Book or Movie - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

There is much excitement building as the day approaches for the premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia presentation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I can hardly wait! I was at my friend Kathie's house last night. Our conversation had been somewhat peaceful being that there were eight kids in the house, and without realizing it had built to a crescendo as the kids had entered the room and made more and more noise. Kathie mentioned that read-alouds were somewhat like that at her house - how she starts reading in a normal, relaxed voice, and then it builds. I got curious, and asked what she was currently reading aloud - and she said The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! I was so excited because I am too. I don't like my children to see a movie typically unless we've read the book beforehand, especially if it is a classic book. This opens the door for much discussion about what was good, bad, different between the two. I think this is an opportunity for critical thinking together as a family. Sometimes, it makes us all sad that we went to see the movie - because it totally changes the pictures we had in our imagination of characters, etc. Sometimes producers leave things that we feel are very important COMPLETELY out of the movie version, and it is hard to reconcile why such choices are made. Often we feel as if the work that was done, was untrue to the book author's actual story. I will say that the trailer for this movie looked absolutely captivating, and because C.S. Lewis' stepson was involved in production, I am very hopeful that this will be a great movie. I am also excited about the potential for allegorically spreading the gospel!