The Narnia Skirmishes

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/movies/13narnia.html

[The New York Times] November 13, 2005--Disney's new feature film, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," spends a good deal more time than C.S. Lewis's beloved children's book on the climactic battle between the forces of the sinister White Witch and the army of Aslan, the supernatural lion. The movie of course has the benefit of studio bean counters and recognizes that this could be the mother of all screen battles - not just your basic struggle of good and evil but a $200 million smackdown between the religious right and godless Hollywood, between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and, for that matter, between Aslan and King Kong, a resurrected version of whom opens in a movie of his own a few days after "Narnia" does next month. The great philosophical debate of my childhood was: Who is stronger, King Kong or Mighty Joe Young? In the Kong-Aslan matchup, Aslan, a Christ figure, would seem to have the advantage of omnipotence, but that's not to say he will prevail at the box office.