Book Review - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Part of the Narnia series, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was written by C.S Lewis. It is the second book in the series but they were not released in chronological order. This particular book is the most famous of the Narnia series and was also eventually made into a movie.

The book tells a tale of four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, who are rushed out of London during the Blitz of World War II, in 1940. They are sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke, who owns a large house on the countryside of England. One day they decide to play a game of Hide and Seek in the huge house, and Lucy hides in a Wardrobe which leads to a magical world called Narnia, she returns to tell her 3 older siblings but none of them believe her until Edmund also find his way into Narnia and associates himself with the white witch, who rules over the land and keeps it locked in an eternal winter, but one in which Christmas will never come. Eventually all four children find their way into the wardrobe and they are told of a prophecy in which two ‘Sons of Adam’ and two ‘Daughters of Eve’ fill the thrones at Cair Paravel and bring the return of the true ruler of the land, Aslan the Lion. The children then find themselves caught up in the battle against the White witch when the citizens of Narnia take them for the prophesized Sons and Daughters.

The book is written well, and the author really brings the world of Narnia to life through his use of language describing not only the landscape of the winter-locked land but the plethora of mythical creatures which inhabit it and the scenes of battle against the minions of the White witch. The interactions between the children are very believable, while their situation is by no means realistic the way that they react to it is very much so, when confronted with the betrayal of their brother the children are hurt and they find it difficult to forgive him but Lucy, the youngest, convinces them to rescue Edmund. It is argued that the main plotline of the novel is an analogy for the death of Christ, (Aslan) who is killed by the White Witch but is resurrected by the deepest of magic for his noble act of offering his life for another.

The novel is deeply emotional and touching while being exciting for its action and engaging on an intellectual level also, I would recommend this book for anyone, but especially a child of 12, as it was originally written for a younger audience.

Movie Advertising - Posters

Movie posters can be a very effective way to market movies to 'pre-teens' and are commonly used to promote movies. An excelent example of this is the print ad for Alex Rider: Stormbreaker an adaption of the novel by Anthony Horowitz.

The ad shows classic elements of a movie poster advertisement, it emphasises the title of the movie and the starring role of the film, using exciting and intriguing images as a back and foreground.

As stated above, the target audience is that of pre-teens (10-12 years old). This demographic possesses a desire to be seen as mature, this ad caters to this aspiration by placing a child of the same age as the group that is being targeted and portrays them in a role reminiscent of James Bond, a prestigious and thrilling position; in fact this ad makes the movie seem to be basically a James Bond Movie for kids, the tagline above the title is a perfect example of this ‘you’re never too young to die’. This makes Alex Rider the child that the target audience aspires to be, he is respected, he lives a life full of action, and he is attractive. The preteen audience would also be attracted to the movie because of its genre (action/thriller, spy subgenre), the life of a spy is seen as glamorous, and even appeals to an older audience (James Bond series for example).

The advert is made affective by techniques such as using vectors, reading paths and a salient object as well layering to create a foreground and background. The salient object in this image is Alex Rider himself, framed by the curved for and background edgings, he is coloured brightly so that he stands out from the muted background, and contrast is created by an illusion of light originating from behind the figure. Reading paths are created by the aforementioned framing of Alex Rider, as well as the obvious vector leading from the top right corner to the center figure, these lead the eye to the center and then to the title of the film. These techniques create emphasis on the main character, the theme of the movie and its title, making them the most prominent and therefore memorable features of the advertisement.