Author opposed live action 'Narnia'

C.S. Lewis was "absolutely opposed" to a live action version of his famed children's series The Chronicles of Narnia, according to a newly released letter from 1959.

The author's fantasy classic is set for a major revival as Walt Disney Studios gears up for its holiday release of the feature film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. However, in his letter, Lewis revealed that he held strong feelings about how his stories should be depicted.

"I am absolutely opposed adamant isn't it! to a TV version," Lewis wrote.

With the technological restrictions of the time, Lewis feared that a live action version of his Narnia stories would have to have used human actors to depict his anthropomorphic animal figures.

"Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare at least, with photography," he said, adding that a human, pantomimed version of his majestic, god-like lion Aslan "would be, to me, blasphemy."

While he contemplated an animated retelling of the Narnia stories in the letter, published by the online writing and opinion website Nthposition.com, Lewis also took a dig at Walt Disney himself.

"Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) would be another matter," he wrote.

Sent in December 1959, the letter was a note to BBC radio producer Lance Sieveking, who had created a Lewis-approved radio serial of The Magician's Nephew, a prequel story that the author wrote in 1955, five years after the publication of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe will have its world premiere in London on Dec. 7 and is set for North American release two days later.

Though he spent most of his life in England, Lewis was born in Ireland. As a child, Lewis was inspired to write and draw his own stories after reading the work of Beatrix Potter. His later influences included nature, the music of Richard Wagner and Norse mythology.

As an adult, Lewis was a friend and colleague of fellow fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien. He was a college and university literature professor at Oxford and Cambridge. In addition to his famed Narnia series, he also published scholarly essays, a number of science fiction novels and Christian writings.

Lewis died on Nov. 22, 1963, but his death was overshadowed by news of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, which happened the same day. British author Aldous Huxley also died that day.