Last week, the Walt Disney Company and Walden Media officially announced that they had begun pre-production on "Prince Caspian," the highly anticipated follow-up to the hugely popular motion picture, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

Which wasn't really a surprise. Given that -- to date -- this Andrew Adamson movie has earned $636 million at the box office (I.E. $282 million during "Narnia" 's domestic release, plus an additional $356 million from the motion picture's overseas release).

And -- given that "Narnia" looks to be the film franchise that Disney Studios has been desperately seeking for years now -- there's already been a lot of talk on the Web about what the Imagineers can now do to capitalize on this success. What WDI can do to bring C.S. Lewis' characters to life in a theme park setting.

To date, Disney's in-park "Narnia" -related efforts have been rather modest. Disneyland has a White Witch meet-n-greet, while Disney-MGM Studio theme park has its "Journey into Narnia: Creating the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" walk-through exhibit.


Photo by Jeff Lange

"So what's this exhibit like?," you ask. Well, WDW guests who line up outside of Soundstage 4 are first treated to a short making-of film. Which explains how state-of-the-art visual effects and scenes that were shot all around the globe were combined to create the magical world of Narnia.


Photo by Jeff Lange

Once this making-of movie is shown, Disney-MGM visitors are then ushered into the darkened soundstage. Here, they find some preproduction art from the motion picture (Which re-emphasizes the months & months of behind-the-scenes work that went into making C. S. Lewis' fantasy world a reality) ...


Photo by Jeff Lange

As well as an oversized version of the wardrobe ...


Photo by Jeff Lange

After a few brief comments from the WDW cast member who's hosting the attraction, the door to the wardrobe swings open ...


Photo by Jeff Lange

And there -- just beyond the door -- is the quintessential image from both the "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" book and movie: That very English-looking lamppost standing in a clearing in the middle of a frozen forest.


Photo by Jeff Lange

The Imagineers re-enforce the mood that they're trying to achieve on Soundstage Four by keeping the lights low and by pumping cold air into the room. A brief film -- which basically recaps the story of Disney's "Chronicles of Narnia" -- is shown. Though the real highlight of this portion of the walk-through exhibit is when a live actress dressed as Jadis suddenly appears.


Photo by Jeff Lange

Looking down from her icy perch, the White Witch issues a warning to all those who would dare to help the " ... sons of Adam and daughters of Eve." But -- with the help of the Pevensie children -- Jadis and her evil horde are eventually beaten back. Spring finally returns to Narnia ...


Photo by Jeff Lange

And -- as to what these Disney-MGM visitors will experience once they get beyond this now ice-free forest and reach the very next portion of the walk-through exhibit ... You'll need to return on Thursday for the conclusion of my "Journey into Narnia" photo essay in order to see that.

Jeff Lange is JHM's own photographer/archivist. He has just released two new titles in his on-going series of Disney theme park DVDs, "Jeff Lange Remembers ... Tarzan Rocks" and "Jeff Lange's Cruise Line Classics."

For further information on these two discs as well as all of the other titles that Jeff has created, I suggest that you follow this link.