Product Description

Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna PopplewellDirector: Andrew Adamson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2827 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 2008-11-17
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 144 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
More exciting than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian continues the movie franchise based on C.S. Lewis' classic fantasy books. The movie picks up where the first left off... sort of. It's been a year since the Pevensie children--Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley)--returned to England from Narnia, and they've just about resigned themselves to living their ordinary lives. But just like that, they're once again transported to a fantastical land, but one with a long-abandoned castle. It turns out that they are in Narnia again--and they themselves lived in that castle, but hundreds of years ago in Narnia time. They've been summoned back to help Prince Caspian (Stardust's Ben Barnes, res! embling a young, cultured Keanu Reeves), the rightful heir to the throne who's become the target of his power-hungry uncle, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). And he's not the only one threatened: Miraz's people, the Telmarines, have pushed all the Narnians--the talking animals, the centaurs and other beasts, the walking trees--to the brink of extinction. Despite some alpha-male bickering, Peter and Caspian agree to fight Miraz alongside the remaining Narnians, including the dwarf Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage) and the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard). (Also appearing is Warwick Davis, who was in Willow and the 1989 BBC version of Prince Caspian.) But of course they most of all miss the noble lion, Aslan, who would have never let this happen to Narnia if he hadn't disappeared.

Prince Caspian is epic, evoking memories of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. (Some of the battle elements may seem too familiar, but they were in Lewis's book.) And it's appropriate for kids (Reepicheep could have come out of a Shrek movie), though the tone is dark and there is a lot of death, albeit bloodless. After two successful films, Disney and Walden Media's franchise has proved successful enough that many of the characters are scheduled to return in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. --David Horiuchi, Amazon.com

Synopsis
The characters of C.S. Lewis's timeless fantasy come to life once again in this newest installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series, in which the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure and an even greater test of their faith and courage awaits them.

It’s one year since the childrens’ adventures in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but when the Kings and Queens of Narnia journey back to the magical realm (via a London Underground station this time, rather than a wardrobe) 1300 years have passed, the Golden Age of Narnia is over and the kingdom lies in ruins. 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 meet an intriguing new character: Narnia's rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as Miraz, his uncle, plots to kill him and 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 called 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.

Directed once again by veteran director Andrew Adamson, the film reunites the original cast and creative team behind the blockbuster first film in the series.

Synopsis
Based on the second novel in C.S. Lewis's beloved CHRONICLES OF NARNIA series, PRINCE CASPIAN finds the four Pevensie children--Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley)--once again whisked away from WWII-era England into the realm of Narnia, where the siblings once ruled as royalty. However, the Pevensies soon discover that 1,300 years have passed since they left, and the world is now controlled by the Telmarines, humans who long ago banished the magical creatures of Narnia to the wilderness. When the heir to the Telmarine throne, Caspian (Ben Barnes), survives an assassination attempt plotted by his scheming uncle, Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), the noble youth stumbles across Narnia's exiled enchanted population, and decides to lead them in an uprising, aided by Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

Considerably darker and more action-packed than THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, this 2008 sequel, once again directed by Andrew Adamson, is driven by the struggle between the Telmarines and the banished Narnians, resulting in many fierce battle sequences. While the newcomer Barnes and the established quartet of Moseley, Popplewell, Keynes, and Henley are all in fine form, CASPIAN is largely enhanced by its supporting cast, which includes indie mainstay Peter Dinklage as the dour dwarf Trumpkin and revered comedian Eddie Izzard as the voice of the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep. Also briefly reprising their roles from the previous film are Liam Neeson, as the voice of Aslan, and Tilda Swinton, as the White Witch, actors who bring their familiar personas to this engaging and entertaining second chapter in the NARNIA saga.

Customer Reviews

Even better then the first Narnia film which was great!!!
I read all the Narnia books when I was a child and loved them all very much indeed. At the moment I must say the films so far are doing the books great justice and I can't wait for the next one. Prince Caspian is faster paced then the first film and has these cute sword fighting assassin mice which made me smile alot. One thing I have noticed with all my Disney Blu-ray films is that they seem to have the best hd transfers going at the moment. If you liked reading the Narnia books or enjoy fantasy films then this really is a must buy you won't regret it.

Prince Caspian, Blu-Ray
In 'Prince Caspian' we return to an altered and savage Narnia and more fantasy adventure to delight the family. You get great affects, battle scenes, talking animals and a pretty close rendition of the book. I have to say that I found this more enjoyable than 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' with the slightly darker elements to the story fitting the fantasy adventure theme a lot better. The children stars of this film annoy me as actors and Prince Caspians accent reminded me of Puss in Boots from Shrek at times, but overall the acting was OK and didn't detract from the story. It manages to achieve what it set out to, that is, a fun family adventure and manages to keep you interested and watching for the duration, which didn't feel overly long as the story kept pushing forward. A good film that is worth watching if you were a fan of the first installment or of fantasy films in general.

Great film - despite differences from the book
Prince Caspian is a superb film, and great to own on Blu-Ray, which gives full rein to the breathtaking and detailed cinematography. It's a great film even though it differs from the book in many crucial respects though -- in case you are thinking about not watching it for this reason -- it remains fundamentally true to what the book is about. Want to know how? Read on.

Prince Caspian (the book) was the second of the Narnia books to be written, and was the 'return to Narnia' after the unprecedented (and unexpected) success of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Of the seven, it's probably the most adventurous and exciting, but it also has to work very hard to explain itself. What this boils down to is that the book begins with a fairly lengthy 'mystery' sequence, where the children arrive in Narnia, but spend a long time before they understand that they are in Narnia, followed by a very long 'flashback', while Trumpkin the dwarf explains the entire history of Prince Caspian (the character) and the entire course of the war with his uncle Miraz. The children then travel with the dwarf through a changed Narnia, in a section dominated by Lucy's passion to see Aslan again, and the disbelief of the others. The book really takes off when the boys join up with Caspian, and the girls with Aslan, leading to one of the most exciting and well-described sword-fights in all of literature. After victory, the book culminates in joyous and eminently readable victory celebrations.

Prince Caspian is a great book, but, quite obviously, most of the plot presented in that way would be almost impossible to make into a film which was anywhere near as exciting as it deserves to be.

So, what was the film-maker's solution? To keep most of the plot, but to play it in a different sequence. Sometimes this is overcoming the difficulty of doing flashbacks well (by presenting things in their 'natural' order), but, more often, it's playing the crucial scenes actually in a different order.

I have to say, I was worried that this would happen, which is why I didn't see the film in the cinema (my loss). My niece still refuses to see it.

Although casually cutting up the best bits of the book and gluing them back together differently sounds like a kind of desecration, it actually works very well indeed. A couple of major scenes are added, including a daring (but doomed) attack on the castle of Miraz, and there's a lot more footage of Miraz and his family. What the screenwriters seem to be trying to do is to keep the spirit and ethos of the book, and draw out the characters, and moving the plot around in order to make sense of it.

This is quite different from the way that The Lord of the Rings was altered for the film, with a very different (and disappointing) slant placed on the character of Elrond.

If you've read the books, and can see that this is the same story told different, then you will be able enjoy to the full this rivetting, gorgeous, touching and perfectly timed film, which (because of the way the plot changes) keeps you guessing right to the end, the way the book did the first time you read it. If you haven't read the book, then this is a great movie and will help the book to resonate afterwards. If you've read the books, though, and can't bear for any of them to be altered, then take heart: with its criss-crossing plot and time lines, Prince Caspian will have been by far the hardest of the books to bring to film. Expect a Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, Horse and his Boy and Magician's Nephew which play very straight, in much the same way that The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was filmed. The Last Battle, though, may prove more problematic...

What I loved most about this film was the way it brings out the legendary status of the children as Kings and Queens of Narnia, while constantly contrasting it with them as children. The sense of the inter-mingling of time is heady and potent. The camera work is dazzling, and the music, especially when it calls to mind Mr Tumnus's theme from the first film, perfectly offsets it.

Provided that you can overcome the radical surgery to the plot, this is virtually a film without flaw, and its special effects easily overtake its predecessor.

Very warmly recommended, despite my initial misgivings.