The Cheezy Blog

Really quite a cool movie about magnetic fields. It’s hard to tell at first if it’s animated or some cool effect NASA have managed to produce.

I Loved the book and the cartoon when I was little and I have fond memories of the BBC drama. So I was looking forward to this hollywood outing into CS. Lewis’s fantasy realm of Narnia. I need not go into the premise, and the director, Andrew Adamson has managed to avoid adding or changing anything too badly.

The cinematography is polished, with some truly spectacular visuals. The acting is a bit wooden in places, but ironicly the younger children give fine performances, and Tilda Swinton really works well for the White Witch. The battle scene is well done, you really do get a sense of the fight, and the scale of it is enormous. Far gone from the BBC dramatisation that felt like a few people fighting in a cave.

I don’t think this would appeal to adults beyond those who know and love the books, it’s very much a childrens story, but it still manages to spark the imagination and tells the story excellently. I can wholeheartedly recommend.

4 / 5

Well I watched this with a hint of trepidation, I must admit I’m not a great fan of this kind of film and, while I found The Nightmare Before Christmas quite enjoyable, that was many years ago. So I wasn’t expecting much from this somewhat short (76 minutes) Tim Burton film, in fact I was expecting it to be pretty dire. I was pleasantly surprised.

The basic premise of the film is that Victor Von Dort (Jonny Depp) a young Nuevo Rich gentlemen is set to marry a girl (Emily Watson of Equilibrium fame) from a formerly wealthy family of the aristocracy. The wedding is to take place for the sake of both families parents, as opposed to any feelings for one another. The whole thing goes horribly wrong when Victor manages to find himself accidentally married to a corpse.

The film is a rather entertaining, if oddball affair, it is primarily a musical, but the songs seemed almost half-hearted compared to some of Burton’s other creations, and certainly didn’t seem to add much to the film. The animation is excellent, in some cases I couldn’t really work out where the puppets ended and the computers began. The voice acting by Depp is adaquate, although he’s not really one for emotions, which I think the Victor character could have done with more of.

All in all it was an entertaining fare. It certainly pushes no boundaries in cinematography or story telling, but I found it a good watch.

3 / 5