The Chronicles of Narnia:Prince Caspian (Theaters)

The Chronicles of Narnia:Prince Caspian was an excellent sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which was released nearly three years ago. Far darker than its predecessor, Prince Caspian begins one year after (1300 Narnian Years) Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have returned from their first adventure in the magical realm.

Visually, this film is stunning. The CGI work was incredible and the “Old Narnians” looked very realistic. The storyline is fairly straight forward and I feel that most kids should find it easy enough to understand. What really took me by surprise was the amount of violence Disney allowed in the film. I recall at least one decapitation, a bit of blood, and at least one sequence which a child screamed. However, this film is a far cry from the violence in films such as the Lord of the Rings and I would still highly recommend it to any parent who’s child is above the ages of seven or eight years old.

For those of you who have read the actual book, you may be surprised at the amount of changes Disney made to the storyline. The producers seemed to use the book more as a blueprint rather than a script and there were actually quite a few elements that were changed, added, or completely omitted. The changes didn’t discredit the film at all, but personally I felt that they could have kept to script a little more without losing so much of the book’s original literature.

Overall, this film is a solid family feature. It definitely does justice to the original work and I think both children and adults will find it entertaining. I would however recommend that you pass on this film if your child is frightened easily or has nightmares regularly. The creatures do look a bit demonic and as I mentioned earlier, there is at least one section in the film that made several children jump out of their seats.

Synopsis:

The enchanted characters of C.S. Lewis’s timeless fantasy come to dazzling life again in this second installment of the seven book series, in which the Pevensie siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – are magically and mysteriously transported back from World War II England to Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure and an even greater test of their faith and courage awaits them.

One year after the incredible events of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the Kings and Queens of Narnia find themselves back in that faraway wondrous realm, only to discover that more than 1300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct, Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy.

The four children will soon meet an intriguing new character: Narnia’s rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne. With the help of the kindly dwarf, a courageous talking mouse named Reepicheep, a badger named Trufflehunter and a Black Dwarf, Nikabrik, the Narnians, led by the mighty knights Peter and Caspian, embark on a remarkable journey to find Aslan, rescue Narnia from Miraz’s tyrannical hold, and restore magic and glory to the land. Source: Movie Web