Classic story hits the big screen

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe sees 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 story 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 Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe marks the live-action debut of New Zealander Adamson, who helmed Shrek and Shrek 2.

Adamson brings to the film a passion for Lewis's story that began in his own childhood. 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.

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, along with Scottish actor James McAvoy as Mr Tumnus, the kind-hearted faun who risks his own fate to ensure Lucy's safety and Jim Broadbent as Professor Kirke, whose eccentric country home houses the magical wardrobe. Liam Neeson voices Narnia's noble ruler, Aslan the Lion.

"I loved the books when I was a child, and to remember how they made me feel back then was exciting," relates McAvoy.

"Mr Tumnus was always one of my favourite characters so to play him was a big honour."

For McAvoy, the fascinating part of Tumnus is that he becomes morally torn in his mission to kidnap Lucy for the White Witch. "He's forced by circumstance to do something against his will," says McAvoy.

"And therein lies the duality that Andrew and I talked about. Tumnus is conflicted because in the process of kidnapping Lucy, he forms a bond with her and they become close friends. Ultimately, he's forced to look at who he is, and what he wants and what he can live with, which is a very unexpected thing for him."

Tilda Swinton plays Jadis, the seemingly invincible White Witch who has cursed the one-time paradise to endure an eternal winter. Unlike most of her cast-mates, Swinton came to the story completely fresh. "I'm one of the few people who was brought up in the UK who didn't read any of the Narnia books as a child," Swinton confesses.

"So, I came to them entirely because of Andrew Adamson who asked me to be in this film. I then read the stories to my six-year-old children. They were the acid test. When they thought it was a good idea, I began to take the idea of the film seriously. Of course, it's a tall order to play the epitome of all evil. I just might have children backing away from me for the rest of my life!"