What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that the film has some sad, scary, and violent scenes for a PG film. The movie begins with a bombing during the Blitz in London. The children are separated from their mother, which could upset some younger audience members. There are other sad scenes where animals die -- including principle characters. A friendly fox is chased and caught by a pack of wolves, who also chase the children. A witch yells at a young boy, chains him in prison, and stabs him. She also abuses her servant, stabs her enemies with a sword that turns them to stone, martyrs the lion, and leads troops into battle. The children learn to fight, then engage in hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting; one sister shoots an enemy with an arrow. There is a pitched battle with deaths and grave injuries. While not overt, the movie includes Christian imagery (a martyred, Christlike lion, a rebirth from magic water) and allegorical storylines.

Families can discuss the bonds among the four siblings, as they comfort and provoke one another while away from their mother and fearful about the war. How is Narnia a fantasy born of this combination of supporting one another and concern about their future? How do the animals and creatures in Narnia represent different aspects of the children's daily lives -- their courage, fear, and desires? Families might also discuss the Christian iconography in the film.

Common Sense Media Review
Long and lush, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE makes a case for love among siblings by granting them a common enemy. The scariest scene comes at the start: a night sky is filled with smoke and warplanes. As the Germans bomb London during WWII, the Pevensie children scramble to the backyard bomb shelter. The eldest, Peter (William Moseley), becomes impatient when his brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) goes back for their father's framed photo. As they huddle in the underground shelter, the explosions and sirens fading into background noise, Peter harrumphs, "Why can't you just do as you're told?"

When their mother sends them off to live in the countryside, the boys and their sisters Susan (Anna Popplewell), and Lucy (Georgie Henley), are instructed not to trouble their host, Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent). While playing hide and seek, they discover the magical wardrobe that serves a portal to Narnia, a kingdom under the power of the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton). Here they also discover their own strengths, as they learn of a prophecy declaring their participation crucial to saving Narnia.

When 6-year-old Lucy first meets the faun Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy), her siblings won't believe her. But soon all four children have tumbled through the portal into Narnia and find they must rescue Edmond who has been enticed (and kidnapped) by the Witch.

While the Witch holds Narnia under a wintry sway, she dreads the return of Aslan the lion (voiced by Liam Neeson), the character C.S. Lewis endows with savior-like properties (although none of the Christian elements are obvious and a viewer could watch the movie without realizing any of this -- as with the book). The Pevensies come to understand themselves as chosen and their mission as saving the kingdom.