Chronicles of Narnia-The Silver Chair (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Fantasy	Menu Animation & Audio Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	164:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alex Kirby
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Thwaites Camilla Power Tom Baker
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Geoffrey Burgon Malcolm Banthorpe Sarah Greenwood

    The Chronicles of Narnia conclude with the wonderfully imaginative The Silver Chair, sometimes my favourite of C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories. Although the seafaring adventures of Prince Caspian and his crew in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader provided a wonderfully broad canvas for storytelling, I found the scope and complexity of the realm most impressive in this final chapter. Some may yearn for the return of the four Pevensie children, replaced by their more often than not obnoxious cousin Eustace and Jill Pole, the plucky school friend. However, I cherished these stories as a primary school kid and read them numerous times in preparation for my assault on that book to end all books The Lord of the Rings - a hard-fought battle for a 12 year old if ever there was one.

    Turning to the quality of this, the last of the BBC's late 1980s/early 90s TV productions, I can only reiterate my comments in the last review. These are faithful adaptations of the letter of Lewis' prose but much of the charm that was present in the earlier productions seems to have drained away. In spite of the efforts of Camilla Power who gives Jill Pole some spunk and avoids the blandness of many child actors, I was still annoyed by David Thwaites' Eustace (perhaps that was the point, although he was meant to have grown up). The rest of the cast is solid but I kept waiting to be swept up in Lewis' world, only to be disappointed. It must be said, however, that children who've read the books, or who enjoy fantastical tales will probably find enough to enjoy to sit through the lengthy running time.

Video

    I was not exactly full of praise for the video quality of the DVD release of Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader so it was with some trepidation that I analysed this current disc. I was relieved to find however that, a few expected problems aside, this is a far better effort. Whether the improvement is owed to a couple of years of age I know not, but this is a nice looking transfer that, whilst not spectacular, will not be causing any headaches. All the episodes are presented in their correct, original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame and not 16x9 enhanced.

    Colours are well rendered - there is little colour bleeding or oversaturation and skin tones were excellent. Film artefacts are minimal, even less than the previous releases which is commendable.

    Sharpness isn't superlative but it is an improvement over previous episodes and only in some of the broader shots of the outdoors does one wish for greater clarity. Those evil spirits masquerading as ghosting and light drag occur far less frequently.

    Blacks are reasonably clean, although there are still some tinges of green in particular that are noticeable. There is some macroblocking but nothing disastrous.

    Overall, an improved effort and one of the better examples of what source material from the world of 1980s British TV should look like.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is again unremarkable, but serves the story well enough.

    We get a solitary English Dolby Stereo 2.0 track. The dialogue is well presented and easy to understand. As expected from a BBC production, pronunciation and clarity are excellent. Audio sync is not faultless but is not troubling either.

    There are a few moments of audio tap dancing but nothing that makes the track particularly difficult or annoying to listen to.

    After Geoffrey Burgon's composition of a haunting and eloquent title theme I was hopeful that the score would be memorable. Unfortunately, all we seem to get is different instrumental ensembles repeating that theme ad infinitum at varying speeds which does begin to grate on the ear after a while.

    The surround channels and subwoofer get very little to do.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Once again the solitary extra is a collection of 22 photographs that, whilst pleasant enough, are of little lasting value or interest.

    With the obvious PAL/NTSC differences taken into account I would definitely opt for the Region 4 release, which is identical in content and format to its Region 1 counterpart.

    The Silver Chair is a mildly entertaining adaptation of the wonderful last chronicle of Narnia.

    The video quality is good - certainly the best of the Narnia DVD releases.

    The audio is nothing more than serviceable.

    The extras are, as expected, extremely limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall