LWW finished

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Special Edition

 
0.0
 
9.3 (1)
958 2 1
Faneditor Name:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2005
Original Running Time:
143 minutes
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
148 minutes
Time Cut:
0 minutes
Time Added:
5 minutes
Subtitles Available:
Available in HD:
Synopsis:
Takes the theatrical cut Blu-ray as the main source and adds most of the deleted and extended scenes exclusive to the Extended Edition DVD, adjusted to match the native HD footage as best as possible. Only a few seconds have been removed, this is still largely the same film that introduced many to the magical land of Narnia.
Intention:
As the initial entry in Walden Media's trilogy adapting the first three books of C.S. Lewis' classic children's fantasy series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a childhood favourite of mine and I continue to enjoy watching it nearly twenty years later.

There was therefore very little of the theatrical cut that I felt needed to be changed, that view was not altered when I first saw the official Extended Edition about a year ago: I found this interesting, but it's only available in standard definition and there were a few scenes that I felt ran a little too long.

This slight scaling-back of the Extended Edition represents my personal ideal version, the upcoming edits of the sequels however will involve substantial trimming down!
Additional Notes:
A much more involved edit (working in collaboration with TomH1138) is currently in the works, aiming to conform the film to the original book as closely as possible (see the thread for “C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). Not sure when this will be ready, hopefully this won't be any later than the 20th anniversary of the premiere in December 2025!
Special Thanks:
Many thanks to TomH1138 for both acting as a sounding board and helping me kick off the trilogy edits in general, and to theomega for previewing and offering advice.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
• Only two deletions were made (compared to the theatrical cut), short “Captain Obvious” lines that spelled out things already clear both to the audience and the characters.
• A little over 7 minutes extra footage was available, of which nearly 5 minutes was used (the total runtime of the Extended Edition DVD cut corrected to 24 FPS is 150 minutes). I felt the rest was not worth including, interrupting the flow of the film by making scenes go on for a beat too long.
• The extra footage was colour-graded and upscaled to better blend in with that from the theatrical cut Blu-ray. To avoid the waxy look this can incur, the higher resolution image was added at 50% opacity over the original with a layer of grain added too. I was initially surprised at how heavy the latter needed to be until I learned that the film (and its follow-up, Prince Caspian) was shot in Super 35, a “flat” process that has a frame area only about half of that you get when using anamorphic lenses.
• Extended scenes used the Blu-ray footage as much as possible, as several scenes contain multiple switches between sources I hope this isn’t too distracting.

Exported in Full HD with 5.1 audio.
Cuts and Additions:
• 0:00:00 Added fanedit disclaimer and personal plate.
• 0:03:21 Used extended scene of children saying goodbye at the station.
• 0:06:56 Added deleted scene of Lucy giving Edmund a soft toy on the train.
• 0:39:24 Added shot of the wardrobe “watching” the children as they play cricket, over an extra line from Peter as he is bowling.
• Did not use the extended version of the children running from the MacReady.
• Did not use extended version of the children walking through the snow to Mr Tumnus’s house and making snow angels.
• 0:46:16 Cut Lucy’s “It’s a beaver!”
• Did not use an extra 27 seconds of Mr Beaver walking with the children through the snow.
• 0:48:12 Added extended approach to the Beavers’ home, including Lucy seeing the fish frozen beneath the ice (removed a couple of shots of Lucy that were very-obviously chroma-keyed, thanks theomega for suggesting this).
• 0:54:13 Added extended scene of Edmund wandering through the White Witch’s courtyard.
• 0:59:53 Included extended scene of the wolves tearing apart the Beavers’ home, felt that it added tension and made the escape more believable.
• 1:18:31 Cut Susan’s “What have you done?!”
• Did not use Extended Edition version of the stone bridge scene, (which only changed the background for shots facing the children) as I felt this to be minor, so opted to keep the native HD footage.
• 1:19:32 Added the deleted scene of winter melting into spring.
• 1:34:03 Added the extended training scene, Susan now shoots twice and there's a little more swordplay.
• Added nearly all the extra battle scenes, although it is covered extremely briefly in the book I felt that it could stand more fleshing out onscreen.
o 1:54:05 The White Witch sends up her own flying creatures to meet the griffons.
o 1:56:23 Shot of the rhino ramming a minotaur.
o 1:59:18 Extended scene with the phoenix.
o 2:01:43 The creature that brings down the rhino is seen slightly more clearly, looks less like it just tripped and fell.
o 2:01:59 Oreius’ fight with the minotaur is longer.
o 2:04:26 An extra shot of the griffon diving towards the Witch.
o Did not use the deleted scene of Ginnabrik intercepting Edmund, felt that this broke the tension at a key moment.
LWW-finished-1-12-1714371647
Faneditor Name:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2005
Original Running Time:
143 minutes
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
148 minutes
Time Cut:
0 minutes
Time Added:
5 minutes
Subtitles Available:
Available in HD:
Synopsis:
Takes the theatrical cut Blu-ray as the main source and adds most of the deleted and extended scenes exclusive to the Extended Edition DVD, adjusted to match the native HD footage as best as possible. Only a few seconds have been removed, this is still largely the same film that introduced many to the magical land of Narnia.
Intention:
As the initial entry in Walden Media's trilogy adapting the first three books of C.S. Lewis' classic children's fantasy series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a childhood favourite of mine and I continue to enjoy watching it nearly twenty years later.

There was therefore very little of the theatrical cut that I felt needed to be changed, that view was not altered when I first saw the official Extended Edition about a year ago: I found this interesting, but it's only available in standard definition and there were a few scenes that I felt ran a little too long.

This slight scaling-back of the Extended Edition represents my personal ideal version, the upcoming edits of the sequels however will involve substantial trimming down!
Additional Notes:
A much more involved edit (working in collaboration with TomH1138) is currently in the works, aiming to conform the film to the original book as closely as possible (see the thread for “C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). Not sure when this will be ready, hopefully this won't be any later than the 20th anniversary of the premiere in December 2025!
Special Thanks:
Many thanks to TomH1138 for both acting as a sounding board and helping me kick off the trilogy edits in general, and to theomega for previewing and offering advice.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
• Only two deletions were made (compared to the theatrical cut), short “Captain Obvious” lines that spelled out things already clear both to the audience and the characters.
• A little over 7 minutes extra footage was available, of which nearly 5 minutes was used (the total runtime of the Extended Edition DVD cut corrected to 24 FPS is 150 minutes). I felt the rest was not worth including, interrupting the flow of the film by making scenes go on for a beat too long.
• The extra footage was colour-graded and upscaled to better blend in with that from the theatrical cut Blu-ray. To avoid the waxy look this can incur, the higher resolution image was added at 50% opacity over the original with a layer of grain added too. I was initially surprised at how heavy the latter needed to be until I learned that the film (and its follow-up, Prince Caspian) was shot in Super 35, a “flat” process that has a frame area only about half of that you get when using anamorphic lenses.
• Extended scenes used the Blu-ray footage as much as possible, as several scenes contain multiple switches between sources I hope this isn’t too distracting.

Exported in Full HD with 5.1 audio.
Cuts and Additions:
• 0:00:00 Added fanedit disclaimer and personal plate.
• 0:03:21 Used extended scene of children saying goodbye at the station.
• 0:06:56 Added deleted scene of Lucy giving Edmund a soft toy on the train.
• 0:39:24 Added shot of the wardrobe “watching” the children as they play cricket, over an extra line from Peter as he is bowling.
• Did not use the extended version of the children running from the MacReady.
• Did not use extended version of the children walking through the snow to Mr Tumnus’s house and making snow angels.
• 0:46:16 Cut Lucy’s “It’s a beaver!”
• Did not use an extra 27 seconds of Mr Beaver walking with the children through the snow.
• 0:48:12 Added extended approach to the Beavers’ home, including Lucy seeing the fish frozen beneath the ice (removed a couple of shots of Lucy that were very-obviously chroma-keyed, thanks theomega for suggesting this).
• 0:54:13 Added extended scene of Edmund wandering through the White Witch’s courtyard.
• 0:59:53 Included extended scene of the wolves tearing apart the Beavers’ home, felt that it added tension and made the escape more believable.
• 1:18:31 Cut Susan’s “What have you done?!”
• Did not use Extended Edition version of the stone bridge scene, (which only changed the background for shots facing the children) as I felt this to be minor, so opted to keep the native HD footage.
• 1:19:32 Added the deleted scene of winter melting into spring.
• 1:34:03 Added the extended training scene, Susan now shoots twice and there's a little more swordplay.
• Added nearly all the extra battle scenes, although it is covered extremely briefly in the book I felt that it could stand more fleshing out onscreen.
o 1:54:05 The White Witch sends up her own flying creatures to meet the griffons.
o 1:56:23 Shot of the rhino ramming a minotaur.
o 1:59:18 Extended scene with the phoenix.
o 2:01:43 The creature that brings down the rhino is seen slightly more clearly, looks less like it just tripped and fell.
o 2:01:59 Oreius’ fight with the minotaur is longer.
o 2:04:26 An extra shot of the griffon diving towards the Witch.
o Did not use the deleted scene of Ginnabrik intercepting Edmund, felt that this broke the tension at a key moment.

User reviews

1 review
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0(1)
Audio Editing
 
9.0(1)
Visual Editing
 
10.0(1)
Narrative
 
9.0(1)
Enjoyment
 
10.0(1)
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Speaking as a fan of the source material, am still very pleased with the theatrical cut of this film. This adaption is a little on the tame side but understandable given the target audience. The Narnia films occupy a strange niche in its content, somewhere between a PG rating and PG-13. Not quite PG-13 content but a little more than you'd want to show young children. Some of the CGI is showing its age but overall, most of it still looks great, with a surprising amount of practical effects, sets, and costumes.

And this 'Special Edition' of the film? Fantastic! Edits were seamless and I didn't notice anything out-of-place. Had to really focus to notice differences in the film's quality between the native HD and the SD-upscaled extended footage. On the very rare occasion, the audio seemed a little too loud or soft, but that may be my imagination.

Taking it as it is, I'll just say it...this is the best version of the film possible, and I suspect--even with the upcoming Narnia reboots--that this will remain the best film adaption of the story. Highly recommended for fans!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched
Digital
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