(1979) Long before Disney's 2005 version hit movie theaters, this Emmy-award winner for Best Animated Special, was co-produced by Bill Melendez (known for A Charlie Brown Christmas and other Peanuts specials) and the Children's Television Workshop (known for Sesame Street and The Electric Company). This TV adaptation was based on the first tale of C.S. Lewis' acclaimed children's books, "The Chronicles of Narnia." When four children, Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund, pass through a special wardrobe closet, they discover the kingdom of Narnia, a land of talking animals and mythical creatures. But an evil witch's spell has cast Narnia into eternal winter. Fearing that an ancient prophecy has come true, and that the children are Narnia's chosen rulers, the witch tricks their youngest brother into betraying his family. Now, only Aslan, noble lion and King of the Woods, can help them defeat the witch, restore springtime to Narnia... and claim their rightful places on the throne.
Other tidbits about the Chronicles:
--A live-action BBC series was released in 1988 based on this and other Narnia books (Prince Caspian, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
--The complete list of the Chronicles of Narnia (in order of publish date) are:
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician’s Nephew (1955; chronologically, this is the first story of the series, explaining how Narnia came to be)
The Last Battle (1956)
--The Chronicles in order of the Narnia “timeline”: Magician’s Nephew, LWW, Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, Voyage, Silver Chair, Last Battle.
--Two different actors voiced the part of Mr. Beaver: Don Parker and Arthur Lowe, depending on area/region of release.
--Aslan is the only character to appear in all seven books
--Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional."
--Much more on C.S. Lewis here: http://cslewis.drzeus.net/bio/
[edit] since youtube is having playlist issues, here's the link to the rest here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=128B5EDB1A578BB8