I must say, I was disappointed with Disney’s movie version of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.”

If you read the book (and I recommend that you do), you soon realize that the most important, most central character is Aslan. Sure, we share in the adventure through the eyes of the Pevensies, but Aslan is what matters. When the Beavers first speak his name, you get this idea of an incredible feeling of awe. We are told “of course He’s not safe! But He’s good.” From there you can see him as He really is, the image of Christ. He is huge, all-powerful and all-knowing, yet restraining himself to come alongside those He came to save, and eventually surrendering even to death.

Unfortunately, Disney made Aslan just a big cat. They don’t create the sense of awe that Lewis wanted to portray: as if one were in the presence of God Almighty, in a position where you have no defence, and you know His anger can be the most fearsome thing, but your knowledge of his love and goodness somehow keeps you from running away as fast as you can.

Other than that, I felt they were pretty faithful to the book. But missing the whole underlying moral and getting the rest dead-on is still a failure in my book. It’s too bad we can’t have the BBC’s faithfulness to the original text married with Disney’s masterful cinematography and CG.