself invited
to an advance screening of the movie and, finally, figured ‘what
the heck’ and purchased a boxed collection of the books in
order to continue the adventure.

Some
history: many years ago – in the 1930’s to be exact – a
group of mostly academics from the University of Oxford formed
a literary discussion group that met on Thursdays and named it
the Inklings. This group, besides praising the value of narrative
in fiction, also encouraged the writing of fantasy. So it is perhaps
not at all surprising that from these meetings emerged two of the
most popular fantasy authors of the 20th century, J. R. R. Tolkien
and C. S. Lewis (known as ‘Jack’ to his friends). Tolkien
soon wrote some little trilogy you may have heard of by the name
of Lord of the Rings, while Lewis created The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Lion, The
Witch and The Wardrobe is about four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy
Pevensie who – because of the air-raids on wartime London – are
sent to the country to live with the stuffy Professor Kirke. Bored,
and unable to go outside due to the rain, they play hide-and-seek
indoors where the youngest, Lucy, discovers an old closet that
is a secret passage to Narnia, a country frozen in eternal winter
by the evil White Witch. The icy spell can only be broken by four
siblings who, along with the aide of the mighty lion Aslan – the
true ruler of Narnia – must now work together to free Narnia from
the White Witch.

The
game, and every chapter, begins with a clip from the film. Not
only are the film clips absolutely stunning, but the film to animation
transitions are the best ever, in any video game. Film scenes morph
so smoothly and seamlessly into animation that you are actually
shocked to discover that you now have control of the characters.

The game also does a commendable
job of following both the book and movie. It begins, as it should,
with the London air raids though
there is some silliness involved – and it continues throughout
the game – in that the children must pound on or walk into furniture
to spring coins that will later be used to purchase abilities. This
is moronic console mentality at its worst and serves to prove how
much more advanced and mature books and movies are from video games.

Once we progress to the
professor’s house it is only a matter-of-time
until a lively game of hide-and-seek leads to the wardrobe and Narnia.
The wardrobe is actually broken into fourteen different sections,
each of which represents a different chapter of the game.

The
children are each controlled separately and it is usually the player’s
choice whom to use and when. The exception to this is when an icon
of the child flashes on the screen and then the player must press
to ‘x’ button on the controller to have that child
complete a predetermined movement. This is usually not a problem,
except during some hectic scenes – such as the first battle with
the ogre – and adds the pretense of interactivity.

There are also times when
a specific child must be used as they each have their own special
abilities. It is during these occasions that the game often feels
rpgish. Lucy can cast a spell to heal her siblings, Susan can shoot
arrows and so on. But each sibling also possesses unusual, clever
abilities such as Susan throwing snowballs to put out fires and
Lucy taming and riding wolves. The children can also team-up to
create different types of combination attacks. Unfortunately, other
than different types of attacks, the children are never fleshed
out in the gameplay itself, but only through watching the film
clips.

Take
note also that populating each level are animal statues that when
hit are tabulated for a final total that can increase or decrease
your grade for that level. According to the book, these statues
are animals that failed to report the presence of humans in Narnia
and were frozen by the witch for their negligence. While normally
such a mundane feature wouldn’t be worth mentioning, there
is ultimately an excellent twist involved (no spoilers here!) that
makes it worthwhile to collect as many of these statues as possible.

Much of what was left
to the imagination in the book is now visualized in both the game
and movie, but why must such a premium be accorded to fighting?
As the game progresses, the battles become more fierce and complicated
and seem to be at odds with the tone of both the book and movie.
The movie does not feature any battles – yet maintains an aura
of suspense – until the wonderful climax of the film. In fact,
Susan never even shoots her bow in violence until the very end
of the movie, yet in the game she is immediately a superior marksman
shooting everything in sight. There seems to be this perverse mentality
in the video game industry that children are dunderheads who crave
violence and that a game without fighting will not sell. The game
actually has a lot of strong points that don’t involve fighting
be it discovering the appropriate moments for Susan to play her
Pan pipe, chases across frozen lakes, progressing through the witch’s
castle or meeting some fantastic mythical creatures. But the overall
interactive emphasis is on battling and that is a shame for the
only emotional contact with the characters is through the non-interactive
film sequences. Some of these sequences should have been incorporated
into the gameplay instead of what often seems like an endless litany
of battles. If this game had been made ten years ago, it would
have been a pure adventure game and had a lot more heart and soul.

Voice-overs were performed
by the cast members which is a plus, but there are occasionally
some horrible camera angles – and the
player has no control over the camera – that make it difficult
to complete areas. For example, in one area the player must block
three cave entrances to stop the flow of attacking wolves, but the
cave entrance to the right of the screen is not readily discernable
but would be if the player could shift the camera angle.

Another necessary evil
for games of this sort is that there are no save points, instead
you are offered the opportunity to save when
you complete a chapter. Within each chapter though there are much-needed
check-points so that you don’t always have to replay the entire
sections when your character loses a life. Just remember that check-points
are only temporary and will be lost if you turn off the game before
reaching a chapter’s end and saving.

Lastly, while the book
is widely considered to be an allegory for the story of Christ,
such overt metaphors are not readily discernable at all in the
game and it’s possible that in this day and age of thin sensibilities
that the game developers did not want to chance possibly alienating
their audience by having their product associated with any religious
group. Of course, what may have escaped my notice might be blatantly
obvious to someone else.

Still The Chronicles
of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is recommended for
fans of the movie and book. But – and I speak from my bass-ackwards
experience – I don’t think you can fully appreciate
the game without experiencing it in its other incarnations. Now,
if you’ll excuse me, I have some reading to finish.

Final Grade: C+
(find out more about our
grading system)