The White Witch’s Courtyard was the first one we were taken to and it was easily the one that impressed me most. We saw close to two dozen life-size creatures (meaning there weren’t any miniatures), frozen in statuesque form and in mid-animation; all very eerie, precise and realistic. 90+ creatures, we were told, had been constructed in this form. The other statues will be used in the lengthy final battle between good & evil at the tail end of the film. The gray and stony centaurs (male & female), hedgehogs, lions, boars, bears, rhinos and the rest all looked truly extraordinary but nothing was more awing and magnificent than Rumblebuffin the giant, frozen in space with his weapon raised above his head (in mid-battle) with that horrific, fierce look on his face. Close to three times my height, it was odd to see the giant that I had read about for the first time on the plane just a few hours ago, in front of me and among all the rest of Aslan’s virtuous “soldiers” – dead, for the time being.
One other “statue” that stood out for me and brought a smile to my face was one I spotted in a corner further away from the rest. It was of an extremely detailed dwarf couple, man and wife, holding one another and pointing upwards, presumably just as they got ‘zapped’ by the witch’s wand. It was the one time I was truly tempted to sneak my camera out, had I brought it along…
The courtyard itself is completely surrounded by ice, which will look even grander in scale when the CG-techies are done with it. There is a scattering of ghostly, leafless trees as well in the area. On another visit there we got to meet the director, Andrew Adamson (Shrek, Shrek 2), who kindly introduced himself to us and took a fiver away from behind the camera. A long, blond-haired hippie looking type (and that’s a good thing), he was pleased to see and hear our reactions about the majestic set. This was the first time I spotted Aslan’s head as well; it was probably there for lighting purposes. I’m not certain if it was attached to its body or not, as it was behind a lot of camera equipment, trees and statues but it stood out mainly because it was the only thing of color and life in the otherwise dank, colorless and graveyard-like surroundings. If this set, which comes into play at a key point in the movie, was any indication of the effort they’re putting into this film, then we were sure not to be disappointed with the rest…
Before leaving that set, we were escorted to a gigantic Mac computer that the director of photography, Don McAlpine, fiddles with. On it, we were shown movie stills from the opening 20 minutes of the film, from the children’s evacuation from war-torn London up to and including the famed magical wardrobe, which had a variety of trees encrusted on it; undoubtedly there to symbolize the Narnian apple tree it was built out of and which gave it its power. The period look of the Pevensie kids, rubble-riddled London, railway stations and the professor’s country house blew all of our minds. The thought and care put into every detail of the costumes and production design, was enough to rival any from a Merchant/Ivory picture. It was really that good…
