I’ve written before about His Dark Materials being a fiendishly clever anti-Narnia series. So it’s hardly surprising that Pullman isn’t happy about the upcoming mega-budget Narnia films from Disney.

To […] the celebrated fantasy author Philip Pullman, they [The Chronicles of Narnia] are stories of racism and thinly veiled religious propaganda that will corrupt children rather than inspiring them.

Pullman believes that Lewis’s books portray a version of Christianity that relies on martial combat, outdated fears of sexuality and women, and also portrays a religion that looks a lot like Islam in unashamedly racist terms.

The Narnia books, Pullman said, contained ‘…a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice; but of love, of Christian charity, [there is] not a trace.’ [link]

Meanwhile, the enlightened ones in the US are lining up behind the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe:

‘We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,’ said Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College in Illinois. [link]