The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
There's not much to say about Prince Caspian that wasn't already said about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It certainly isn't an improvement on the first film (for instance, the male Pevensie children obviously didn't take acting classes between pictures), but there's no less spectacle to be seen either. The Penvesie brood barely recognize their surroundings upon returning to Narnia some 1,000 years after their last adventure and find themselves immediately thrown into another battle for C.S. Lewis' quasi-Biblical land of talking animals and mythological creatures. Their mission this time is to lead the oppressed Narnians to victory over the Telmarines with the help of Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne whose evil uncle will stop at nothing to prevent his ascension. Once again, there are lots of lessons learned about hubris, revenge, humility and faith—all told against a backdrop of Bible stories and World War II parallels. Perhaps the battle sequences are more impressive (including a fantastic raid on the Telmarine castle reminiscent of World War II movies like Where Eagles Dare and Guns of Navarrone) and the colors even more vibrant (though that could be the astonishingly brilliant Blu-ray picture); but a persistent feeling of “been there, done that” plagues the film throughout, making character development seem hollow when compared to the first film. Lewis' novels are simply too self-contained to avoid this sense of repetition without making serious adaptive alterations—something that cannot be done which such iconic works of fiction. The novels are what they are, and so are their film interpretations.
- April 15, 2009
DVD Extras
The Blu-ray discs come with an impressive feature called Circle-Vision Interactive, which takes you through the aforementioned castle raid sequence via access to every piece of the scene, from the director down to the least known concept artist. Every element of the sequence is broken down in progression reels, developmental animatics, audio commentaries, pop-up facts, slide shows and behind-the-scenes footage with the cast and crew. Other features include an exclusive Disney BD-Live link and audio commentary with the cast and director.