about as uplifting as gravity

The magic of Narnia free with McMeals
By John Gapper
 January 6 2006 19:09

Around the globe, wise heads are shaking and tuts are being tutted 
about the continuing decline of civilisation. McDonald’s is giving 
away figures from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis’s 
classic Christian allegory, with Happy Meals.

The seven-year-old who is the prime target of a Happy Meal can now 
play with Edmund Pevensie and the White Witch while eating four 
Chicken McNuggets, a small portion of chips and drinking a jug of low-
fat chocolate milk.

As a clash of the sacred and the profane, it could hardly be improved 
upon. The children who stumble through the wardrobe into Narnia and 
help the lion, Aslan, to defeat the forces of evil are being given 
out with fast food. Mr Tumnus, the faun, lures latter-day Lucy 
Pevensies to consume 500 calories.

The critics have weighed in to criticise Walt Disney, which has 
released the film based on the book, for making the Pevensies go 
through the Golden Arches. Dulcie Gray, staff nutritionist with the 
US Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, decries the use of 
“a timeless children’s story to hawk greasy cheeseburgers”.

Well, it is true that there are healthier places to eat than 
McDonald’s, even if the McNuggets now contain white meat and you can 
opt for apple slices instead of chips. And Creata Promotion of 
Illinois – the company that designed the figures – is not the Creator 
that C.S.Lewis had in mind.

Yet the striking thing about the McDonald’s Narnia figures is their 
charm. Each of the figures comes with its own diorama, a scene from 
the film that folds out as if a book is opening up. Mr Tumnus, for 
example, can be sat on a chair in his underground house, just as in 
the film, and his scarf doubles as a whistle.

The dioramas can be slotted into each other to form a storybook of 
the film. There is also a bit of education on their spines, which are 
numbered in Latin numerals. Somewhat hokey, perhaps, but you can 
hardly complain that McDonald’s is dumbing down. It is quite an 
advance on the usual cartoon character gifts.

All in all, this is the kind of thing to warm the heart of Steven 
Johnson, the author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, who argues 
that popular culture is becoming more intellectually sophisticated 
rather than less. Mr Johnson cites the complex modern storylines of 
video games and popular television shows in evidence.

To these you can now add the fast food giveaway. We can only guess 
what C.S.Lewis would have thought but Douglas Gresham, his stepson 
and a co-producer of the film, thinks he would have approved. “I 
don’t think he would have been bothered at all,” Mr Gresham told 
ChristianityToday.com.

As to God, His views on the subject are unknowable. But the Bible 
tells us that beauty is found in the unlikeliest places. It can even 
come free with a Happy Meal.

The writer is the FT’s chief business commentator