NarniaFans Mailbag #29: Is Prince Caspian Better than LWW? Dawn Treader Poster? and more!

Presenting the newly rejuvenated NarniaFans Mailbag. We’re going to avoid confusion and pick up the numbering where we left off. If you would like to read any of the old mailbags, we’ve got them here. If you’d like to submit a question for next week’s mailbag, use our handy contact form.

Let’s get started!

Q: There’s a poster for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on imdb.com. Is this legitamite, or a fake? Also, great site! Can’t wait to see how it does in the future!

-Skulblaka_Shur’tugal

A: I trust you mean this one:

This is definitely a fan made creation. There are a number of things that give it away. First is that the pictures of Lucy and Edmund are taken directly from Prince Caspian. Another thing that makes it seem a little more authentic, but is a dead giveaway is the fact that the Caspian seen in this poster is not Ben Barnes. It’s the character actor from Walt Disney World’s Journey into Narnia! Another thing is that they have not even started shooting yet. Sure there are sometimes early posters released, and sometimes they are released this early, but we don’t yet know what the Dawn Treader even looks like for the film. The three floating heads are also transparent, something that they don’t tend to do in actual movie posters.

Q: I saw the Prince Caspian movie and then read the book. Where is the part where they kiss in the book?

-Joshua

A: The simplest answer was given in the comments where you asked the question. The filmmakers put that into the film. It wasn’t a decision that they came to lightly though. It was a highly debated issue among them as they wrote the screenplay. The character of Susan goes through some pretty big changes in the story.. at least they are big changes when you’re not paying attention to how she speaks throughout the series. In the books, the things she says foreshadow the path that her character takes. I won’t tell you, though, as you may not have finished the series yet. In the context of the books, though, the kiss does make sense and serves to explain her character earlier on. If all seven films are produced, it’ll make more sense in the long run.

One reason, though, that the writers gave, was that putting that girl into a movie with that guy, having nothing between the two would have been unrealistic. As far as filmmaking is concerned, they are correct, and girls everywhere would have been asking why nothing happened. It’s one of those decisions that doesn’t really effect the outcome of the movie, or the character of Susan.

Q: Am I the only one that actually thinks the second movie is better than the first?

-CaspianGirl

Paul: Actually, you’re not the only one. There are many people that believe it to be better than the first. For one thing, all of the returning cast members are much more comfortable in their roles. They exude a confidence on the screen that they didn’t completely have in the first. For another, between films some of the children went through extensive acting classes to get better at their craft.

William Moseley’s new skills are on display throughout, but in particular the scene at the end of the castle-raid. His face says everything that it needs to, and no words are required to say what he is feeling at that point.

Skandar Keynes also comes into his own, and displays his acting chops, and shows that he’ll be a terrific actor to watch in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The cast was all very comfortable with each other, and they really dove into the roles, allowing us to get pulled back into Narnia all the easier.

That’s not to mention they took an inferior story in the Narnia series and made it into an excellent and highly entertaining movie. Frankly, this was the one Narnia story that I was worried wouldn’t translate into a very good film, but in breaking loose from the story in the order that it happened in the book, they were able to flesh out different characters and make Caspian more than what it was in the written word. I believe that they captured aspects of the characters that can be found on the page, if you look at it from a different perspective than you usually would.

Lily_of_Archenland: I’d find it a difficult decision, personally. While PC left a lot more plot aberrations in a nitpickers guide sort of way, and had a couple of places which really upset me, PC also seemed more solid on really giving one a good idea of Aslan’s power rather than equivocating the victory as belonging mostly to the Pevensies. So, odd as it may seem, I’d say Prince Caspian is better and worse than #1, only in different ways.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag. Be sure to send us some e-mails, and I’ll be sure to try and include them in next week’s mailbag. I’m also hoping to get the other NarniaFans.com writers to chime in, if the letters come in early enough. If that is the case, then the answers will not be preceded by the letter “A” but by the name of the writer providing the answer. This week, I included a comment that was left in the comments on the other entry for the answer above.