Gov. Jeb Bush is encouraging Florida schoolchildren to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a parable of the New Testament gospels, for a contest timed with the release of the movie version by a company owned by a prominent Republican donor.
The $150 million film opens Dec. 9, and three sets of winners will get a private screening in Orlando, two nights at a Disney resort, a dinner at Medieval Times and a copy of the C.S. Lewis children’s novel signed by Jeb and Columba Bush.
The movie is being co-produced by Disney and Walden Media, which is owned by Philip Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire. Anschutz, his family, his foundation and his company have donated nearly $100,000 to Republican candidates and causes in the past three elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Bush’s “Just Read, Florida” campaign worked with Walden earlier this year, when it sponsored a statewide contest centered on Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen’s children’s book, Hoot. The winner of that contest got a small appearance in Walden’s film version of the book, which will not be released until next year.
This is the first time a contest will coincide with the release of a movie, a feature that Walden officials admit helps them market the film. Debbie Kovacs, the company vice president in charge of promoting the movie among the nation’s teachers, said Walden was “honored” when the state approached them about two weeks ago.
“They came to us. We didn’t approach them,” Kovacs said. “They said they wanted to apply this book to their program.”
Mary Laura Openshaw, Bush’s director of Just Read, Florida, said other books that were made into movies in recent years – such as the Harry Potter movies and the film of the award-winning children’s book, The Polar Express – were not selected for contests because the companies that made them were not partners with Just Read, Florida, as Walden is. She said the company donated $10,000 to help pay for food and beverages for a reading coaches conference earlier this year.
“Our goal is to get kids reading,” Openshaw said. “We didn’t approach this to help Disney or to help Walden.”
As to the religious themes in the book, Openshaw said the story could be read without reference to Christianity. She said she wanted children “to read the book and decide for themselves.”
Critics, though, said sponsoring a contest around a book as overtly Christian as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was over the line.
“This whole contest is just totally inappropriate because of the themes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” said Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “It is simply a retelling of the story of Christ.”
In the book, four children escaping the Nazi blitz of London during World War II find a wardrobe that lets them enter a magical land called Narnia, where the evil White Witch has cast a perpetual winter. A lion named Aslan arrives, where he dies to redeem one of the children, but then is resurrected. In the end, Aslan and the children – who in Narnia are known as Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve – defeat the White Witch.
The state’s Just Read, Florida Web site links to Walden’s, which then links to an “educator’s discussion board” – the most popular thread of which is about a “17-week Narnia Bible Study for children.”
