The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) on Netflix

PG20052h 23mAdventure Family Fantasy

Evacuated from London in the war, the Pevensie children stay with Professor Kirke. Lucy finds a wardrobe that opens into Narnia, a land the White Witch keeps in endless winter.

Netflix3.9/5
IMDb6.9/10462,388 votes
Rotten Tomatoes75%

Trailer

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Plot summary

With London under air raids in the Second World War, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are sent to the countryside home of Professor Digory Kirke. While the children play, Lucy hides in a wardrobe and finds it leads to Narnia, a snowy country where the White Witch Jadis has ruled that winter lasts forever and Christmas never comes. A faun, Mr. Tumnus, greets her, tells her where she is, and sends her back; at the house, hardly any time has passed. Lucy goes through the wardrobe again, and Edmund follows. Peter and Susan enter later, and the four children meet talking beavers who speak of Aslan, the lion who is Narnia's true king, and of a prophecy that humans seated on the thrones of Cair Paravel will bring the Witch's reign to an end.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

The filmmakers asked permission to bring twelve reindeer into New Zealand to pull the White Witch's sledge but were denied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, citing the potentially deadly Q fever, although ten wolves and wolf hybrids were allowed in for filming; Mark Rappaport's Creature Effects, Inc. created four animatronic reindeer instead.
Because Weta Workshop had designed Narnia's creatures for digital rendering, effects artist Howard Berger's team had to spend three months reworking the designs into practical animatronics, and it was Berger's own children who suggested changing the White Witch's wig from black to blonde because it looked too Gothic.
Brian Cox was originally cast as the voice of Aslan on 9 December 2004, but director Andrew Adamson changed his mind; Liam Neeson then sought out the role himself and was announced as the voice on 17 July 2005.
Casting director Pippa Hall remembered she had cast Moseley as an extra in Cider with Rosie (1998), which is why he got the part; he beat 3,000 boys to the role of Peter and quit school to learn all his lines.
The film inspired the song “Lazy Sunday”, also known as “The Narnia rap”, by the Lonely Island and Chris Parnell: released as a comedy sketch in a 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live, it is a spoof of hardcore rap songs in which Parnell and Andy Samberg rap about going to see The Chronicles of Narnia at an afternoon matinee.
Casting the four Pevensie children took Andrew Adamson through 2,500 audition tapes and in-person meetings with 1,800 children, with 400 of them workshopped, before he settled on the final four actors.
A scene where several creatures were set on fire was reportedly cut from the finished film specifically so it could secure a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.