Some of those elements remain in Prince Caspian, not surprising since most of those involved also participated in the first film, including director Andrew Adamson and the four young leads, playing the Pevensie children. They are William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy). In their home world, they’re school-aged brothers and sisters in WWII London; in Narnia, they are kings and queens, “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.” As Caspian opens, after a bit of scene setting, the four are on a Tube platform, mourning their separation from Narnia. Suddenly, as a train rushes through, a wall opens and they’re back in Narnia, on a beach, below what turns out to be the ruins of their castle, Cair Paravel. What we know that they’ve yet to find out is that 1,300 years have passed, and they’ve been summoned back by Caspian himself, blowing Queen Susan’s magical horn.
For those who haven’t read the books, a quick synopsis (which you’ll need, because the film assumes you’ve at least seen the first movie if not read the book): Caspian (Ben Barnes) is the king-to-be of the Telmarines. His uncle, Miraz, who is to be keeping the throne in trust until Caspian is old enough to rule, has just become the father to a son, and Caspian is all that stands in the way of him taking over. But, before he can have Caspian killed, Caspian’s teacher, Doctor Cornelius, helps Caspian to escape. He heads across the border into Narnia, a very different Narnia from the one the Pevensies left behind. The Talmarines believe they’ve killed all the Narnians, leaving an empty land. Of course, they’re wrong, as Caspian soon finds out. He’s taken in by a badger and a dwarf, while another dwarf is taken captive by the Telmarines. It’s as all of that is happening that Caspian blows on the horn.
The Pevensies and Caspian don’t join up right away. First, Caspian meets more of the Narnians and agrees to lead them in battle against his uncle and the Telmarines. In the meantime, the Penvensies have met and saved the other dwarf, Trumpkin (the marvelous Peter Dinklage), from being drowned by the Telmarines. In doing so, Miraz learns that the kings and queens are back in Narnia, and begins to prepare for battle.
Peter, the high king, is eager to fight to reclaim Narnia. His brother and sisters are less enthusiastic, especially Lucy, the youngest. Her preference is to wait for Aslan, the mighty lion, to show up, and her faith is strong. She’s already seen him once, or thinks she has – the others either can’t or won’t see him and don’t share her belief. Peter, Caspian, Susan and Edmund lead a group in a raid on Miraz’s castle, but the plan doesn’t work and many Narnians are killed. The Telmarines then attack the Narnians. By now, getting help from Aslan seems like a really good idea, so to buy time for Lucy and Susan to go in search of him, Peter challenges Miraz to a one-on-one duel. Peter and Caspian both show Miraz mercy, which backfires, and the full-scale battle begins.
There’s lots of great action in Prince Caspian, not to mention gorgeous scenery and impressive sets. The acting is fine, particularly from Henley and Dinklage. But what Caspian lacks that Lion had is heart. Part of that is the material; I love the Narnia series, but Prince Caspian was never one of my favorite books. But more of it is that there’s so much action crammed in, there’s little time for character development. There are no animals that we get to know and love like Mr. Tumnus, the faun from Lion. The closest would be Reepicheep, a very chivalrous, courageous mouse (voiced by Eddie Izzard), but his part in this is littler than he is. It’s all go, with little time to drink in the characters and the story. (That said, it’s a two-hour plus film.)
The 3-disc Blu-Ray edition has the film with commentary track by Adamson and the actors on the first disc (plus a featurette on how the castle raid scene was done); disc two is a variety of special features; disc three is a digital download copy. Many of the features are interesting, but they’re also quite long, especially the making of featurette and one on how the scenes described in the book were turned into sets for the film. More interesting is a short on the process Dinklage went through to be turned into Trumpkin and a similar, though more funny, profile on Warwick Davis, who plays the other dwarf, Nikabrik. My favorite of the featurettes is about filming a critical scene in the very small Slovenia town of Bovec; it looks to be a beautiful, friendly place that coped pretty well when the production descended on it. Other special features are some deleted scenes, bloopers, and close-ups on the duel, the talking animals and other magical creatures and the pre-visualization process.
The picture looks fantastic in high def (besides Slovenia, lots of gorgeous New Zealand scenery among other locations), and the sound is good, though the music track tended to cover up some of the dialogue when I watched it (and I don’t think it was my settings). Sound is English 7.1 DTS-HD with Spanish and French options in Dolby Digital 5.1. (The special features are all in Dolby Digital 5.1.) Subtitle options are English, French and Spanish.