Ah, Narnia...

Well, I saw The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe over the weekend, and....it's everything it should be.
Yes, it's a kid's movie, and the scenes meant to be suspensful were a little lame to this mature sage of a 16-year-old. But it should be a kid's movie, and I know I would have been spell-bound just a couple of years ago.
As usual, I can't pointedly observe what I liked about the film, but my opinion on the few things I disliked are whelming my mind. So, with no further ado, my observations/complaints are as follows:
The film tries a bit too hard to be epic. A subtler approach, in my opinion, would have worked better. That was one thing that drew me to the 1989 BBC version (even with the costumed-human beavers and drawn animation creatures)--it wasn't overdone. They let the story just sort of flow, and it was all the more enchanting because of its subtlety. Of course, Disney promoted Wardrobe as an action-adventure flick, so I was expecting as much.
The White Witch is rather strange. Her hair and odd, hunch-back-forming gowns really perturbed my friends and I, and we didn't find her to be all that beautiful, as she is described in the books. She's also exudes a rather elusive sensuality, though nothing younger kids would pick up on.
Eck, speaking of sensual vibes, am I the only one who was weirded out by the Lucy-Tumnus (who were both perfectly casted, btw) relationship? There was almost this romantic undertone that really creeped me out. She's, like, what--6 years old? I'm probably just reading too much into it--which I tend to do--and no one else mentioned it, but I could see Disney deciding that if they make A Horse and His Boy, they could bring in a romance between the two. Eck. It's still waaay to early to bring that in.
(We now interrupt your regular program for a mid-post disclaimer--
I think I analyze too much--WAY too much. Which is why this post is beginning to rival my review of Eragon in length. Well, maybe not quite that long...)
The movie follows the book fairly closely, with just a few minor changes and one added suspense scene. The one difference I found to be of any import was Aslan. He wasn't the regal, awe-inspiring God-figure Lewis portrayed him as. I'm not all that into allegories and wasn't expecting a dogmatically Christian film, but the story lost some of its effectiveness with Aslan being more "chummy" (as one friend put it) than kinglike. It was hard to understand why the children were so attached to him after just a day or so of knowing him. There simply wasn't anything compelling about this supposedly princely lion.
This also spilled over to his sacrifice, which was less poignant than it should have been. Yes, it's noble for any one to die in the place of someone else, but the concept of a majestic king meekly dying for his servant is more powerful. It was an especially defined change considering the rest of the film, conspicuously the battle scenes, tried so hard to attain grandeur, while Aslan's death--which was kind of the core of the story--was somewhat barren.
Still, cheers to Disney for sticking to the book. Though there was an underlying fecklessness to Aslan, Wardrobe was nonetheless charming. I was amused by all the mythical creatures they included, some of which, like tauroses, I don't remember from the book. I look forward to seeing the rest of Narnia on the big screen.