The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian sends four children back to a kingdom that has moved on without them. Andrew Adamson directs, from a script he wrote with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It runs 150 minutes. It is the second film in the Narnia series, after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it is based on the 1951 novel by C. S. Lewis.
It is also the point where the series stops being a fairy tale and starts being a war movie. That is the interesting thing about it, and it is also the problem.
Trailer, via Disney UK.
A Year in England, 1,300 Years in Narnia
The Pevensies wait at the Strand tube station for a train to boarding school. One year has passed in England since they left Narnia. Almost 1,300 years have passed in Narnia. The station tears apart and they are back.
Their castle, Cair Paravel, is ruined. It was attacked in their absence. They save a bound and gagged Trumpkin, a dwarf about to be drowned, and set out together.
The premise is the film’s best idea. Four kids come home to find their home does not remember them. Peter expects to be king again. Nobody in Narnia agrees.
Caspian, Miraz, and a Horn
Caspian is a Telmarine prince. His mentor, Doctor Cornelius, wakes him to say his aunt has given birth to a son, which puts Caspian’s life in danger. Cornelius gives him Queen Susan’s ancient magical horn and tells him to use it if he is in dire need. Knowing his uncle Miraz would kill him to be king, Caspian flees.
He falls from his horse, meets two dwarfs and a talking badger, and blows the horn. Trumpkin is captured after sacrificing himself to save Caspian. Nikabrik and the badger Trufflehunter get Caspian away.
The cast is deep and mostly good:
- Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian
- Sergio Castellitto as King Miraz
- Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin
- Warwick Davis as Nikabrik
- Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan
- Suzy Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep
- Tilda Swinton as the White Witch
Swinton’s return is a cameo, and it is the single best scene in the picture. It is also the one that tells you what the film could have been.
The Pevensies Grew Up
Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell all reprise their roles. Henley plays Lucy as the believer — the youngest, and the most open-minded. Keynes plays Edmund, whom the writers saw as their Han Solo, doing the right thing and staying low-key about it. Moseley plays Peter. Popplewell plays Susan.
Moseley explained the central conflict himself. “Peter’s got his own issues to deal with, and Caspian’s got his own issues to deal with, and when neither is willing to compromise, there’s bound to be friction,” he said. Peter came back expecting everyone to do as he said. Caspian would not let him take over.
Moseley called it a story about humility, and said a great king needs to listen and compromise. He and Barnes got on well in real life. On screen, the rivalry is the engine.
Why the Sequel Looks Different
Adamson wanted this film more spectacular than the first. The Narnians were designed to look wilder because they have been hiding from persecution, which stresses the darker tone. The filmmakers took a Spanish influence for the Telmarines, the antagonistic race.
Filming began in February 2007 in New Zealand. Unlike the first film, most shooting happened in Central Europe, because those countries had larger sets. Adamson based post-production in the United Kingdom to keep costs down, citing recent tax credits there. Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media produced.
Work on the script began before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out, so filming could start before the actors aged out of their parts. That decision shapes everything. The kids are visibly older, and the film uses that instead of hiding it.
| Element | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Prince Caspian |
|---|---|---|
| Narnia’s state | Under the White Witch’s winter | Conquered, ruined, occupied by Telmarines |
| Main location | New Zealand | Mostly Central Europe |
| Narnian look | Storybook | Wilder, hiding from persecution |
| Tone | Discovery | War |
The table is the whole argument. The first film was about finding a magic country. This one is about liberating an occupied one.
What Works and What Drags
The darker register suits the material. Cair Paravel in ruins lands harder than any talking animal. Peter and Caspian snarling at each other is more honest than the first film’s clean heroics, and Moseley is right that the payoff is humility, not victory.
Lucy seeing Aslan when her siblings cannot is the film’s quiet thread. She contacts him in a dream, and only Edmund believes her. That is a real idea about faith, and it is handled without a lecture.
But 150 minutes is a long time, and the middle does not earn it. The film keeps adding characters — Trumpkin, Nikabrik, Trufflehunter, Reepicheep, Cornelius, Glozell — and each one costs minutes the central rivalry needs. Reepicheep, voiced by Izzard, is fun. Fun is not the same as necessary.
The bigger problem is that Prince Caspian wants to be a war epic and a children’s fantasy at once. It commits to neither. The battle scenes are loud, the faith scenes are soft, and the film cuts between them instead of binding them.
Our Verdict
This is the most ambitious Narnia film and the least disciplined one. Adamson’s instinct — go bigger, go darker, let the kids grow up — was correct. The execution buries that instinct under a crowded cast and a runtime that outlasts its story.
The White Witch cameo proves the point. One scene with Swinton carries more menace than the entire Telmarine war. The film knows what fear looks like. It just does not trust that knowledge for long enough.
Against the first film, Prince Caspian is a step forward in ambition and a step back in control. Against the novel, it is a reasonable adaptation that adds a rivalry Lewis did not write. That rivalry is the best change the filmmakers made, and they did not build the whole movie around it.
The pieces are here. Peter’s wounded pride, Caspian’s claim, Lucy’s faith, a kingdom that forgot its own stories. A tighter film would have picked two of those and gone deep. This one picks all of them and goes wide.
It is worth watching for the ruin of Cair Paravel, for Moseley and Barnes, and for Swinton. It is not worth 150 minutes of your evening unless you already love the books. The audience score settles around the same place: a 6.6 out of 10, from 6,916 votes.
That number feels right. Prince Caspian is a good film trapped inside a bigger, slower one. The sequel that should have been the series’ Empire Strikes Back settles for being its most expensive detour.
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