God is merciful. At least from my very imperfect sinner’s perspective, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a very serviceable adaptation that manages to capture some of the magic of the book.

I have really loathed the debate about how much Christianity is in the books and should be left in the movie. I attended Sunday school regularly but found these books on my own. I picked up A Horse and His Boy in the Forest Park School library in the 5th grade because I liked the title. I read all the books and loved them, although The Last Battle is so sad I only read it once. I was just a kid. The word allegory wasn’t in my vocabulary yet. I sobbed when Aslan is killed but only because I was enthralled by his character.

I’ve seen footage on CNN of kids sitting in megachurches while some preacher with a condescending tone in his voice explains to the poor little tykes that Aslan is just like Jesus, and I want to cry again. Please, parents and teachers, I beg you, just let the books be the books. Don’t drain the magic and joy out of them with many helpful guides to the books that are everywhere now. C.S. Lewis himself often insisted that the books are about magic and adventure. Reading deep meaning into them wasn’t what he wanted for them.

The movie can’t convey all the beauty, magic and joy in the book, but it sticks close enough to the story and has enough technical quality not to ruin any of the ideas and images in the book.

Four children (the Pevensies - Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) are sent out of London during World War II to the remote countryside for safety, to stay with an old professor and his housekeeper. The movie feels the need to create extra drama to this set up by making the father away fighting the war. Not trusting the dynamics between the sibs in the book, the movie adds extra tension between the brothers. Edmund thinks Peter should stop trying to pretend to be “like father” and not boss him around so much.

Also, the movie makes the kids rather cowardly. In the book, they are overjoyed to be sent to a big old rambling country house where they can do whatever they want, and when they get to Narnia they jump right into the adventure. In the movie they are frightened little things, too often second-guessing and wanting to “go back.” The performances by the actors playing the kids are all right; I just had trouble warming to them because of these differences.

Lucy (Georgie Henley) is the best and closest to what she should be, and this is important because it is Lucy who first slips into Narnia through the back of a gigantic wardrobe full of old fur coats during a game of hide-and-seek. The coats turn into a woods, and a whole snowy country opens up before her.

On her first visit, Lucy meets a faun named Tumnus. The half-goat half-man creature invites her to tea and then confesses he is a spy for the White Witch. Tumnus is to be on the lookout for any “Daughters of Eve” or “Sons of Adam,” since legend has it that four human children will save Narnia. That would end the reign of the White Witch who makes it “always Winter and never Christmas.” Narnia has seen 100 years of Winter, but all of that is about to change.

Edmund also makes it into Narnia, where he meets the White Witch and falls for her promises of endless sweets and a chance to be king. Edmund tells Peter and Susan he was just “playing games” with Lucy,and because the wardrobe is magic it isn’t always a portal into another world.

Eventually, through a contrivance much less amusing than the one in the book, all four siblings arrive in Narnia. Edmund betrays them, and to get him back, more than for the adventure, at least at first, the others join in the fight to save Narnia from the rule of the White Witch.

The White Witch is a formidable enemy. Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast as this fearful creature - a nasty mix of beauty, charm and complete lust for power. She lives up to every quality the witch has in the book.

But the children have a more powerful ally, Aslan, “the King, the Lord of the whole wood, the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.” There are things books can do that movies cannot. I described Aslan as he is in the book, and that is more evocative than what the movie musters (this is a movie that would benefit greatly from using more of the dialogue from the book). When Aslan asks the girls to ride on his back, the description in the book is thrilling. On film, it just looks like fun.

My biggest worry about this movie was that Aslan would be so inferior to the book that the film would collapse. And though some of the CGI effects in the movie are very so-so, Aslan is a triumph. He is a giant, gorgeous lion, and he doesn’t look phony or patched into the reality of the film (as some of the centaurs do, occasionally). He is voiced by Liam Neeson who gives Aslan rich tones and the right mix of authority, wisdom and, when it is needed, sadness.

I hope the enormous success of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe means that for any future films of the series will employ an ever more qualified production team, as has happened with the Harry Potter series. The Magician’s Nephew and especially The Voyage of the Dawn Treader could be truly spectacular films. In those books the ideas and imagery are breathtaking. Lord in thy mercy, hear my prayer.