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31. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Battle for Narnia

“I have no interest in prisoners. Kill them all.”

If T2 ushered in the era of CG action, then Andrew Adamson’s 2005 adaptation of the C.S. Lewis classic showed how far we’d come. It took three special effects companies, one of which didn’t even exist when T2 was made, to complete this sequence, in which mythical and real creatures on both sides go all sickhouse on each other.

Ironically, with all the CG, some real world fertilization took place to make all that brown grass green. But an adroit mix of practical and computer-generated artifice is part of what makes this sequence work.

Another key element is the boundless imagination of the concept. Magical powers and old school war strategy intertwine. A phoenix becomes the equivalent of napalm. And who doesn’t want to see what happens when a minotaur takes on a centaur or a tiger takes on a leopard?

Adamson conjures some truly unforgettable images out of this conceit. Where else are you going to see a beaver in battle armor? And when Otmin whips out those two swords, it’s a real “Narnia! Fuck, yeah!” moment.

Tranfer’s pretty crappy, but just to get a sense…

See also: Mutant battle royale in X3, Jedi & clones vs. droids in Attack of the Clones, Ash & friends vs. army of darkness in Army of Darkness

Next: Foucan, Sebastien Foucan.