Footage Found From The 1967 Version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
In 1967 the Associated British Picture Corporation released a ten-part serial adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It has since been lost and only parts 1 and 8 have survived. We were just sent a tip about episode 8 which has been uploaded to YouTube. You can view it below:
Episode 8, Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIS0ALJAwbI
Episode 8, Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOLFCX_Cf_U
UPDATE: The videos have been removed.
According to our tipster, “At the time, the ABC did not have the budget to store old programs, nor any idea there would be home video, so after an initial airing and a few repeats, the recording would be trashed or erased for re-use.” You can read more about this mini-series at Wikipedia.
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Thank you Jared for sending these in!
Wow! These are old! It's amazing to see how much progress fim making has made!
Wow, never knew bout this… too bad they lost the rest…
Wow, these are insane! I can't believe how far film making has come. Just think, back then I bet these movies were considered "beyond their time". And now look at the Narnia movies!
Wow that Aslan is rather grumpy and stern. A very different take of "not safe". 🙂
I wonder how you they lost them. I'd love to see the rest…
LOL at the minotaur.
wow, i love the jaguar an unicorn costumes! hahahahaha, they look like mascots!
These make the BBC versions look like $100 million films, haha.
aggh stupid youtube won't work again 🙁
wow! First comment!
oh wait scratch my last comment lol
What I can't believe is how small a grasp people these days have of film history. These were made for TV — they would NOT have been cutting edge. The top-notch theatrical films from this period did not look ANYTHING like this, believe me.
Yes that was Exactly what I was thinking… Well that and how much the "old" Aslan sounds like Liam Neeson
Reminds me of the scene in HP4 where Dumbledore asks Harry if he put his name in the goblet of fire. In the movie, he screams it in Harry's face.
Hold on–Aslan is a guy in leotard with a weird-looking headdress and clown makeup?! AHAHAHAHAHAHA xD
Yeah, at that moment I thought he was either going to smack her in the face or bite her head off. Frightening.
They kept to the text so beautifully…could only have hoped for more of that in our modern versions. The White Witch Jadis looks far more like her description in the books and the original illustrations, too. Pretty impressive for the time! Thanks for sharing them 🙂
Well said.
I really like the adult players in this, you almost forget how lame their costumes are compared to the modern versions; their acting and presence is so good. The white witch is a bit over the top, but it works. The kids on the other hand are dreadful. Even Anna Popplewell looks good in comparison.
Haha that's great! Aslan's voice is perfect, as is the Witch's looks. Who's narrating, the professor?
By the way, if you wern't happy with VDT before you see this, you will be if you imagine the ABC version.
actually I like the costumed version better than the BBC one, except for the attitude, lol
of course that could be because this is black and white…
Haha, so true!!! 😀
wow…………………that was………….Wow….why did they make Aslan yell at Lucy? BBC is deluxe compared to this
It is, as C.S Lewis foretold, buffoonery and nightmare.
Great find. I didn't even know that these existed. It's too bad there isn't more of it. Does anyone know where we can find the first episode that's also still in existence?
This just looks like a theatrical play that has been filmed. If you look at it like that, it's not so bad. But it does make one grateful for the modern, hi-tech adaptations of today. I actually kind of like the narrator (Digory perhaps?), and the acting was excessive but interesting. The dissonant Twighlight Zone-like sixties music was an entertaining touch too.
I hope I'm not the only one who laughed hysterically at that line. Who would have ever thought of an interpretation of Aslan like THAT? He's got to be just about the scariest, most belligerent "good" character I've ever seen in a children's movie. The only explanation I can think of is that they were desperately trying to find a way to make a man dressed up in a ridiculously silly lion's costume sound authoritative and powerful.
And people complain about how bad the special effects in the BBC version were. Everything is in costumes.
I mean I'm "glad" I'm not the only one who found that funny. Boy, that was a bizarre characterization of Aslan!
on one hand, it's awesome to find this! On the other hand– I don't trust myself to watch it. I'd end up laughing I'm afraid… and I don't want to laugh at Lewis' work 🙁
The Witch was okay (from what I *did* see)… but Peter– wow… William Mosley is awesome vs. this 😉
And I like the delicate uneasiness that LWW handled Edmund being reconciled with Aslan and his siblings after he was rescued from the Witch =)
But this is still neat! It's like a piece of history! 😀
you're still not going to get me to confess that BBC is a great version 🙂 No offense to you who like it, I hope! I just can't stand BBC. If I laugh at the movie because it's cheesy, I'll just read the books 😉 No offense, really! i'm not trying to be rude to you who like it. But I really don't like those versions 🙁 And it's not because I have to be spoonfed 'CG'. It just doesn't work with Narnia. The puppets blare out at you: 'this is fake. this is *only* a story. This is *NOT* real.' And it makes you remember that none of it's real, and that's hard to work with for fantasy…
But who here thinks that Patrick Stewart would make a KNOCK-OUT Puddleglum?! He played Ebenezer Scrooge, and I *think* could could very well pull off a perfect Puddleglum! 🙂 He'd be SUCH the grandfather/mentor/uncle/protector sort of 'wise' person that would be perfect for our Puddleglum!
If they green light SC, I'm going to try and get a hold of Apted somehow and TRY and ASK him very kindly if he would consider Patrick Stewart to play the role! 🙂 He'd be SO perfect! 🙂 Someone with dignified class! 🙂 I'm afraid if he was cast with Johny Depp or something that people would take Puddleglum as some sort of 'joke'. Jack Sparrow was a complete joke.
And Puddleglum wasn't a joke at all. He was so endearing. Johnny Depp would ruin that endearment sweetness that Puddleglum has =) I think Patrick could pull it off! 'beam me up, number one!' RotFL, the only problem is our family would be pulling of Star Trek jokes 🙂
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Stupid youtube!!!
I did not even know this existed till now!
LWW has been adapted into moving pictures so many times. Will The Horse and His Boy ever be?
Wow! This is amazing….so old and yet somehow it was uncovered. Edmund actually reminds me of Skandar when you see him from farther away… 🙂
This would be really interesting to watch!!! Unfortunately, like others, my Youtube is not cooperating with me =P
How do I know your promises will be kept? RAWRRARARRAR!
I have to agree with you about the 'puppets'. I have not seen the BBC versions in quite some time, but Reepicheep was pretty awful!!! He was well over three feet tall, as I recall, and Aslan looked….well, like a puppet. I thought that the acting performances were quite good, however, ESPECIALLY Puddleglum and Jill 🙂
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't even seen the video, but the picture I got from reading this made me laugh SO hard!!!! Hahahaha!!!!! =P 🙂
Oh wow, fascinating! Wouldn't it be great if more of these were found? 😀
I thank goodness that technology has improved so much over the years; I wouldn't have liked to watch that quality!
LOL Exactly!!! The modern films look like pure magic compared to this!
That's amazing! very cool-and naturally the special efects are terrible…it adds to the character.
These are very cool clips!
Too true!! I only havea minute love for the BBC ones cause thats what brought me to Narnia long before I found out there was more to it! But,however,they will NEVER EVER compare to the realness that the newer ones bring! I feel
the beauty of it more with the newer ones that I felt in the books! Older ones, including the cartoons, will not come close!
Thanks for sharing. It's an interesting find, even if it is rather dull. I thought they got the look of the White Witch down pat though and I liked how they interpreted Aslan's leopard sentry guards. The rest is forgetable.
Amen to that!
Dawn Treader is no longer, in my opinion, the worst Narnia film production.
It was 1967. That says it all.
Do you seriously think they had green screen and such back then? No!! This was what TV was back then and I'm sorry you think differently.
Wow this is old!! Ans the music is annoying!
AGH!!!! It keeps pausing!
*geeks out* Never in a million years did I ever think I would see even a part of these! I want to see the next episode.
At least he isn't tame!
I like that they kept so much of Lewis' original narration; it wouldn't work in a modern theatrical film, but it's a basic part of the books that hasn't made the transition to a visual medium since. Plus, the actor doing the narration (is he also the Professor?) is fabulous. I would love to hear him narrate Narnian audio books … mmmm.
Aslan's voice is great.
And the White Witch is good too.
Really, if you think of it as being more like a play filmed for the benefit of posterity, it's quite nice.
Dude. . . .this is SO OLD AND BOREING!!!!!!! hahaha. . .
Actually, lysander is right… there were many films and television shows by this time that looked much more advanced than this. No way did all shows look like this in 1967 (and yes, there were some visual effects technologies that had already been in use for decades before this, even if they weren't as advanced as the stuff we have now).
WOOOOWWWWWW. That was pretty lame. Aslan's roar– ha ha! I don't care what people say about keeping the wording the same as the book and all that… That WAS NOT Narnia. 😛
I think I need to watch the 2005 LWW again now… 🙂
"All Narnia will be overturned, and perish in a holocaust" ?
That's an interesting wording.