You probably remember the snow. Or maybe that haunting, synthesizer-heavy soundtrack that felt a little too eerie for a Saturday morning. If you grew up in the late seventies or eighties, the lion witch and wardrobe cartoon wasn't just a movie; it was a fever dream that introduced an entire generation to C.S. Lewis. It didn't have the CGI polish of the Walden Media films or the cozy, slightly stiff BBC aesthetic of the live-action series. Instead, it had this raw, hand-drawn grit that made Narnia feel genuinely dangerous.
Produced by Children’s Television Workshop—the same geniuses behind Sesame Street—and directed by Bill Melendez, who was the definitive hand behind the Peanuts specials, this 1979 adaptation is a strange beast. It won an Emmy, yet it feels like a relic from a different world. Melendez brought a certain gentleness to Charlie Brown, but with Narnia, he leaned into the shadows.
The lion witch and wardrobe cartoon and the Melendez Touch
It’s easy to forget how much of a risk this was. Animation in 1979 was expensive, and translating a beloved literary masterpiece into a 95-minute special for CBS required cutting corners without losing the soul of the book. Melendez chose a style that was sort of "illustrated realism." It wasn't bouncy. It wasn't Disney. It was sharp, sometimes jagged, and honestly, a little bit frightening.
The character designs for the Pevensie children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—were notably "older" than they appeared in the books or later films. They looked like teenagers. This changed the dynamic. When Edmund betrays his siblings for Turkish Delight, it feels less like a child’s mistake and more like a calculated, bitter defection.
Interestingly, there were two different voice tracks for the lion witch and wardrobe cartoon. If you watched it in the United States, you heard the American cast. If you were in the UK, you heard British actors. This was a deliberate move to ensure the "Englishness" of Narnia didn't alienate American kids who weren't used to the accents back then. Sheila Hancock voiced the White Witch in the British version, and she was terrifying. She didn't scream; she hissed. It was the kind of performance that made you understand why a perpetual winter would be a nightmare.
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Aslan, the White Witch, and the Budget Constraints
Let’s talk about Aslan. In this version, Aslan looks... different. He’s huge, but his face has a strangely human quality that some find comforting and others find deeply "uncanny valley." Because the animation was done by the British studio TVC London, there’s a distinct European flair to the backgrounds. The Stone Table scene is particularly stark. In a modern movie, that scene is an epic orchestral moment. In the 1979 cartoon, it’s quiet. You hear the wind. You hear the snickering of the hags and the creatures of the night. It feels like a ritual, not a movie set.
The budget meant that the animators couldn't show a massive "Lord of the Rings" style battle. Instead, they used clever tricks. Lots of close-ups. Fast cuts. Shadows on walls. This actually worked in the film's favor. It forced the audience to use their imagination, which is basically the whole point of Narnia anyway.
Why it feels different from the books
While the script stays remarkably close to Lewis’s dialogue, the vibe is shifted. There’s a melancholy that permeates the lion witch and wardrobe cartoon.
- The music by Michael J. Lewis is almost prog-rock at times.
- The backgrounds look like watercolor paintings left out in the rain.
- The White Witch’s castle isn’t just icy; it’s oppressive and brutalist.
One of the biggest gripes fans had was the depiction of the creatures. Some of the "monsters" looked a bit like recycled designs from other 70s cartoons. But the sheer weirdness of them—the giant spiders and the bat-like things—added to the sense that Narnia was a place where human logic didn't apply. It wasn't a playground. It was a war zone.
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The Legacy of a 1970s TV Movie
Critics at the time were split. Some loved the faithfulness to the source material, while others found the animation "stilted." If you watch it today on a high-definition screen, you can see the cells vibrating. You can see where the paint wasn't perfectly dry. But that’s the charm. It has a soul.
The lion witch and wardrobe cartoon was actually the first feature-length animated film made for television. That’s a massive milestone. It paved the way for other high-concept animated specials. Without the success of this CBS broadcast, which pulled in huge ratings, we might not have seen the same investment in fantasy animation throughout the 80s.
Comparing the adaptations
When you look at the 1988 BBC version, it’s all about the costumes and the practical effects (which, let's be honest, haven't aged great—the Beavers look like people in plush suits). The 2005 movie is all about the scale and the "epic" feel. But the 1979 cartoon occupies a middle ground. It’s more atmospheric than the BBC version and more intimate than the Walden Media film.
There's a specific scene where Lucy first enters the wardrobe. The transition from the fur coats to the pine needles is handled with a simple cross-dissolve, but the sound design—that crunching of snow—is iconic. It captured the magic of discovery better than a $100 million CGI shot ever could because it focused on the sensation of the cold.
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Practical Ways to Experience Narnia Animation Today
If you’re looking to revisit this or introduce it to someone else, you have to manage expectations. This isn't Pixar. It’s an artifact of 1979.
- Seek out the DVD releases. Most streaming platforms don't carry the 1979 version consistently due to complex licensing between the C.S. Lewis estate and the production companies. The 2005 "Remastered" DVD is generally the best-looking version available.
- Listen for the voice cast differences. If you can find the British dub, compare it to the American one. It’s a fascinating look at how networks thought about "localization" forty years ago.
- Watch it for the art. Pay attention to the background art. The way they used light and shadow to depict the lamppost in the woods is genuinely beautiful and influenced how many readers visualized the scene for decades.
The lion witch and wardrobe cartoon remains a polarizing but essential piece of Narnia history. It wasn't trying to be a blockbuster; it was trying to tell a story about grace, sacrifice, and the end of a long winter. It did so with a strange, haunting sincerity that still resonates.
To truly appreciate this era of animation, look for the "making of" clips often shared by animation historians on platforms like YouTube. These snippets reveal the hand-painted cels and the massive effort required to bring Aslan to life without computers. Understanding the labor behind the frames makes the "clunky" movements feel much more like a feat of craftsmanship. If you want to dive deeper into the literary side, compare the 1979 script to the original 1950 manuscript. You’ll find that the animators often chose the most visual, "action-oriented" descriptions from Lewis's prose to guide their pens, proving that even back then, they knew Narnia was a world meant to be seen, not just read.