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Last weekend I went to the theatre to watch the movie The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Being a big fan of the books since I was younger I enjoyed this version of the fim. But a funny thing happened on my way out of the theatre. A man about my age said to his friend, "Wow I cant believe it took them this long to finally put out a live version of this book!" I wanted to tell him the truth, but didnt because his ignorance probably wouldnt have comprehended what i was about to say and that was "the orignial Chrionicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe movie was released on CD-I over ten years ago!!"

While im sure the admins of this site already are wise to that fact for those you are not I will explain. in 1989 BBC created a mini series, which was later released into a full movie, on the following books of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. in 1995, those movies were officially released by Philips on the CD-I into three seperate versions, with Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader being made into one movie.

After hearing this from the gentlemen, I went home and rewatched these great classics (I own the whole set, i scanned in one of my manuals below) and they are just as good as the new version in many ways. With the lack of todays CGI in movies, they did a wonderful job of recreating the talking animals and animated beasts in the movie, as much as could be expected from a movie made in the late 80's.

For those who dont know about these hidden treasures I recommend picking them up if you ever have a chance. They are in Video CD format so you can watch them almost anywhere!

Disney just started filming Prince Caspian to be releases in a year or so and I only have one thing to say.....been there, done that, on CD-I!

Philips/Polygram focussed too much on old classics in my opinion during the first period of VCD. 'The Chronicles of Narnia' is a true classic without a doubt, and it's not the first time they re-make these kind of movies one of these days. I've seen this on ebay before, but the whole picture was a bit too dated for me.
So there are three titles in this respect,

<i>The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (VCD)

The Wicked Witch has created a never-ending winter in Narnia and turned all of her enemies to stone. The Witch captures Edmund, but the other children discover a wondrous Lion, Aslan™, and a Winged Horse whose powers set their friends free.

Prince Caspian and the Voyage of Dawn Treader (VCD)

Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund, armed with the powers of a magic horn, join Prince Caspian to fight the corrupt King Miraz and restore Narnia to its former glory. Years later, the friends board the majestic Dawn Treader for high-sea adventures that lead them to the edge of the world.

The Silver Chair (VCD)

In this third epic the four children continue their epic battle between good and evil. Eustice and Jill search for King Caspian's missing son, Rilian, a prisoner in a distant land. With Glimfeather, a magical owl, and Puddlegum, a March-Wiggle, the children follow clues to the Underworld. There they meet a mysterious Black Knight whose secret will change their lives forever.</i>

As far as I'm concerned they were only released in the US.

Another great example is a CD-i concept called 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', which you've obviously heard of before. They created a remake only last year. It was meant to be some sort of flight simulator, created internally by Philips Kaleidoscope in 1995/1996

It was kind of strange that they would release this in the us only, espeically with it being a BBC production. i do see on ebay they have rereleased the first one on dvd with some added features.

I remember watching this years ago! I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday evening show fairly typcial of the BBC back then. Brings back bad memories as I always associated this particular show as an indicator that I had to go to school the next day

some of the animations are pretty out there but all and all its pretty good. i was suprised to see how the new movie was so silmilar to this version, sometimes when they remake movies they change alot of stuff.

If anyone was interested in checking these out on CD-I, I just noticed someone has the second two volumes with a buy it now of $18 on ebay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-CHRONICLES-OF-N ... dZViewItem