I read it again

F

FunkyFawn

New member
It's been several years since I've read the chronicles - but after buying the DVD and seeing it again, I just had to read the book again.

There was just way way way too many differences for me not to.

And unfortunately, instead of making me enjoy the movie more, it caused me to like it even less. They would have had a better movie if they hadn't radically altered it.

Ah well.
 
I have read Prince Caspian numerous times and loved it every time. I knew Hollywood would make some changes to the book...they do so with every movie taken from any book. However, I do believe that in Prince Caspian they went too far away from the book which made it into a movie that many readers didn't like. Disney is still trying to think why the film didn't do well in the box office other than opening the movie only a week before the new Indiana Jones movie. One of the primary reasons I believe is that most fans went back to the theater numerous times to see LWW, but because this movie strayed from the book so far, they only went and saw it once. I know personally of several people who felt that way.
 
I would have to agree. However, by getting a few of my friends to watch the movie with me last night, I convinced them to read/reread the books. Yeah, we all needed a study break.
 
as a movie, i loved it, and went to see it as many times as i could before i ran out of spending money and m sis refused to loan me anymore. I however, was very disappointed with how far they strayed from the movie. especially w/ the whole Su/Caspian thing. very. i hope they do a better job sticking to the book in VDT. Though now that they have made up a romance between Su and Caspian, when Caspian meets Ramundu's daughter, it's not going to look for very good. it makes Caspian's character look bad.
 
I really think the biggest problem was that they really tell two different stories. Book!PC is the story of a naive kid ("Wait, why will my uncle having a son possibly be a problem for me, even though I am the rightful heir and my father was suspiciously killed in a hunting accident?") who grows into an adult and a leader, assisted on his way by four adults (the Pevensies), who have done most of their growing up/into themselves on the way. (Obviously Aslan was there too, but he's much the same in the two.)

Move!PC isn't about a kid; Caspian's a rebellious teen boy/young man/man, who, uhm, really isn't inspiring me with confidence that he's OLD ENOUGH TO BE KING ALREADY AND HASN'T FIGURED MIRAZ OUT, but I digress. He has to learn humility, but...he really doesn't, actually, and he's not a cute kid anymore, and he doesn't strike me as much older by the end of the film. And the Pevensies were all turned into kids again--mostly Peter (who is horrid and has this very *young* desire to prove himself) and Lucy (who, um, doesn't do anything THE ENTIRE FILM, 90% of her sequences were cut, what is that?). So instead of "awesome characters we already know teach awestruck young prince kingly qualities and battle skills before everyone gets drunk with Aslan" we get "really annoying characters fail to be kingly or even mature and don't convince anyone they once ruled over a Golden Age, and they don't really help a spoiled and rather stupid prince regain the throne, leaving everyone to wonder a) why he needed them to begin with and b) why on earth Aslan thought this was a good start for the new line of Narnian kings anyway". And then they destroyed Susan, Lucy, and Peter's characters, and ruined Caspian's, and threw in the Caspian/Susan thing at the end...(which could have been worse, I suppose--it didn't look to me like anything more than "Here, goodbye, have a kiss and hopefully the Narnians will like you and everything will go well, you can tell your grandchildren you kissed the beautiful queen of old, et cetera," but apparently it was True Love to a lot of people, so that is sort of problematic. Also, assuming that Caspian is what, fifteen? Fourteen? Sixteen? With the maturity of someone a lot younger, and Susan was ALMOST THIRTY in Narnia and has presumably gotten that back at least mentally, I was really creeped out).
 
Animus, I agree with you nearly 100% ... except I rather liked the movie on its own as a sort of Narnia-themed movie. If they hadn't billed it as Prince Caspian, and if the Pevensies were just some other kids from post-War England rather than the Pevensies, I think it would have worked. There was certainly lots of excitement.

Tht said, my sis and bro-in-law are Luddites who don't own a computer and never visit the cinema, so they just watched PC the other day on DVD (they do have a DVD player!). They called me afterward and said it was enjoyable but ... where were the spiritual lessons? What was Lewis trying to say? They hadn't read the book, but they had seen LWW movie and clearly got he spiritual message there. They couldn't figure it out at all, from PC movie.

To me, that means ultimately the movie failed. :(
 
They changed these thing to make the movie more exciting for the audience. I'm gonna be really angry if they they make VotDt exactly like the book. I hated that one so bad.
 
I hope that they have a good balance between the book and VoDT instead of adding something totally out there (like the whole Susan/Caspian thing, that just made me upset), but also make it seem like 'they're just on a boat going to weird islands finding weird stuff'. It's better to read about it than to watch it on screen.
 
inkspot said:
Animus, I agree with you nearly 100% ... except I rather liked the movie on its own as a sort of Narnia-themed movie. If they hadn't billed it as Prince Caspian, and if the Pevensies were just some other kids from post-War England rather than the Pevensies, I think it would have worked. There was certainly lots of excitement.
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Actually, I think I agree with you there. It definitely addressed questions that tend to drive Narnia fans nuts, like how exactly you go from being a kid to a king to a kid no one knows was a king to a king again...(although I didn't much like the answer they gave); a lot of those things were really sort of interesting to me, and the struggle that they go through to convince the Narnians/Caspian that, yes, they're more than kids (though they could have done more with that, and I walked away from the movie distinctly creeped out by Susan hitting on Caspian, because he is much too young for her!). And it definitely was exciting!

inkspot said:
where were the spiritual lessons? What was Lewis trying to say? They hadn't read the book, but they had seen LWW movie and clearly got he spiritual message there. They couldn't figure it out at all, from PC movie.

To me, that means ultimately the movie failed. :(
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No, no, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective! The lesson clearly was: here are some attractive young people, watch them fight! Also, let's throw in some evil Spanish people, some freedom, and a lot of bad political decisions. (The message I got was that Aslan has really bad taste in picking his rulers, but what do I know.) This was obviously what Lewis had intended to write from the start, but somehow all of this, you know, learning and character growth and spiritual growth and that sort of thing got in the way.

Er, maybe give them copies of the books for Christmas?

I feel like with this series I'm of two minds: I want them to stop with the movies before they ruin my favorite Narnia book, VotDT--and then I want them to keep going because the concept art, it is so perfect, and if they do it right...! I could even forgive them a hint of Lucy/Caspian, I would not find it creepy. Also, I don't think it needs to be changed a bit, for the book is wonderful and perfectly suited for a movie! People get turned into dragons--sea monsters abound--Reepicheep and Eustace get into a fight--these scenes are perfect in a movie! And then they can have sweeping panoramic views of things too, if they like.
 
Animus Wyrmis said:
No, no, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective! The lesson clearly was: here are some attractive young people, watch them fight! Also, let's throw in some evil Spanish people, some freedom, and a lot of bad political decisions. (The message I got was that Aslan has really bad taste in picking his rulers, but what do I know.)
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LOL! :p I must agree with you, there. PC in the movie was a bit a dummie not to have wised up to Miraz at some point before he turned 21 ...
Animus Wyrmis said:
I feel like with this series I'm of two minds: I want them to stop with the movies before they ruin my favorite Narnia book, VotDT--and then I want them to keep going because the concept art, it is so perfect, and if they do it right...! I could even forgive them a hint of Lucy/Caspian, I would not find it creepy. Also, I don't think it needs to be changed a bit, for the book is wonderful and perfectly suited for a movie! People get turned into dragons--sea monsters abound--Reepicheep and Eustace get into a fight--these scenes are perfect in a movie! And then they can have sweeping panoramic views of things too, if they like.
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Agreed, completely. I would love to see VDT done right, and I would hate to see it handled as carelessly as PC. :(
 
Miss.SunFlower said:
If people have to tweak it that much to make it an exciting movie for audiences I'd be happier if it never had been a movie at all.
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Well, to be fair, a book and a movie are two diffrent media, so some changes are unltamity going to be have to made when adaption one to another. But at the end of the day, they went too far with PC. Its a good movie, but not the movie of the book prince Caspian. I hpe that they do make the other Narnia nooks into Movies, but that they are more like TLTWATW than PC.
 
I agree. They did such a great job with making LWW into a movie, I don't see why PC was any harder. I think the worst thing was the way they just ruined Peter's character.
 
Narborg said:
Well, to be fair, a book and a movie are two diffrent media, so some changes are unltamity going to be have to made when adaption one to another.
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Well, there are changes and then there are changes. For VotDT, for instance, I can see that they might have to change my favorite section, which is Eustace's diary--as it is, it doesn't fit well on screen; a direct adaptation would be like a voice over, I guess. And that's understandable and fine.

However, personality transplants and huge age changes are unnecessary.
 
This is roughly taken from Barry Trotter, but i believe it sums it up quite well - in the books you create your own pictures, but in the movies its strangers making up what you should be seeing and thinking.

I hope they do a good job on VOTDT, a new director may help with keeping it true to the books, if they don't.... i will be sorely dissapointed

I also agree that they ruined Peter's character in PC.

And that the Susan/Caspian thing was pretty bad
 
I have read all the books at least once a year since I was about 8 or 9 so I basically have them all memorized and I was positively scandalized with how Disney ruined the story of Prince Caspian. I have refused to watch that film again. I wanted to cry when I saw it in theatres. As has been said before, the characters were ruined, the thing with Susan and Caspian was awkward, out of character, and completely unnecessary, and the plot was changed too much to justify them titling it as Prince Caspian. And what was with the battle at the castle? That was just stupid. What leader in their right mind would think a little army like that could take on a fortress like that? I have no military background at all and I could figure that one out! Peter was a great warrior. He would have known that was a stupid move. Whoever wrote this movie was an idiot and obviously did not know the story and characters well enough and clearly did not know his audience at all. I don't know anyone who was satisfied with this movie. Argh. I can't believe that Douglas Gresham would have allowed Disney to ruin the story so much. I hope they don't ruin VOTDT. That was my favorite book for a long time. I am glad to hear they have new writers and director. Hopefully they do their research well. I really don't think they need to change anything except maybe to cut some things as the story is exciting enough without changing it.
 
Disney didn't ruin the film -- they just distributed it. The writers and producer ruined it. However, there are lots of folks on this site who really enjoyed the film, and it did well in DVD sales. It might have done even better had it been released at Christmas as had originally been planned rather than in summer against some pretty strong blockbusters.

That said, I agree with you that the film badly mangled some characters and plot as compared with the book, but I think you are right in saying it shouldn't have been entitled Prince Caspian. If it had just been a Narnia movie with a different set of kids from post-WW II England, it would have been a pretty good adventure story. The fact that it was supposed to be Caspian and the Pevensies acting in such a bizarre fashion is what ruined it. That and Caspian being so old. And dumb.

The writers weren't idiots though. They were just trying to make the film appeal more to their audience -- they just forgot that the loyal Narnia audience has a large constituency of book purists who love the stories and Christians who want to see the spiritual themes.
 
I actually have read PC four times, and ended up re-reading it before I saw the film for the first time as I did with LWW. Though there were a couple of things I would have changed in the film, I agreed with the changes. Maybe I'm not much of a Narnia purist, but the themes were just as prevalent in the film as in the book. Most of the book, if you will admit it, is quite boring. It's slow. It's narration and walking. How are you supposed to keep an audience entertained if all the characters are doing is walking and talking? Also, for the filmmakers to actually "flashback" to tell the story of Caspian would be confusing.

It would confuse the audience who didn't read the book. They'd be more likely to get up and walk out of the theater rather than stay unlike the small minority of book fans who were just absolutely thrilled over it.

the only two things I had issue with: the amount of Aslan and the romp with Susan and Lucy. Yet I realize, for money and time's sake, they had to cut out the romp. and with Susan in with the boys, it complicated things. yes, they could have made a different film, but they didn't. It's done and it's on dvd. that should be the stopping point. It's obviously out of our hands as fans and though there were spots that could have been improved, the majority of people who liked the film are okay with the changes. I believe that the night raid was to "fill in" the gap of time.

Visual effects cost money. Every single shot costs money. They have to pay for the locations, pay for the sound stages, pay the actors, pay the crew, etc...; maybe Adamson wanted to go in a different direction but he couldn't because of the costs. Personally, I can't see a 13 year old boy be convincing enough to lead an army of narnians against battle-hardended Telmarines. Doesn't cut it for me, and most of the audience would've laughed. Seriously, who would believe it? it was more convincing for a 20+ year old to lead an army than someone who was 13 or 14.

I could go on forever in total defense of the cast\crew and filmmakers, but seriously, if you have to gripe, write an e-mail or letter to Andrew Adamson and Douglas Gresham. I'm sure they would tell you the same things.
 
inkspot said:
That and Caspian being so old. And dumb.
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My point of view from the very beginning. ;]

inkspot said:
The writers weren't idiots though. They were just trying to make the film appeal more to their audience -- they just forgot that the loyal Narnia audience has a large constituency of book purists who love the stories and Christians who want to see the spiritual themes.
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I think they omission of the romp at the end was okay. I was a little disappointed that Caspian's nurse was not included in the movie, but what can you do? Caspian was twenty-five, of course, he would have no nurse. (Hahaha. I love sarcasm.)

Mostly, those little things would have been completely permissible, even by, I think, the most loyal reader, if only a few capital changes had not been made:

Caspian/Susan for one. No where in the book does it even remotely insinuate that Caspian and Susan liked each other more than friends, due to the circumstances and Caspian's young age.

Peter's abhorring change of character. His actions speak for himself and I was disappointed. Strictly comparing to the book, the Narnian air had "that" effect on the children which made them like they were in the Golden Age. (If I recall correctly, since I'm drawing on the Trumpkin and Edmund fight early on.)

The movie was a good film, in its own respects, but as an adaption to the book? Nope.
Anyways, I do plan to buy the DVD, because I want to support Disney in making the rest of the series.
 
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