Toon Talk: The Chronicles of Narnia
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(c) Disney
The tale begins in an England torn by war; Axis bombings have forced the four Pevensie children - eldest Peter (William Moseley), cautious Susan (Anna Popplewell), headstrong Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and curious Lucy (wide-eyed natural Georgie Henley) - to be relocated to a safer area, the country home of a Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent, well cast as a befuddled recluse). Restless in their new surrounding, the quartet play a game of hide and seek, which leads little Lucy to an imposing wardrobe, sequestered in a neglected spare room of the mansion.
Entering the wardrobe, Lucy finds herself transported to a vast, snow-covered landscape, wherein she encounters a friendly faun (half man, half goat) named Tumnus (James McAvoy), who warns her not to return to this land of Narnia or suffer the wrath of the White Witch, the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia, who’s powers have kept Narnia enshrouded in a century-long winter. Upon returning home, Lucy discovers that not only has time not passed from the moment she stepped into the wardrobe, but that her skeptical siblings don’t believe her wondrous story.
(c) Disney
Determined to prove herself right, Lucy returns to Narnia that evening only to be unknowingly followed by Edmund, who promptly falls under the spell of Jadis the White Witch (regally and icily embodied by the formidable Tilda Swinton). Seems there is a prophecy that the witch can only be defeated by “two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve�?, a caveat that the four Pevensie children fulfill only too well. Jadis dispatches Edmund to retrieve his brother and sisters and lead them to her castle, where she promises riches and royalty, but in truth plans to do away with them so her reign will continue unchallenged.
After returning once again back to the Kirke estate, and after an unfortunate cricket accident, the four children escape into the wardrobe and thus, into Narnia, where they learn that Lucy’s Mr. Tumnus has been charged with treason for associating with humans and imprisoned. Wanting to help, they are befriended by a talking beaver couple (voiced by Ray Winstone and Dawn French), who inform them of the prophecy and the impending return of Aslan, the true ruler of Narnia.
Charged with protecting his siblings, Peter wants to return home, but it is too late: enchanted by the White Witch, Edmund has run off to find her. With no other choice, Peter and his sisters must find Aslan so they can rescue their wayward brother, and thus set out on a journey aided by the beavers, as well as a wily fox (voiced by Rupert Everett) and Father Christmas (James Cosmo) himself, all the while pursued by the White Witch’s wolves, tipped off to their location by an unwittingly traitorous Edmund.