Not all Narnian animals can talk; only some. They’re the ‘people’ of the land, and then there are ordinary animals too. This is more obvious in the later books, such as Prince Caspian (where Susan uses her arrows too) and The Magician’s Nephew, in which Aslan creates all animals, and then picks out some of them to be talking, intelligent creatures.
Look at it from a kid’s point of view. Aslan is a lion because lions are cool. Santa is real because presents are cool. I agree with your point about Aslan’s sacrifice, even as a child I thought his ressurection was a cheat.
It’s more a problem with Docetism, which is basically the position of Aslan in Narnia, than most other Christian views of the atonement. But I repeat that it is a valid objection on theological grounds.
Went along to see this a couple of days ago with the family. My son had read the books but somehow this whole series has escaped my radar screen so I was not familiar with the story at all. If I hadn’t read about it here, to be honest I would not have made a Christianity connection. The movie in itself was entertaining but IMHO, the final battle scenes leave a lot to be desired. I’ll blame the story for the other problems including ones mentioned already - youngest girl way too accepting on her first visit & the sacrifice/resurrection. I thought it lost steam once they meet Aslan. Not sure if this is a story problem or a movie problem, but again it’s just MHO.
I titally agree that the children’s discovery of Narnia was completely mishandled. Lucy’s complete lack of surprise, confusion or fear was especially disappointing. When Lucy first enters Narnia, she just starts smiling like she discovered a puppy instead of finding a portal a magical other-land. There should have been a huge WTF, but there wasn’t.
As a child, I read TLtW&tW, and (until I saw the movie earlier this week) I remembered very little other than that it was full of Christian themes, and that I wasn’t particularly satisfied with the story on its own.
Upon seeing the movie… well, it’s full of Christian themes, and I’m not particularly satisfied with the story on its own. It was a very pretty movie, and the kids weren’t really THAT bad… okay, so they were pretty mediocre at times, but they didn’t ruin the movie or anything. I just don’t think the story itself is that interesting. I didn’t come to really care about any of the characters, other than disliking the traitor-boy and being annoyed by all of the other three at various times. The Aslan-sacrifice scene didn’t have any particular emotional draw, and the fact that pretty much all of the “good guys” are magically alive at the end takes away any pull that might otherwise come from a sense of loss. There is no romantic love because of the age and nature of the characters, and the love between the siblings is never particularly poignant, IMO. There is no “Wow, that <main character> is amazing, I want to know more and more and more about him/her!” In the end, the only thing that draws me in is the world itself… and that world is a pretty standard fantasy-setting world, albeit beautifully realized at times. Then again, there is also no particular location that stands out as unique the way any number of, say, Middle-Earth locations would (for all that I may complain about Tolkein’s writing style sometimes, damn, could he create a world).
I guess I just sort of feel that it’s a cute story for younger readers, but there is nothing else there that would make it stand out among most of the decent-to-better tales in the “adult” fantasy genre. I think the failings of Narnia are more within the story itself than through any lack of “tightness” in the allegory.