At the movies, longer is not always better -- even with the great films. The popcorn runs out, exhaustion sets in, you squirm in your seat.

At home, however, there is an evolving trend of watching extended versions of your favourite films. So fans of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe can rejoice. The new four-disc, extended-edition DVD released this week, in widescreen only, is splendid.

Like extended specialist Peter Jackson, Narnia director Andrew Adamson is a Kiwi. Both have an eerie sense of just what is right to put back into the edit and what to leave out as separate deleted scenes. They enhance their films, and do not just turn them into endurance tests.

The new Narnia has an extra 16 minutes of footage, making it one second past 150 minutes. The footage is seamlessly incorporated. In large part, the extra scenes are in the epic battle sequence at the climax.

Much like Jackson's King Kong, the new Narnia is more detailed now. Unlike The Lord Of The Rings, there are no whole new sections of storytelling. But the battle scenes are the showpiece of Narnia, anyway, and more of them make the movie even more spectacular.

Meanwhile, there are three discs of bonus materials, two of them new to the franchise. Disc 3 has a feature documentary, C.S. Lewis: Dreamer Of Narnia, while Disc 4 details the making of the film, including Anatomy Of A Scene: Behind The Battle. Together with the new edit, this package becomes a worthwhile enterprise even if you already have the earlier Narnia DVD.

BEYOND DISNEY: As a companion piece, and as a preview of where the Disney franchise might go, it is fun to revisit the now-classic, if modest, BBC version. It is currently available on DVD in a three-disc box set comprising The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian (likely to be the next instalment in the Disney series), The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.

With fewer special effects but a lot of heart, the BBC series directed by Marilyn Fox, and then Alex Kirby, gives viewers a different perspective on C.S. Lewis' visionary material. The box set has only a few extras: One is a recipe for Turkish Delight, the confection the evil White Witch uses to entice poor Edmund to betray his family.

HELL ON HEELS: Love that marketing line that the filmmakers used to sell the summer hit, The Devil Wears Prada.

This wacky, lightweight summer comedy starred Anne Hathaway as a young woman trying to make it in the New York fashion magazine industry. But it was Meryl Streep who excelled as the devil of the title and the hell on the heels. She elevated the flick to a higher level.

The DVD arrived this week in separate full and widescreen editions with the usual lineup of extras we expect, including a group crew commentary under director David Frankel as well as peeks into the fashion industry.

MORE SILLINESS: Personally, I prefer Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction. But his hardcore comedy fans obviously like him in the hit flick Tallageda Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby. The campy NASCAR romp is out this week in separate full and widescreen editions with lots of extras, including a comedy commentary led by director Adam McKay with Ferrell and John C. Reilly involved.

SOMETHING SERIOUS: Oliver Stone's World Trade Center is a sombre, methodical, life-like telling of a rescue at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The film does not resonate with larger truths about 9/11 in the manner of United 93. But Stone paid homage to real-life heroism.

The DVD, out this week in a two-disc, widescreen-only commemorative edition, is a noble attempt to widen the discussion and provide insights through extras. They include a commentary by real-life Port Authority policeman Will Jimeno with three of his rescuers.