I recall absolutely loving LWW when I first saw it in the cinema on opening day, Boxing Day in Tasmania with several friends who I had done my best over several years at introducing them to Narnia.  I loved how for the most part it was a pretty faithful adaptation of the story and set up for what potentially could have been 6 more great films!  LWW was the only one of the Walden Media films that I saw more than once in the cinemas - I saw it twice.

As for PC - I won two double passes (from the local Christian radio station in Melbourne) to see a preview screening of it.  I don't really recall very much of my initial reaction to it, but I was probably a bit half-and-half about it - loved much of the film, but also disliked much of the significant changes they made in the film from the book (although I did understand it's probably harder to adapt than LWW).  My chief issue was with the introduction of Aslan in the film was so much different than in PC, and I really didn't like what they did to Peter and Caspian with that petty rivalry.  On the other hand, I loved the opening scenes (apart from the unnecessary fight at the train station) and how "real" parts of Narnia felt.

Regarding VDT - I came out of that film with rose-tinted glasses so to speak.  I was nearing the end of my first year of marriage, my wife was heavily pregnant with our first child and we were watching the film in gold-class cinema with luxury recliner chairs and food brought in when we wanted it.  Clearly the experience was enough to blur my judgement of the film in a positive way! So whilst I did notice the significant changes, they didn't really bother me the first time I saw the film, the main things that stood out to me were the things that were faithful to the book and the fact that we had another Narnia film to see.  After watching on DVD since then however, my judgement is more balanced.  It's a movie, but compared to the other two Walden Media Narnia films, in my opinion, I think it strays a bit from being a faithful Narnia film to almost being another story with "Narnia" tagged onto its name.  That said - I do love the bits that are faithful to the books.

Overall, I think the Walden Media films are three lovely films, to greater or lesser degrees feeling like Narnia.  If I am introducing someone to Narnia, other than of course first attempting to introduce them to the books, I would recommend the Walden Media films, but I'd recommend watching them alongside the BBC productions.

The first times I saw all the Walden Narnia movies were in cinemas. With the first two, I had a wonderful time. There were individual moments I disliked but the overall experience was breathtaking. 

With the third one, I went in with more trepidation. I knew some fans had really liked the movie and some had really disliked it. Normally, that wouldn't phase me, but I was haunted by the fact that the things the detractors of the movie had described were similar to the impressions I'd gotten from the clips and trailers. So I was mostly just relieved that the movie wasn't a complete disaster. It was definitely my least favorite of the three, but I could enjoy it well enough. However, on the way home from the theater, as I looked back on the movie, I felt like I could count more bad things about it than good things, so I became confused. Did I think the movie was OK or not? To be honest, I still haven't quite figured it out.  

I wish the movies were popular enough to get theatrical rereleases since I remember the cinema being the best way to view them. Or maybe that was just the joy of discovery since I was seeing them for the first time. But I can't help but think it was the moviegoing experience a little bit. 

@col-klink 

I remember viewing movies in the theater as the best experience ever.  It was especially true of the Narnia films.  There is usually nothing to distract you from the story in a darkened room. The picture size is much larger than on most television sets. It is a completely different experience from watching it on TV. The old fashioned way of watching movies is the best.

The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe would certainly qualify as an Easter movie with the resurrection of Aslan. But today there are so few films of that genre, and modern theaters don’t often show movies that are biblical themed. It isn’t like decades ago when there were films like Ben-Hur and The Robe. The attitudes of many of today’s movie goers have changed so that they are unlikely to be impressed by religious films or those based on books by Christian authors.  🙁

Leading up to the film, I had been really excited.  I downloaded all 3 trailers for the movie, watched them on a weekly basis and showed them to any friend who vaguely showed interest in the movie.  I was constantly visiting any website that had any information about the coming movie.

From memory the film (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) was releasing in most cinemas on Boxing Day in 2005.  I had booked tickets to go an see it with family and friends.  A small cinema in Perth was showing it on Christmas Eve, so after the half day in the office (Christmas Eve in the Perth office was always only a half day's work, which involved playing office-cricket and also playing Counter Strike on the office computer network - it was a really tough day of hard work), I walked to the cinema and got tickets to this showing that no one knew about.  I watched the movie that night with my friends.

Afterward, we stood in the cinema for about an hour excitedly discussing the movie.  You got to remember, that this was the first 'Narnia' production we had seen on any screen since the BBC productions in the  late 1980s / early 1990s.  It was a story - similar to the Lord of the Rings - that no one thought could be adapted to screen reliably because of the need for Visual Effects that were beyond what Hollywood studios had been capable of before the early 2000s.  I was so happy to see the movie adapted for the big screen with good acting.  Georgie Henley nailed it as Lucy, as did Skandar keynes as Edmund (and so did the other children - but I felt this story was more about Lucy and Edmund, so I was just happy that these two had done a great job).

We pulled apart the movie - what we liked, what we didn't like.  Everyone felt that it was a faithful adaption of the book - and showed a real love for the source material.  We had been nervous about Mr. Tumnus having an expanded role in the movie, but having seen it, we were all happy with those scenes.  Lucy and Tumnus were convincing as close friends.

There was some debate about the frozen waterfall scene.  It seemed unnecessary, but it was used primarily to develop Peter and Susan's character arcs (both of whom had their stories expanded upon in the movie).

I was on holidays during the Christmas / Summer period, so I saw that movie about once every couple of days in the cinema.  I bragged about the movie until my brother and sister in law decided to go to the movie, I dragged my parents to the movie, insisting that my mum (who read the books to me as a child) had to see it and generally evangelized this movie.

On first viewing, I really enjoyed Prince Caspian.  The dynamic between Peter and Caspian bugged me, but I had already read that Andrew Adamson wanted to explore the idea of "what would it be like to return to being a child after being a powerful king".  I appreciated that they had tried to give Peter and Caspian a more obvious character arc (similar to Faramir from the Lord of the Rings movies).  Over time, this subplot bothered me more and more (though the castle attack scene has a really powerful ending that always moves me) and I struggle to give it any sort of pass.  I was also disappointed that large sections of the book had been left out (I loved the mystery as to "where are we" at the start of the book - which was rushed, I loved Caspian's backstory - which was cut, I loved all the sections where the kids struggle in the overgrown forests - which was cut and I love Lucy meeting Aslan and needing to follow him whatever the other's do - which was also cut.  Given that scenes needed to be added to fill the runtime, I was disappointed at how little interest the film makers seemed to have in the original story (the mystery and Caspian's backstory, on their own, make up ~45% of the book's contents - this is a huge amount of material to drop).

I enjoyed The Voyage of the Dawntreader on first viewing.  It came out during the 3D Cinema craze and I liked seeing the Dawntreader in 3D.  Will Poulter was and remains my favorite element of the movie - he totally becomes Eustace.  Reepicheep and Caspian were good; they felt like the characters from the book for the most part.  The other characters did not feel like they are the same as their book counterparts (Edmund was different, Lucy was different).  The changes did bother me.  The scene where the Pirates capture our heroes felt too generic (it was exactly the same as every other movie coming out at that time, they could have just kept it the same as the book).  I did not see the need to have Lord Bern in prison, or the green mist.  The attempt to make the story less episodic and more, one continuous story, did not feel like an improvement.  At the end of the movie, I enjoyed myself but felt flat.  On repeated viewing, it was much the same; I always came away feeling like, "it ain't bad, but I don't feel how I feel whenever I read the book".

I've shared my story on this topic multiple times here, usually to the horror and dismay of Walden fans, so I'll keep it short. Went to see the first film with high hopes and expectations of greatness and was utterly, crashingly disappointed. Nothing wrong with it in terms of acting, costumes, scenery, special effects etc. But they changed so much of the dialogue that it didn't feel right, and none of the added scenes (things that weren't in the book) improved the story at all, and — most unforgivably — Aslan came across to me as pretentious, unconvincing, and incredibly ugly.

For all those reasons, I couldn't bring myself to watch either of the two sequels, which is why I never comment on them. And more recent attempts to watch LWW have not improved my opinion of it one bit. It is, to me, simply not Narnia. End of story. 

@courtenay 

I don’t have any issues with the way Aslan looks or with his voice as portrayed by Liam Neeson. I thought that they changed too much of the story especially in the second and third Walden films. But I wouldn’t criticize the films too much because they did get some scenes right, e. g. where Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus in the first film and the beginning of Prince Caspian in which the Pevensies arrive at an abandoned Cair Paravel. They resemble the books in some ways that are not so obvious. I wish they had been closer adaptations not word for word but in events in the plot of each book.  I think each of the three films is quite watchable.  Although they are not the perfect Narnia they do provide a somewhat similar experience to the books. I see no reason to despise them completely.

Posted by: @narnian78

I see no reason to despise them completely.

And I see many reasons to despise them completely, as I keep explaining. (Or near completely — as I said, there's nothing bad about the acting and visuals, at least in the one I've actually seen.) And neither of us is right, and neither of us is wrong... it's just a matter of opinion and taste, that's all. 

I remember my first impression was that they overwhelmed me in the best possible way.  8 year old me really looked up to Peter especially (until the second film when they ruined his character).  I do remember making notes comparing to the BBC adaptations and keeping track of how they did each scene, how they diverged from the book and wishing for certain things to one day be portrayed like the book in a future adaptation!  I especially loved the music, and the chemistry between the actors.  

I was definitely annoyed by some of the changes even at a young age but they still got the spirit of the books right I think (at least the first film did).  As I got older I found myself getting a little more critical of them and finding that the writers' understanding of CS Lewis' ideas tended to be surface level a lot of times.  That said, they still have a place in my heart, warts and all, and give me that cozy nostalgic feeling that some people older than myself get from the BBC adaptations.  

I actually remember anticipating for the first Walden film to come out when at the time, I was fairly new to Narnia (I have seen the animated LWW and the BBC LWW then as well, when they were the only screen adaptation at the time). My first impression was that it was an impressive movie, though not done perfectly (which, in all honesty, I don’t think any of them were done perfectly).

I enjoyed all three of the movies, though as I’ve said before, I kind of preferred the first two to the third. LWW didn’t stray too far from the book which I personally deserves a lot of credit for that (you can agree or disagree). Although PC is a close second or third favorite book, I wasn’t as mad that there were changes (except for the changing of Peter and Susan’s characters and the Caspian and Susan romance, and we know how we all felt about that as Narnia fans). But I still thought it was a good movie, taking an otherwise difficult book to adapt and making it work (for the most part). VDT was more of a hit-miss, mostly a miss. There were decent elements, like the design of the Dawn Treader, the expansion of Eustace as a dragon, and even the Pauline Baynes illustration in the end credits was a nice touch. But overall, the changes made were just too much, especially with the unnecessary green mist plotline (which wasn’t even from the book). And yes, I know some changes have to be made when adapting a book, but changing the entire plot and theme of the book isn’t something I always agree with.

LWW - I remember really loving it when i first saw it in theaters, would've rated it 10/10. Second time i saw it (on DVD), rated it more like 8/10. Third viewing, which i think happened a significant amount of time later, i rated it 5/10. I don't think my opinion would be much better now. I won't deny it's pretty book-accurate, in that there aren't any major plot swerves or new characters added or anything, but somehow it does most of those things in ways that don't convey the same theme or feeling as was in the book. I didn't love their take on Aslan, but honestly it was things with the Pevensies that bugged me more, probably just because they're in it more.

PC - I remember at some point in the film having the disbelieving thought that this was supposedly based on the book. I remember having a lengthy conversation with my sister about it afterward, though i don't really remember whether we disagreed, or if we were on the same page and just trying to sort out our thoughts and feelings on it. I think my opinion on it improved slightly afterwards, in that i thought it was a decent enough movie, but as an adaptation i don't care for it.

VotDT - Despite my feelings on PC, i was willing to give this one a shot, until i heard about the changes and the disappointing reviews coming in. So i've never seen this one.

@arin 

I think they could have made Aslan into a more central character as he was in the book. I thought his voice was good enough as it was portrayed by Liam Neeson (he has narrated other programs such as Nature on PBS) and he is pleasant to listen to.  But he is kept in the background too much whereas in the books he is more of a dominating figure as he should be. With today’s technology he looked convincing enough and was no need to place him in the background. He is the most important character in the books, and he should have been that in the movies as well. That could have been a major improvement for a much better film.

I think my first reaction to the Walden LWW was largely one of disappointment.

Throughout the production period they had really been hyping up the comparisons to Lord of the Rings, and I was therefore expecting something on the same level of Oscar-worthy all-time-greatness 

Thus it was kind of a downer to find out it was just an ok, middle-of-the-road, average studio blockbuster type of thing. 

I've maybe ever so slightly warmed to it over time.

I found Walden's LWW a bit tedious, though I appreciate it was largely faithful to the book. I don't mean to disrespect Tilda Swinton but I was never a fan of her portrayal of Jadis.

Prince Caspian felt like it was just one drawn-out battle and Dawn Treader I can barely remember (though I do like how they entered the painting in the study).

I still believe that, despite lack of special effects and a lower budget, the BBC evoked the Narnia of Lewis's books. I was hoping Greta Gerwig's films might have the feel of Pauline Bayne's illustrations, though I am doubting that now and at some point will probably ignore film versions and just stick with the books. 

@bluestarrr 

The painting in the study and how the children enter it was one of the better parts of the Dawn Treader movie. I think it could have been a much better movie if the plot had been closer to the book. Will Poulter as Eustace was much like Lewis' character. It could not have been an epic film like The Lord of the Rings, but it could have been much better than what it was. In fact none of the three movies could have been equal to Peter Jackson's trilogy. As it was I enjoyed some parts of Dawn Treader, but other deviations such as the Green Mist kept it from being a great Narnia film. I still believe that the Walden films were at least partially successful, and they sometimes would get certain things right. And that is why I still enjoy watching them for the better portions that they offer.