Until recently if you saw "churches" and "Disney" in the same sentence, you might expect the word "protest" to be lurking somewhere in between. But now Disney, which has run afoul of certain evangelical groups in the past, is wooing those same people in an attempt to create a film franchise of the magnitude of "The Lord of the Rings" crossed with "The Passion of the Christ."

For this equation to work for "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," however, Disney won't be the only party stretching its boundaries. It's one thing for a disenfranchised churchgoing audience to flock to an overtly religious statement such as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." It's quite another for them to embrace something they've traditionally shunned: a Hollywood fantasy.

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," which Disney releases nationwide today, is the first feature-film adaptation of the late British author C.S. Lewis' beloved seven-book "Narnia" series. A tale of four siblings who discover a wondrous land through the back of a wardrobe — and become entangled in a classic tale of good vs. evil amid talking animals and other magical creatures — "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" has been a favorite of young readers since its 1950 publication.

The faith community also long has embraced "Narnia" and its author, considered an important religious writer for books such as "Mere Christianity," an argument for orthodox Christianity. They see the parallels between Jesus Christ and "Narnia" hero Aslan, the majestic lion who sacrifices himself for humans' salvation.

So the movie offers Disney a rare opportunity to reach two massive audiences: the young, fantasy-oriented moviegoers who turned the Harry Potter series and "The Lord of the Rings" into lucrative franchises and the often-movie-averse Christian population that propelled "The Passion of the Christ" to unprecedented box-office heights.

Discontent with some Hollywood fare, Christian groups have launched their own film forums, hoping to appeal to the mainstream while dwelling outside of it. Christian film festivals thrive nationwide, from California to Florida. Austin is host to the annual Ragamuffin Film Festival, "celebrating all variety of films made by Christians," and the second San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival took place in October.

With the new movie, Disney has been attempting a tricky dance that involves assuring Christian higher-ups that "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" stays true to Lewis' Christian roots while telling everyone else that the movie has mass, secular appeal.

"We want every fan, regardless of how you're a fan, to come to the movie," said Dennis Rice, Disney's senior vice president of publicity. "The most important thing I'd like to stress is we are not going after any fan base at the expense of any other."

Disney even has released two "Narnia" soundtracks, one featuring the film's score, the other a compilation of Christian rockers offering "Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia."

The overall marketing strategy also includes the usual holiday-movie bonanza of product tie-ins, with promotional partners including McDonald's, General Mills and Procter & Gamble. More than 50 licensees are manufacturing items such as board games, porcelain dolls, trading cards and photo albums; HarperCollins is publishing more than 140 editions of "Narnia," including six box sets and 31 audio versions, and a video game came out in November. Grace Hill Media also has signed on to the "Narnia" campaign. The industry leader in church-based promotion, it has worked on 80 films, including "Lord of the Rings," "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Bruce Almighty."

David Miller, entertainment analyst for the Los Angeles-based Sanders Morris Harris Group, estimated that Disney is spending about $180 million on "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe": $100 million on the film, $80 million on marketing.

Rice said the "grassroots" outreach to Christian groups has gobbled up less than 5 percent of the movie's marketing budget, yet this campaign has been far-reaching nonetheless.

The new movie's investors can only hope "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" connects as effectively as "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed a whopping $371 million domestically and another $241 million overseas.

Films such as "The Polar Express" and the Disney-distributed "The Greatest Game Ever Played" have since tried to tap into a similar Christian network.

To John Thompson, a pastor of Aurora, Ill.'s Warehouse Church, the great opportunity presented by "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" might be to reconnect certain churchgoers with popular culture. "The church, especially the evangelical church, has not been a great friend of the arts for a while, especially in relation to film," the 35-year-old pastor said, noting he grew up being taught that movies were "detrimental to the spiritual well-being of Christians. . . . I find it interesting that the church is starting to wake up to the importance of film as a way to communicate ideas and truth."

Several Austin churches are sponsoring Narnia-related events. Redeemer Lutheran Church, for example, is holding meetings this week where adults explore the spiritual meaning of the Narnia books. And St. Matthew's Episcopal Church is inviting fourth- and fifth-graders on a field trip to see "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" on Dec. 19.

Disney's efforts already have paid off with parts of the Christian community. Late this summer the American Family Association ended its nine-year Disney boycott, in part because of the studio's involvement with "Narnia." The AFA, along with other groups on the religious right, had been protesting Disney for gay-oriented events at its theme parks (which haven't disappeared) as well as its ownership of Miramax, which released such iconoclastic fare as "Priest" and "Bad Santa" before the founding Weinstein brothers departed in September.

"We felt like Disney was being more responsive to the Christian community with a movie like this and also the fact that (former Disney CEO) Michael Eisner was gone and they got rid of Miramax," AFA President Tim Wildmon said, adding that Disney is currently working with AFA's media division to promote "Narnia" on the group's 180 radio stations.

The question now is whether Disney can have and eat its secular and religious cakes. In a cultural climate that pits "red" vs. "blue" states, conservatives vs. liberals and the religious vs. the secular, one group's embrace of a movie might reflexively trigger an opposite reaction from another.

"When they're marketing it to the church, they're saying, 'This is an opportunity to take the Christian message to a broader culture,'" said Seattle-based faith and culture commentator Dick Staub, author of "Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters." "And so it feels to the broader culture a bit like a Trojan horse."

But entertainment analyst Miller said he doesn't expect Disney's Christian outreach to scare off nonreligious moviegoers, noting, "I think there will be a number of different constituencies who go to see the film for different reasons."

Film writer Chris Garcia contributed to this report. This article contains material from other wire services.