Back in January, Disney executives invited a few Christian leaders to California to view early clips of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” a tale of giants and talking fauns, an endless winter and a hero who is more than he seems.
Paul McCusker listened with anticipation and some unease. How would Disney handle the Christian themes woven into the C.S. Lewis classic?
Director Andrew Adamson did not mention religion in his remarks. He didn’t have to. He simply said he intended to stay true to the source material.
To McCusker, a vice president at Focus on the Family, it was brilliant and shrewd: clinching the support of the church crowd while not alienating audiences uninterested in seeing a “Christian” movie.
While Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” delivered a religious message with all the subtlety of a lash to the back, the first installment in what could be a film franchise of the seven- book “Chronicles” arrives with much more nuance.
The first book, written in 1950 by an Irish former atheist who became an Anglican and Christianity’s pre-eminent apologist, uses fantasy to tell a story of good versus evil, betrayal and sacrifice in a fallen world, all built around the character of the great lion Aslan, a Christ figure.
The $150 million film is a joint production of Disney and Walden Media, a film company headed by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Talks of “deeper magic”?
What remains to be seen is whether promoters’ marketing strategy targeting churches will do more than boost ticket sales.
Will it prompt a discussion about “deeper magic,” the term Lewis used to suggest God was at work in his magic kingdom? Will the Christian message shine through? Will churches use the movie to proselytize?
“I am alarmed by those who want to turn the film into a strictly evangelistic experience, which I don’t think Lewis intended,” said McCusker, who oversees product development for the Colorado Springs evangelical Christian ministry. “But I’m also alarmed by those who think it needs some sort of surgeon general’s warning: ‘Christian content might be hazardous to your brain.”‘
“Narnia” tie-ins
The commercial success of “The Passion” opened Hollywood’s eyes to the marketing power of building grassroots excitement in churches. Consider the faith-based “Narnia” tie-ins:
Motive Marketing, the Christian public-relations firm credited for generating church buzz for “The Passion,” was hired to do the same for “Narnia.”
An evangelical Christian company, Outreach Inc., is offering churches “Narnia” devotionals, sermon series, door hangers and bulletin inserts. Churches and other groups can buy tickets for special showings Dec. 8, the eve of the film’s release.
Promoters are granting pastors sneak peeks of extended footage to build word of mouth among churchgoers. Colorado Springs-area pastors and ministry leaders got one last week.
Dennis Rice, Disney’s senior vice president of publicity, said that outreach to the religious community accounts for just 5 percent of the marketing budget and that Disney is reaching out to all fans of the book.
He would not answer questions about whether the film omits any of the book’s Christian references.
“Lewis would say he didn’t write a Christian book,” Rice said. “As a result, we’re not writing a Christian movie. That isn’t to say lots of people don’t find significant religious meaning in the storylines.”
The book follows the adventures of four young siblings who escape to the English countryside during World War II. Behind a wardrobe door, they discover a fantastical land where it is “always winter but never Christmas,” a lost world in need of redemption.
Allegory unintended
In the most obvious parallel to the Christian narrative, Aslan sacrifices his life to save one of the children and is resurrected.
But Lewis did not intend to write Christian allegory, said Paul Ford, a professor at St. John’s Catholic Seminary in Camarillo, Calif., and author of “Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Lewis believed that by telling a story, he could get past the “watchful dragons” that tell people how to feel about God or Jesus Christ.
Lewis wrote: “An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. … But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency?”
Ford said he hopes churches using the movie for evangelism do not give the uninitiated ways to decode meaning. Lewis wanted people to experience something, not be lectured, he said.
“These books are not Christian tracts,” Ford said. “They were written for everyone, and the Christianity in them is not like carbonation added to an artificial flavor. It’s Perrier. Better than that, it’s champagne. The Christian fizz is natural because Lewis’ Christianity is natural.”
As with “The Passion,” large evangelical Christian churches are at the forefront of incorporating “Narnia” into their programming.
Early screening sold out
In Highlands Ranch, it took one day for Cherry Hills Community Church’s student and singles ministry to sell out 820 tickets for an early “Narnia” screening. The Rev. Bob Beltz, the retired teaching pastor, preached on the themes of “Narnia” earlier this month. It is Anschutz’s home church, and Beltz is part of the Walden Media “Narnia” team.
In Parker, Southeast Christian Church leaders view “Narnia” as a way to spread the Gospel through children. On Dec. 4, a pizza dinner will feature the church drama team acting out a reading of the book.
“Kids are just so innocent,” said Donna Heintz, the outreach pastor. “They will easily invite friends to see this movie, and kids will see it several times. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble asking, ‘Do you get it? Do you know who Aslan really is?”‘
The congregation also ordered “evangelistic booklets” from Outreach Inc. The booklets, which carry a disclaimer that the content is not endorsed by Disney or Walden, teaches that just as the character Edmund needed Aslan to save him, young people need Jesus.
“Come into my life”
The booklet offers a prayer: “Jesus, I need you like Edmund needed Aslan. I’ve chosen wrong over right. I believe the Bible when it says you died for me. I need you, and today, I give myself completely to you and ask that you come into my life.”
There is, however, little evidence a movie can serve as an effective altar call.
A survey by Barna Research Group, which specializes in Christian polling, indicated that less than one-tenth of 1 percent of those who saw “The Passion” were moved to become Christian as a result.
Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote this month in the archdiocesan newspaper that while he could not endorse a movie he had not seen, the “Narnia” books hold power because they remind people that choices matter, suffering has meaning, sacrifice for the right things make a difference, heaven is real and God’s love is eternal.
Invitation declined
Chaput, who often writes about film and whose rave reviews for “The Passion” did not go unnoticed by the people promoting “Narnia,” declined an invitation to attend the film’s London premiere next month.
“It’s a very positive story, and every time we’re exposed to goodness and beauty, it touches the human heart and draws us toward goodness and beauty,” Chaput said in an interview. “Sometimes, people find allegories and stories more attractive. I don’t think it’s direct evangelism. It’s a story that is full of (Lewis’) own Christian spirit.”
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-820-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
