Narnia

I saw the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe this past weekend. The movie was alright. Entertaining for the most part, although a little slow at times. Anyway, none of that is important. What is important is that as a fantasy fan (I grew up playing D&D and anybody that recognizes where my “Tanis” name is from knows what I mean) this movie serves up heaping doses of fantasy creatures left and right, all of which look better than anywhere they have previously appeared. The centuars looks amazing, the minotaurs ferocious, the satyrs fantastic and the griffons are the coolest fucking griffons I have ever laid my eyes on. The movie’s final battle is a fantasy buff’s wet dream. Man, I want a griffon of my own!!!

Surprisingly, the most impressive part of the special effects are not these amazing looking fantasy creatures, but the utterly believable real-world creatures that are rendered in the film - completely in CG. It is one thing to make a griffon look great, since ther are no real griffons to compare it to. But if you can convince the audience that you are watching a lion, wolf, or beaver talking on screen, you know you did a good job.

Here’s a little project for everyone. Go rent The Day After Tomorrow and look at the CG wolves in that movie. This is what bad CG animals look like. Now watch the wolves in Narnia. Wow. Impressive is not the world. And I really can’t say much about Aslan (the lion) except that he is one of the most impressive CG characters yet (right up there with Golem and King Kong).

Speaking of which, I can’t wait to see KK . . .