by tradition, most things made in the 80s i've seen have been pretty bad for this thing here bad acting, bad effects and a bad script all combine together to make an OK piece of film let's start with the acting. first of all the children are all completely miscast. Sophie Wilcox is far too old to play Lucy (she was 13/14 at the time and Lucy is meant to be 8 years old) and Richard Dempsey looked way too young (he looked almost younger than Lucy and Edmund). Jonathan Scott and Sophie Cook are passable as the other children. since these guys are children you expect the acting to be a little off but Richard Dempsey is easily the weakest of them. however poor the children might be they are blown out of the water by Barbara Kellerman playing the White Witch. if anyone has heard of the expression ham acting they will agree that she is the walking definition of it in this. not only does she overact to the point of being too bad to be funny she acts like her character has friggin bipolar disorder. the voice of Aslan speaks too slow and isn't nearly ferocious enough for a lion. the man playing Mr Beaver is just terrible too. i even hated him when i saw this as a six year old kid. don't worry, there are good actors in this. The Professor, the dwarf, Mrs MacReady, Mr Tumnus and a handful of extra characters are quite solid in their performances.
there are a number of shots you see in this which make you wonder what the editors were smoking when they kept them in. like when Mr Beaver tells them Aslan has come, there is a slow shot which shows all the children looking up at the sky; Mr Beaver laughs at a comment Edmund makes and he turns away and makes an incredibly stupid sulky folded arms look and when the stone table cracks Lucy shouts "they're doing something worse to him" and then she says "come on" but she hops on the spot for a good few seconds before saying this.
for effects, well this is the BBC so i'll be generous. they aren't as bad as you think aside from the fact that they have hand drawn animation mixed in with the live action. i guess it sort of works but it just adds to the silliness of the whole thing. of course one thing that CS Lewis himself hated was that all the animals are played by actors in costumes. as a result we have life sized beavers and ridiculous looking wolves. Aslan is played by a puppet and the effect for this is OK but you can still see the creases in the costume. one effect that does work is when Aslan turns the creatures back from stone. another is when they find a giant in the witch's castle, it looks very authentic.
the script probably is what makes the acting look worse than it really is. they keep much of the old fashioned dialogue used in the book, perhaps realising too late that it just looks silly and cheesy. it really should have been updated like both the Disney and cartoon versions did. you hear Peter saying expressions like "by golly" and "by Jove" mingled with his high pitched posh voice and it makes you cringe every time.
now let's move on to what's good about this series. first of all it is the most faithful of all the adaptations of the books. many scenes are done word for word from the book which can be good or bad, decide for yourself. second, as god awful as the White Witch's acting is, she has an excellent design and looks the part. the costume is very detailed. the battle scene is not as good as the cartoon and Disney versions but its still OK.
there are a number of shots you see in this which make you wonder what the editors were smoking when they kept them in. like when Mr Beaver tells them Aslan has come, there is a slow shot which shows all the children looking up at the sky; Mr Beaver laughs at a comment Edmund makes and he turns away and makes an incredibly stupid sulky folded arms look and when the stone table cracks Lucy shouts "they're doing something worse to him" and then she says "come on" but she hops on the spot for a good few seconds before saying this.
for effects, well this is the BBC so i'll be generous. they aren't as bad as you think aside from the fact that they have hand drawn animation mixed in with the live action. i guess it sort of works but it just adds to the silliness of the whole thing. of course one thing that CS Lewis himself hated was that all the animals are played by actors in costumes. as a result we have life sized beavers and ridiculous looking wolves. Aslan is played by a puppet and the effect for this is OK but you can still see the creases in the costume. one effect that does work is when Aslan turns the creatures back from stone. another is when they find a giant in the witch's castle, it looks very authentic.
the script probably is what makes the acting look worse than it really is. they keep much of the old fashioned dialogue used in the book, perhaps realising too late that it just looks silly and cheesy. it really should have been updated like both the Disney and cartoon versions did. you hear Peter saying expressions like "by golly" and "by Jove" mingled with his high pitched posh voice and it makes you cringe every time.
now let's move on to what's good about this series. first of all it is the most faithful of all the adaptations of the books. many scenes are done word for word from the book which can be good or bad, decide for yourself. second, as god awful as the White Witch's acting is, she has an excellent design and looks the part. the costume is very detailed. the battle scene is not as good as the cartoon and Disney versions but its still OK.