Subjective camerawork is used quite a lot in this film as audience involvement is important towards fantasy genre to make the story believable. In this scene, the audience are greeted to a frame of reindeers and the familiar sound of jiggle bells, which are normally, connected to (every child’s favourite hero) Santa Claus. However, the sound effect of whipping breaks the positive connotations. I believe there has been too much use of CGI in this scene as the running reindeers seem to look unrealistic due to their head movement and appearance.
The audience are aware that the Narnia world is made up of protagonist fantasy creatures such as a talking faun (Mr Tumnus), but during this scene we meet the antagonists: a dwarf and the White Witch. The tilting medium long shot of the White Witch with her black eyes and white, cold draped fur, indicates she is the antagonist. Her appearance follows the stereotypical villain character as she looks emotionless and serious.
However, their dialogue, costume and props make these fantasy creatures real and believable as they interact with the children characters so acting is also key.
Also, the medium close up two shot between the White Witch and Edmond becomes rather iconic as this moment shares every child’s dream. The close up of the Witch’s hand dropping magic potion onto the snow and the Edmond’s eye match of a goblet of hot chocolate and Turkish delight appearing seems to fascinate the child audience. This level of magic allows the audience’s imagination within this Narnia world to be extremely high and fulfils the child’s dream of getting anything they want.
In the film commentary, it was discussed by the director that being friends with so called magical creatures within big epic scenes can be technically challenging, but what’s really difficult is capturing true genuine human emotion.
The talking beavers (Mr and Mrs Beaver) become believable and comical characters due to CGI and dialogue (as they have human personalities and characteristics). The mise en scene of the Beaver’s house was to scale, which was said to be extremely difficult to film in as everything was at beaver scale. It was described to have an ‘
This scene is where the beavers reveal the prophecy to the children and a panning medium long shot of the children’s reactions suggest their shock. The colours of orange and red seem to be amplified here as a sudden sign of hope and glory for Narnia. Words such as “Two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve are to defeat the White Witch and restore peace to Narnia”. However, the children reply “We aren’t heroes. We are just from Finchley”. This becomes a stereotypical element within fantasy genre as ordinary people become the heroes within the plot. This makes the film so fascinating to watch as the audience can witness their journey towards the climax.
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