The president's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, is organising a scheme for every child in his state to read the book. The Mission America Coalition is 'inviting church leaders around the country to consider the fantastic ministry opportunity presented by the release of this film'.

(Are the children of single mothers in special need of the word?) And a Kent parish is giving away £10,000 worth of film tickets to single-parent families. Even the Methodists have written a special Narnia-themed service. The Christian radio station Premier is urging churches to hold services on the theme of The Gospel According to Narnia. But then, that is also deeply faithful to the book's own arm-twisting emotional call to believers.ĭisney is deliberately promoting this film to the religious - it has appointed Outreach, an evangelical publisher, to promote the Christian message behind the movie in British churches. By the end, it feels profoundly manipulative, as Disney usually does. But from its opening scenes of the bombing of their Finchley home in the blitz and the tear-jerking evacuation from their mother in a (spotlessly clean) steam train, there is an emotional undertow to this film that tugs on the heart-strings from the first frames. The four English children and their world are all authentically CS Lewis olde England. It is beautiful to look at and wonderfully acted. This new Disney film is a remarkably faithful rendition of the book - faithful in both senses. Narnia is a strange blend of magic, myth and Christianity, some of it brilliantly fantastical and richly imaginative, some (the clunking allegory) toe-curlingly, cringingly awful. It was JRR Tolkien who converted CS Lewis to Christianity during one long all-night walk that ended in dawn and revelation. How suitable that one fantasy saga should follow on from the other, despite the immense difference between the writings and magic worlds of these two old Oxford dons.

Only Harry Potter has outsold these well-loved books' 85 million copies. CS Lewis's seven children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia, will be with us now and for many Christmases to come. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens this week to take up the mantle left by The Lord of the Rings. Christ is risen! However, not many British children these days will get the message. A slan the lion shakes his mighty mane and roars out across Narnia and eternity.

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