Movie Review: “Prince Caspian”

Before I delve too far into this post, it’s important that you know a few things:

First, the Narnia Chronicles are very serious business in my family. My wife and I are admirers of C. S. Lewis and his writings in general, but the Narnia stories have a special place in our hearts. These are wonderful and important to us.

Second, it’s important to note that the story as it was meant to be is in the book. When a movie deviates from the book, the movie is wrong … there had better be a good reason for it.

Third, we have a rule in my family — before watching a movie derived from a book, we read the book first. This is a bit tricky with the fact that my sons are 11 and 9 (turning 10 tomorrow), but we work on it.

Fourth, despite the numbers you might see on the side of the books, Prince Caspian is the second, not the fourth, book in the Chronicles. A US publisher decided to renumber the series according to Narnian chronology (thus putting The Magician’s Nephew first and The Horse and His Boy third). This really has little to do with the review, but it is one of those things I feel compelled to note.

So, the movie …

I am reminded of a comment that Sam Riddleburger (author of The Qwikpik Adventure Society) made a few months ago:

how many times have we said,
“Oh great, a Black Cauldron movie!” and then lived to regret it.

Although I found the movie enjoyable, I more than once found myself asking whether the scriptwriters read the same book I did. Before I go on that rant, though, let me say what they did right.

Reepicheep. The valiant mouse knight was a deal-breaker. Doing Reepicheep badly would have made it impossible for me to see the movie as anything other than a failure. That would be worse than having Klingons quote Shakespeare!

Visually, the battle scenes were magnificent. While the griffins, for example, were added by Disney, they are not unwelcome.

Susan and Lucy are convincingly played and true to the story — Lucy the idealistic and faithful Narnian at heart, Susan growing more sure of herself and more cynical about idealism. Having said that, Susan is remade into quite the warrior, which is probably done more to avoid sexual stereotyping than anything else, although it means that Susan missed out on being part of the real difference that turns the war irrevocably against the Telmarines.

So, what went wrong?

First of all, the story is about Narnia having lost its way and there being a small remnant of those who still believe in the old ways — Trufflehunter the badger, Reepicheep the mouse, and Glenstrom the centaur being among those. Caspian himself was raised to know those old ways, but as a Telmarine has a hard time relating. Trumpkin the dwarf has lost his faith, but comes back. Nikabrik the dwarf has lost faith and become so embittered that he embraces evil for pragmatic reasons — after all, the White Witch wasn’t so hard on his dwarf forefathers … so long as they joined her. He is convinced that even joining with evil will improve his lot, so he does it.

None of that is addressed in the movie.

The movie is just about kingly succession. Lord Miraz murdered his brother (King Caspian IX) and seized power as Lord Protector while his nephew Caspian X is a child. However, he refuses to give up his power, and ultimately decides to assassinate Caspian in order to prevent him from taking the throne.

The civil war that is presented is just that … a war over the rule of Narnia. The role of faith and faithlessness is left out.

Ultimately, that presents a bit of a weakness in the story as compared to that of the book. The story has become just about who is going to be king, rather than in whom the people of Narnia will place their faith.

Although the first appearance of Aslan is handled correctly — with Lucy trying to persuade the others that she saw him and failing, and that failure resulting in a tremendous amount of lost time and effort — the rest of the Aslan storyline is badly botched.

The decision to blow Queen Susan’s horn is changed radically, and in a very disappointing way. In the book, believers in the ancients kings and queens, and in Aslan, lead the way in having Caspian blow the horn and sending Pattertwig the squirrel up to Lantern Waste and Trumpkin to the ruins of Cair Paravel, two of the ancient magical places of Narnia (at the time, they are in Aslan’s How, the cite of the Old Stone Table, the other major place that is worth covering). When Caspian blows the horn, he knows what he is expecting — powerful help. Perhaps even Aslan, it is speculated.

In the movie, he’s being chased by Talmarines and has just been caught by dwarfs. He just happens to summon the Pevensies.

While it is visually impressive, the entire scene in which the Narnians storm the Telmarine castle is something added for the movie, and it’s not an improvement. That time could have been spent on seeing more of the interaction between the Narnians, and more time could have been devoted to seeing the transition as the Talking Beasts win over others to returning to their faith in Aslan. Instead, we got a huge battle scene at the expense of character development and plot.

Comments from my sons …

My 9-year-old son (about to be 10) said that the movie was “pretty good.” He liked a number of parts.

My 11-year old son asked, “Did they get confused what book they were reading?” When Peter asked what would happen if he died in Narnia, my son remarked that that question was supposed to have been asked in The Last Battle. His critique of what was done in the wrong order or which shouldn’t have happened at all is extensive.

Overall, I think that it might be worth seeing the movie if you’re interested in a fun movie … but don’t expect to see the beloved book on the screen. This Prince Caspian is nothing like the Prince Caspian of the book, and the High King Peter is even less consistent.