| THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN |  Co-writer / director / and co-producer Andrew Adamson has been said to have described his second installment in the Walt Disney Pictures / Walden Media adaptations of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series as a darker, more grown-up, summer film. He's correct on all three counts. In fact, there's probably a need to remind parents and guardians of young children that despite the plethora of toys and product tie-ins no doubt pitched at little kids, the Chronicles of Narnia and the two recent films are not really. These are battle-driven films with lots of scenes of kids in peril or fighting at advanced levels with swords and daggers. Granted, care has been taken in ways that are quite obvious and significant to downplay the violence rather than glorify it, but it is there nonetheless. Some have said the film is to be appreciated most by the 'tweens' (those children in the age between little kids and teenagers sort of the 10-12 range) and above. Certainly, that is the case insofar as the 10-12 year-old in your family can differentiate real from fantasy violence and mayhem.
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As far as the film goes, it does bear some fruit to dispatch comparisons with the first chronicle adaptation:(The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe straight away. If you haven't seen the first, you simply must see it on DVD before you see the second. It's not so much that the second cannot stand alone, it might well, but just like with the Harry Potter films, seeing them out of order just doesn't sit right. The first thing noticeable about the second film is that the kids are visually older. Which is to be expected, they are a year older in the book. Lucy (Georgie Henley) and especially Edmund (Skandar Keynes) have shot up a bit in height, not so much for the two older children Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) who were closer to their adult heights in the last film. But, this height difference, while seemingly small, has a great effect on the second film as it really adds a bit of unexpected realism again, especially for Edmund, who no longer looks like a little schoolboy but a strong young man. He's nearly taller than Peter now, and while not completely rid of the anger in his face derived from resentment of his older brother who still finds it difficult not to boss, it's becoming easier to picture him as the leading character in the next film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
See it on the biggest screen you can…not meant to be seen on a television screen at home.
Other than this, the leading four actors have reclaimed their characters with the ease of getting on a bicycle put away for the winter. Next, while no one will ever be able to forget the villainous White Witch so adeptly portrayed by Ms Tilda Swinton in the first film, the second lacks both a villain and an actress of her caliber. The villain in the second is really an entire group of people called the Telmarines—descendants of Mediterranean pirates whose shipwreck opened the passageway for them into Narnia which they quickly conquered in the absence of the true Kings and Queens who had unexpectedly and inadvertently left Narnia via the wardrobe at the end of the first book. The Telmarines goal was to rid Narnia of all Narnians and rule the land themselves in a feudal system of lords and a high King Caspian. They are established quickly as an unforgiving people, but still never match the terror of the evil enchantress, the White Witch. This story, then because the backstory has been provided by the first film, focuses its 147 minutes on plucking the Pevensie children, former Kings and Queens of Narnia, from London and plunging them back into their roles in Narnia to lead the epic battle for peace and restoring the harmony in Narnia for the Narnians. Of course, what the Pevensie children won't realize right away is that while it's been only a year in time for them in their world, it has been 1300 years in Narnia. Fortunately, what ever magic is at work during the transfer between time and place, when they arrive in Narnia, they arrive in their present form and not in the forms from which they left Narnia the first time as one might recall they had all grown up. Instead of talking beavers, this film employees a talking Badger and a platoon of talking, sword-wielding mice the leader of which bears some resemblance in both appearance and manner to the infamous Antonio Banderas-voiced Puss 'n Boots from Shrek 2. Also, unlike the first film, this film introduces a new hero, Prince Caspian X (Ben Barnes), heir to the thrown of Narnia, whose bitter Uncle who slew his father King Caspian IX, and attempted the assassination of Prince Caspian X on the night of the birth of his own son with the goal to ascend his brother's throne and start a new line of kings, has fled to the haunted woods on advice of his tutor Dr. Cornelius (Vincent Grass) where he can find safety. It is here that Prince Caspian X discovers that Narnians are real and he blows the horn Dr. Cornelius gives him to use only in a real emergency. It is that horn blast that penetrates into a London Tube stop and opens the rift through with the Pevensies are then able to return to Narnia after a year away from a lifetime and place they had grown to love far more than their dreary lives in war-torn England. The story, as has been alluded, is similar to the first in that Narnia has been overtaken by forces that enslave or kill the Narnians, and battles will have to be fought to restore the order. This time, however, it is all Narnians vs. the Telmarines, not Narnians vs. Narnians. This time, also, Aslan will not play a deep role in the conflict until, as Georgie puts it, the children have proven themselves worthy of his help. This time, all four children will play a more active role in the battle and major plot points in fairly equal share, along with that of the new Prince Caspian X.
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