I just watched the nine minute mega trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--and I can’t wait to see this movie. I know that seemingly everyone else is excited about King Kong, but I just haven’t managed to build up any urge to see the towering monkey and an island of Jurassic Park rejects.

Give me talking beavers, a messianic lion, and Tilda Swinton’s turn as Jadis, though, and my little heart is all beating fast and happy. The extra-extra large trailer only made my ardor a little, ahem, more ardurous. For all my enthusiasm, I have to admit to a few worries (which, in the grand tradition of blogging, I will share with you whether you want me to or not).

1. Will the movie capture the magic of the books? My biggest problem with the Harry Potter movies is that they never fully captured that wild sense of a boy discovering a world of magic and danger. It isn’t special effects and it isn’t pretty speeches; the magic that transforms a book from dead text to a lifelong friend is something hard to define and even harder to capture. Will The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe manage the trick?
2. Special effects are a curious thing. I have sat through movies that were technical marvels or so lush and beautiful in their otherworldliness that it was almost unbelievable--and still never wanted to see those movies again. The Wizard of Oz had laughable special effects, but I will watch it whenever I get the chance. The original version of Star Wars looks clunky by today’s standards, but I will watch it whenever I get the chance. The last two Matrix movies, on the other hand, had special effects that were tremendous, but the story lost me.
   
   For that matter, sometimes directors reach a little too far in trying to make their visions come to life; it makes me wish for a time when directors realized that they couldn’t do absolutely everything. One of the oddest things about being a graphic designer is that moment where you realize that it isn’t a blank page filled with possibilities that makes a good design, it’s the limitations and requirements that force a creative solution. Without those boundaries, designs usually fail--they might be pretty, they might be impressive, but they are rarely compelling. It’s the boundaries (and learning how to push them) that makes designs good.
   
   Directors these days are like artists without boundaries. Which might go far in explaining why Chronicles of Riddick sucked and its inexpensive predecessor, Pitch Black was a small wonder. Directors, the lesson shall ever be: Thou shalt not put thy faith in special effects.
3. The most important worry that I have is this: will the g-phrase enjoy the movie. She’s something of a C.S. Lewis fan and a Narnia fanatic which means that she might be like the Lord of the Rings purists who couldn’t accept that not every bit of the books--not every little bit of storyline or minutiae--could be made to fit into a movie and some things simply wouldn’t be the way that they had envisioned them. Expectations that are too specific are awfully hard to meet. I would hate for her to not come away with a smile on her face.

Beside that, I just have to ask: is it wrong for me to have a little bit of a crush on the White Witch? She also played Gabriel in the surprisingly fun Constantine--and, to be honest, whenever I see her I say a near-silent, “Hubba hubba.”

In case you were wondering.