Return to Narnia

The second movie in The Chronicles of Narnia series is ‘Prince Caspian’. I reviewed the first movie 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' in my post titled "Always Winter, Never Christmas".

This starts about a year after they returned from their first trip to Narnia. They are back in London and are getting ready to go to school. All of them are waiting for when they will return to Narnia, but it’s causing problems in their normal lives. They aren’t living in the present because they’re too busy waiting and wondering when they’ll go back to really interact with the people in their lives in the here and now.

Finally the gateway between their worlds opens and they return to a changed Narnia. Nothing is the same. What has only been one year to them has been hundreds of years to the Narnians. But that should have been understood that time worked differently between their worlds, especially since so much time passed in Narnia on their first trip, but only moments had passed from when they left Earth to when they returned.

Much has happened in Narnia. A race known as the Telmarines (who look like humans) have taken over the land. They tried to kill all of the talking animals and other creatures. The Narnians were forced to kill or run and go into hiding. Generations have passed since the Telmarines have taken control, and the Narnians, Aslan, and the great Kings and Queens of Narnia have become nothing more than fairy tales to them.

In the castle of the Telmarnie king, lives Crown Prince Caspian X, son of the dead King Caspian IX. Caspian’s Uncle Miraz is the acting king until Caspian comes of age. After many years of waiting, Miraz’s wife finally has a child, a son who can be his heir. As such, Miraz no longer needs Caspian and attempts to have him killed so that he can become the rightful king rather than just a stand-in king. But Caspian flees in order to live. In Caspian’s flight to leave the castle and Telmarine lands, he blew the magic horn that would call for help. The horn had once belonged to Queen Susan, and was believed to be able to call forth the kings and queens of old, AKA Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. And of course, that is what it did!

Now there is a war on, a war pitting Narnian against Telmarine, uncle against nephew. Who will win? Follow along with our heroes as they once again take up the fight against evil in order to free the land from oppression, put the rightful ruler on the throne, and once again bring peace to the land.

Many people and critics complained that Lucy didn’t have her ‘child-like innocence’ anymore. There is a perfectly good reason for that. At the end of the first movie, Lucy and her siblings spent twenty to forty years in Narnia before they returned through the wardrobe and were returned to their rightful ages of when they left Earth. How can you expect a child who lived to become an adult and then return to a child to be able to hold onto her child-like innocence? It’s called ‘child-like’ for a reason!

This is great for families, but with the fighting scenes, it would be best to wait until the children in your family are probably 5+.

There are two movie versions of this. BBC first produced this movie back in 1988 in association with Wonder Works and made it to be shown on TV in several smaller segments, rather than show it all at once. They also combined the second and third books into one movie: Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Walt Disney Pictures later made their own version of the Prince Caspian movie in 2008. There is also the book written by C.S. Lewis.