Prince Caspian

(M) Ben Barnes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Hensley, Tilda Swinton

With Prince Caspian, Andrew Adamson has crafted an exciting and much more epic film than its predecessor, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Given a much bigger budget, the film has the scope and feel of the The Lord of the Rings films.

But already Prince Caspian has its detractors. Commentator Devon Brown (Inside Narnia and the upcoming Inside Prince Caspian) says that Adamson has jettisoned some of Lewis’ spiritual themes for action-packed battle scenes and set pieces.

It’s true: Adamson has changed the story by bringing what was essentially two stories in the book together in a filmic narrative and jettisoned some of C.S. Lewis’ subtler themes; but people who want to rediscover these will read the book.

The first story in the book is Prince Caspian’s, as he discovers his Uncle Miraz has had a son and plans to kill him and overthrow the throne. Caspian escapes with the help of his tutor into the deep forest, the ancient dwelling place of the old Narnia — a place he was told of in fairy tales.

Here he blows Susan’s horn, a treasured artefact given him by his tutor and professor and he summons the Narnians and pleads for their help to take back his throne.

The story then shifts to the Pevensie children who also were summoned to Narnia with Susan’s horn as they sit on an “empty, sleepy, country station” waiting for the train to take them to school.

Transported back to the ruins of castle Cair Paravel, the children are slow to recognise the place they ruled some 1,300 years previously. After they realise what they have stumbled into, they make their way to Prince Caspian and meet him at Aslan’s How, the mound covering the stone table where Aslan is killed and resurrected.

Adamson has wisely intertwined the narratives and bought the protagonists together much earlier in the film (the first act) and added a battle at the Telmarine castle which proves to highlight Peter’s stubborn leadership and demonstrate that “pride goes before a fall”.

Gone also are some of the earlier references to Aslan, with the film version having Aslan come into the story in the third act to help the children and Caspian once they have struggled to take things in their own hands.

There is also a bit of alpha male action between Peter and Caspian, who fight for leadership with some grave consequences — something that is hinted at in the book but fleshed out in Adamson’s co-written screenplay.

All this serves to highlight what is problematic about translating a well-loved book into a film. Because film is a very different storytelling medium, Adamson can only alienate those with precious feelings about the books of their childhood; those who wish the story to be faithfully re-created on screen.

The fact remains that films are ultimately made to appeal to the broadest possible audience and, while some changes are necessary with any book to make it filmable, you inevitably miss some of the subtext in this sort of translation.

The film successfully explores a few things only hinted at in the book: how the children felt being back in Narnia a year since spending an entire adulthood in Narnia; what it was like being back in the real world as mere school children and the feelings that are re-kindled when they are summoned back to Narnia.

And the over-arching themes of the book remain intact: where the first film was about the overthrowing of evil and the nature of sacrifice and redemption, this film is about growing up and maturing and choosing to follow the right path.

And let’s not forget, it’s a rollicking adventure to boot!

Adrian Drayton