Amen to good thinking Christians!  Loving God with all one's mind seems to be a dying art.

An interesting note - the shoddy review of Narnia almost provided more insight into it's Christian themes than a serious critic or even a Christian magazine would have put into the story.  "The prerequisite is faith," he says of the children's entry into the magical world -  a mocking jab at Christianity that hits nearer the mark than a pound of theology.  Not to give him too much credit, though, this is apparently his idea of Christ: "All Aslan seems to do is negotiate with the enemy and sacrifice himself."  Oh well . . .

Yeah, the critical response to Narnia is an extreme example of Hollywood's hypocrisy.  Jim Emerson, the editor of Roger Ebert's homepage, says:

Can dogma -- or religious propaganda -- taint a perfectly good yarn? Laura Miller wonders about that in an essay at Salon.com called "The Jesus Symbol, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that is, shall we say, a lot less inflammatory than Polly Toynbee's scathing attack on the new Narnia movie in the Guardian.

The "dogma" or "propaganda" of Narnia, really, is far more subtle and enjoyable than the blatant dogmatic railing of such critics' favorites as Brokeback Mountain, in which the homosexuality of two men is "a force of nature," an undeniable genetic predestination.  Why are critics so quick to condemn an allegorical retelling of the Gospel (which, indeed, is one of the most influential bits of literature throughout history) because it advances a certain ideology while praising fare such as Good Night, and Good Luck, a decidedly one-sided revisitation of Hollywood's demonization of John McCarthy?  Even more, the critical backlash against Narnia comes even amidst the filmmakers' own attempts to downplay/ignore the Christian themes of the story!  Sigh...  Another year, another proof of the industry's double standard, it seems.

I agree with the person a few above, there is a general lack of good Christian fantasy right now - there are a few writers trying, but for the most part they are failing.

About the only author that is succeeding, IMO, is Ted Dekker.  He hasn't done too much fantasy (the closest is "The Circle Triliogy" - great read by the way ), but he probably is writing some of the best fiction from a faith perspective out there...

Something AMAZING happened to me today. I was pulling into the offices of 305 Commerce Dr. Moorestown, NJ and saw this wonderful face in a Ford Five-Hundred rental from Pennsylvania driving away. It surely made my day, but I wish I was a few minutes earlier and could've caught ya. Definately and exciting moment.

And now, with Scott's review...  "fanciful Christian propaganda"?  If James Dobson were to call Brokeback Mountain "romantic homosexual propaganda," he would be crucified- literally- by Ted Turner and Maureen Dowd.  It makes as much sense for Holleran to call the film, made by a non-Christian, "fanciful Christian propaganda" than for someone in the Christian right to call Wallace and Gromit "fanciful Vegetarian propaganda"!