In the film, four young adventurers playing hide-and-seek in the country home of an old professor stumble upon an enchanted wardrobe that will take them places they never dreamed. Stepping through the wardrobe door, they are whisked out of World War II London into the spectacular parallel universe known as Narnia - a fairy-tale realm of magical proportions where woodland animals talk and mythological creatures roam the hills.
But Narnia has fallen under the icy spell of a mad sorceress, cursed to suffer through a winter that never ends by the White Witch Jadis. Now, aided by Narnia's rightful leader, the wise and mystical lion Aslan, the four Pevensie children will discover their own strength and lead Narnia into a spectacular battle to be free of the Witch's glacial enslavement forever.
Touching on eternal themes of good and evil, and of the power of family, courage and hope in the darkest moments, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is a classic fable for our times.
Years in the making and meticulously created by director Andrew Adamson to match C.S. Lewis' own vision of Narnia, the film marks the live-action debut of New Zealander Adamson, who came to fore bringing worldwide audiences the loveable green ogre at the heart of the Oscar®-winning "Shrek" and "Shrek 2." Adamson carries to the film a passion for Lewis's story that began in his own childhood - one that now meets up with extraordinary advances in motion picture technology. The vast scope of the director's vision of Narnia is brought to life through a mixture of moving human performances and cutting-edge, photo-realistic techniques in CGI, animation and prosthetic makeup that turn the wildly creative worlds and characters Lewis forged into something heart-stoppingly close to reality. Says Adamson: "'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' has taken millions of young minds into realms of fantasy - so the enormous challenge as a filmmaker was to try to re-create those worlds in a way that might live up to and even exceed people's imaginations, that could truly transport you to another time and place. You couldn't have made this film five years ago. You couldn't have made a photo-realistic lion like Aslan five years ago, or joined animal legs unto a human body realistically as we did with centaurs and minotaurs five years ago. Now is the right time to be making this story."
The film's stellar cast features Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the powerful White Witch who plunges Narnia into a frozen winter of war and discord. A quartet of rising young talents take on the roles of the Pevensie siblings who journey through the wardrobe: newcomer Georgie Henley is Lucy, the youngest and first to enter enchanted Narnia; Skandar Keynes is Edmund, who falls under the seductive spell of the White Witch; teenaged Anna Popplewell is Susan, the practical sister who remains skeptical about Narnia; and William Moseley plays Peter, the eldest sibling, who becomes a true leader as their adventures mount.
Co-starring in the film are Scottish actor James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus, the kindhearted faun who risks his own fate to ensure Lucy's safety; and Oscar®-winner Jim Broadbent as Prof. Kirke, whose eccentric country home houses the magical wardrobe. To lend rich emotions to the magical computer-generated creatures, Adamson recruited a host of acclaimed performers as vocal talents, including Academy Award®-nominated Liam Neeson as Narnia's noble ruler, Aslan the Lion; Rupert Everett as The Fox, another ally of the children; and veteran British performers Ray Winstone and comedienne Dawn French as the kindly, bickering Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.
Opening across the Philippines, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is distributed by Buena Vista International through Columbia Pictures.