Thanks to the "long tail" of fandom, Narnia and Harry Potter fans can satisfy their cravings for news, views, and theories all day long.
Along with dozens of fan blogs, some of which you'll find listed in my sidebar, there are fan podcasts.
Perhaps the most well-known are the award-winning Harry Potter podcasts, Pottercast, hosted splendidly by The Leaky Cauldron, and Mugglecast, hosted by the boys at Mugglenet. Pottercast just won another fan award.
Lesser known (but not for long) is the Hog's Head Pubcast, hosted by Travis Prinzi of Sword of Gryffindor.
A few minutes ago, I learned of another fan podcast, NarniaFansCast, hosted by ordinary Narnia fans like you and me.
What is a podcast? First, it helps to mention digital audio files. These files come in various formats, including MP3 and WAV files. You can download and save these to your hard drive, or download and listen with an audio player like Windows Media, QuickTime, or your own MP3 player.
A podcast, like a broadcast, is the method by which digital audio file content is delivered. The content of this file is also referred to as a podcast. To receive new podcast "shows" or episodes automatically, you'll need to subscribe to that podcast's feed. In order to do that, you must download a "podcatcher." I use iPodder. See Podcast Alley's Downloading Podcasts page for more info.
I'm quite certain there are other Harry Potter and Narnia podcasts out there, so if you have time to listen to more than the four I mentioned (updated weekly), seek, and you shall find.
I'm outspoken on political issues but try to keep the political stuff to a minimum here at Fantasy Fiction for Christians. Today I'll make an exception.
I found a ruddy good article, as Hagrid would say, at one of my favorite political sites, The American Thinker. The anonymous author has penned an essay that's politically conservative in its brief critique of the Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Harry Potter series and support for the war against Islamofascism. It has crossover appeal for fantasy fiction fans who are right-leaning defenders of Western culture.
The writer mentions the dark tone of both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and mixes in some "just war" ideas. An excerpt:
In the last five years, through a series of rousing movies and books, our children have been introduced to some of the best conservative thinking ever put to paper or put on film.
…
I don’t pretend to know what J.K. Rowling was thinking when she wrote Order of the Phoenix, but I can’t help but see in this post-9/11 book a perfect analogy to the situation the West faces today, in the real world, in its War against Islamofascism. Some of us, like Harry, know that we have seen evil, acknowledge its existence, and are prepared to fight it. But just as Harry must deal with a government Ministry bound and determined to explain away or ignore the evil in its midst, we too face an anti-War movement that endlessly ignores, explains away, and excuses the most vile acts of terror and human degradation.
I like articles and blogs written by people who read a lot, so I recommend you bookmark the Bookworm Room and visit often.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008: Prince Caspian Christian symbolism and movie news updates.
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Prince Caspian, the fourth (or second) book of The Chronicles of Narnia series, will be made into a movie.
The characters Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie return in this tale, as well as the actors from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In Prince Caspian, more than 1,000 years have passed since the four ruled Narnia, which has been taken over by men from a place called Telmar. The animals have been banished. Prince Caspian, the rightful heir of Narnia, calls the four, and they return to help him retake his domain.
Sources:
Update: Here's another, way-better-than-mine review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over at Biblical Christianity. 
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It was excellent! Better than Goblet of Fire.
I've just returned from seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I loved it from the opening scene to the closing.
The movie added a few scenes that weren't in the book, but it was still enjoyable for a purist like me. In fact, I think the WWII blitzkrieg opening, though not in the book, was very effective in establishing the characters and subsequent action.
All the young actors were good, especially the boy who played Edmund. He was appropriately naughty and heroic. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch gave me chills, and her seduction of and cruelty to Edmund were compelling. The musical score was hauntingly beautiful.
Is anyone here old enough to remember the movie Candleshoe? I think that was the first "English manor" kids movie I ever watched. British children's movies have a certain charm that American movies don't. The English accents, an air of formality, cavernous mansions, and dark and dreary scenery remind me of Agatha Christie’s “cozy” mysteries, some of my favorite books.
The Christian imagery is even more obvious on screen. In fact, you'd have to be completely ignorant of the Bible to miss it.
I give “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” a thumbs-up, and I can’t wait for the inevitable movie adaptations of the rest of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books. 
Related posts:
(Disney image)
Addendum: Now this is a review!
Soundtrack review at Infuze Magazine's Narnia Blog.
In late October I wrote a piece for Townhall.com on Harry Potter and Christians. I briefly discussed John Granger's response to Christians who say the Bible forbids books like Harry Potter:
John Granger, an Orthodox Christian, homeschooling father, college professor, author of Looking for God in Harry Potter, and former Potter skeptic, has put a great deal of work into researching Christian themes and symbolism in the books. For example, he draws a distinction between invocational magic, or sorcery, clearly condemned in the Bible, and incantational magic, as practiced in the books. His site, HogwartsProfessor.com, is a treasure trove of Harry Potter-related information written from a Christian perspective.
“Objections to the magic in Harry Potter…mistake the edifying use of magic in literature for actual invocational sorcery condemned by Scripture which it clearly is not,” he said. Granger even claims that Harry Potter is “Christian fiction.” According to Granger, J.K. Rowling is an Inkling, a group of British writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote Christian fiction. He argues that this “marks her as a writer in the English traditions of writing faith edifying literature, what is often called ‘baptizing the imagination’ or ‘smuggling the gospel.’”
Invocational and incantational distinctions aside, one can make a compelling case that all forms of magic are forbidden, but are Christians forbidden to read about it? I can't call myself a witch and be a Christian, but as I Christian, I can read fictional stories about witches.
Continue reading 'Magic' in Harry Potter and Narnia
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a charming tale with magical creatures intended to entertain and delight, but it is also a story about temptation, disobedience, forgiveness, and redemption.
The imagery is subtle enough that children won't be hit over the head with it. As they sit wide-eyed before the movie screen, enchanted by the sights and sounds of a winter wonderland and talking animals, the adults, particularly Christians, will see these images vividly.
Whether C.S. Lewis intended to write it as an allegory or not, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is most assuredly an allegory.
Young Edmund (pictured with the White Witch), tempted by the witch and her Turkish Delights, betrays his siblings, and his betrayal puts them in peril and causes Aslan's death (See Christian Imagery in Narnia). Branded a traitor, Edmund is to be handed over to the White Witch for punishment, according to the law. Aslan makes a deal with the witch to stand in the boy's place and suffer for his crimes.
Continue reading Temptation, Disobedience, Forgiveness, and Redemption in Narnia
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