The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (DVD)
Unfortunately one cannot apply two ratings to one item. If you have never read the book or if you have no author loyalty and love of C.S. Lewis and his Chronicles, then I would have rated this DVD and the fore-running movie of the same title Good to Excellent as an fantasy action/adventure movie.
However, having read the book, Disney has not retained the "true-to-the-book" care they took in the first movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Let me outline just a few of the deviations the creators of this movie made that cause injurious harm to the wonder of the book the author penned.
1. In the movie, there is a huge raid on the Telmarine's castle of the humans, resulting in the injury and death of many of the Narnians. In the book there is no castle raid at all.
2. In the movie, Prince Caspian and Peter are arguing like a bunch of school boys trying to impress themselves and those watching. In the book, they are respectful and get along fine.
3. This brings me to Peter in general. In the movie,both before he goes into Narnia this time and after he goes in, he acts like the brawling, ignorant, immature young man mentioned in 2. above. He is driven by pride and can't seem to make thoughtful decisions. In the book, however, he is as he was toward the end of the first movie, mature, thoughtful, decisive and acting like the High King Peter he was.
4. Susan is also changed in the movie from the mature, young lady Queen Susan we were introduced to at the end of the first movie, and that we see continued in the book, to the star-struck, groupie we see her turn into around Prince Caspian in this movie. The book has no hint of any romantic feelings for Caspian in Susan's heart.
Now these are only a few of the many, many areas that the creators of the Caspian movie departed wildly from the book. I know full well, that no movie can capture the fullness of any book. It would have to be 10 hours long at least. However, excluding material from a book is expected in any movie; but changing the book adventure as well as the characters as this movie has done is quite another story. It is a shame that they did not retain truthfulness to C.S.Lewis' vision as he wrote this wonderful novel. Hopefully, they will learn their lesson and make the Voyage of the Dawn Treader true to the Book when they create the movie version.
Again, tremendous kudos to the creators of this movie for it's Casting Director's choice of actors, the wonderful, awesome special effects and the beautiful land chosen to shoot the movie. If you stay away from the book you will love the movie. As a stand alone, it was a wonderful story with many redeeming values. The child like faith with which the five main defenders of Narnia proceeded without the lust of revenge and the prideful demand to be held up as Kings and Queens allowed them to conquer the vicious Telmarines. One of my favorite characters in Reepicheep the glorious Knight of Narnia, the well-spoken brave little mouse.
All in all I really liked the movie and again I wish I could give two ratings, but alas, I cannot. Hopefully in the next movie, the makers will remain true to the book as C.S.Lewis wrote it, not that they include the whole of the story, but that what they do choose to put in reflects the writings of the author. I hope that this was just a one-time deviation and as Aslan says, "Things never happen the same twice." I recommend the book, and also reluctantly the movie.Read full review
