The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: You’ll find yourself in Narnia, too
Release date: 16 May 2008
By Jerilyn Covert
A lot can happen in 1,300 years–a lot of ebb and flow. In the magical land of Narnia, wars begin and end, kingdoms rise and fall, and four young siblings from England live four lifetimes, and then stumble back into their own world and become children again. In The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children are once again called upon to save the land they once reigned as kings and queens. They may be only children, but they have 1,300-year-old souls–not to mention the fighting skills of a soldier twice their age and a powerful, talking lion on their side. Good thing, too, because the sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe features a heckuva lot more battle scenes than the first one did. After all, it takes a tremendous amount of resistance to change the course of history.
Based on the books by C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia movies ride the coattails of films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter series, which have made the fantasy-adventure genre so widely popular. Andrew Adamson, who also directed the first one, has returned to oversee the artistic vision of the sequel. In it, Prince Caspian the Tenth (Ben Barnes), rightful heir to the Telmarine thrown, is awakened in the middle of the night by his royal tutor (Vincent Grass) who warns him of his uncle’s plans to kill him. He urges Caspian to make for the woods and gives him a token–a horn–to use only when he needs help. In the woods, Caspian discovers a strange people he’d previously known only from fairytales and legends–Narnians: talking animals, gnomes, centaurs and giants. Frightened, he blows the horn, which summons the kings and queens of old Narnia. Meanwhile in England, only a year has passed since Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy (played by William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes and Georgia Henley, respectively) chanced on that other world, by way of the magic wardrobe. They’re teleported from inside a railway station, back to their beloved land of Narnia. With Caspian’s help, Peter and his siblings lead a revolution against the Telmarines, in an effort to save the Narnians from certain annihilation.
Rated PG for epic battle action and violence, Prince Caspian is quite a bit darker than Wardrobe, and the plot is more intricate. Seeing the first Narnia movie will help flesh out the narrative of the second, but it’s not essential to understanding the story. Indeed, Prince Caspian can be enjoyed in and of itself, and its predecessor, easily enjoyed afterward, as a prequel. But this one is the better of the two. The special effects are stunning: In one jaw-dropping image, as the Narnians are gearing up to besiege the Telmarine castle, a centaur in front rears up on his hind legs as he prepares to charge. The film is almost as grandiose and epic as any of the aforementioned The Lord of the Rings movies, but it also has all the charming personality of an animated film like Shrek. One lovable creature, Reepicheep, the chief mouse, voiced by Eddie Izzard, garners quite a few laughs. And Trumpkin the dwarf, who comes to quirky life thanks to a wonderful performance by Peter Dinklage, fulfills the role Mr. Tumnus the faun played in Wardrobe, as Lucy’s close friend and ally.
Despite its lengthy 144-minute runtime, the film never suffers a dull a moment and will leave you pining for the third adaptation of the seven-book series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which according to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) is already in the pre-production phase. And yet, the film does offer a satisfying sense of closure. Like Wardrobe, it comes full circle and ultimately returns back to the place where it began. By the time it’s over, you yourself feel as if you, like the children in the movie, have been transported to Narnia and back again. But you didn’t need a magic wardrobe to get there, just a movie ticket and a willing imagination. After all, by standards that equate 1 year to 1,300 years, two-and-a-half hours is ample time for an adventure.