Prince Caspian: 15 Years

jasmine tarkheena

jasmine tarkheena

Active member
Today is the 15th anniversary of when Walden's Prince Caspian was released. I actually remember being in anticipation for it. When the movie came out, I've liked it. While not a perfect movie, I've liked it for what it is.

It's almost crazy to think about that it came out that long ago.
 
Fifteen years ago, fifteen minutes ago, or fifteen centuries into the future, I will never approve of a movie which re-introduces Peter Pevensie by making him START A FIGHT over nothing, AND makes him LOSE. Excuse-makers for Andrew Adamson claim that if Peter WASN'T sabotaged in this manner, he would automatically be "impossibly perfect."

Wrong, false, and untrue. There's a VAST middle ground between "impossibly perfect" and "useless loser who can't cope with anything unless his brilliant sister teaches him how." There was NEVER any need to trample on Peter that way; Andrew Adamson just LIKED doing it. The "Dawn Treader" movie proved conclusively that you don't have to wipe your feet on a heroic fantasy character just to show his problems back in the mundane world. Edmund trying to join the British Army and fight the Axis Powers was genuinely humorous (unlike the gratuitous and malicious humiliation of Peter), and preserved Edmund as a valiant character.

To Jasmine I say: "Prince NON-Caspian" was in fact a very well-made movie. It was a superbly crafted movie ABOUT PETER PEVENSIE BEING A DOOFUS. You could never ask for a more expert job of doing what Adamson urgently wanted to do.

It just was not even remotely a movie of Mister Lewis' novel.
 
I know there was various opinions about how successful it was. I think Andrew Adamson at one point thought about skipping Prince Caspian.

I do agree about how they've changed Peter's character. There was even tension between Caspian and Peter in the movie. I've read a trivia that CS Lewis have actually thought about writing about a night raid at Miraz's castle in the book. However, the idea got scraped. They even changed Susan's character to a warrior queen. It made no sense, given her title as "Queen Susan the Gentle." I also wasn't a huge fan of the Caspian and Susan romance. I thought it was a bit forced. I kind of get it's a trending or cultural thing in Hollywood. Though I'm sure that a lot of us are getting tired of a romantic sub-plot being forced into just about every Hollywood production.

There are still impressive things about it. The landscape, while distracting at times, looks really nice. The duel between Peter and Miraz, while intense, was spot on! I think they even got Reepicheep right, as being a valiant mouse! I've also liked what they did with Glozelle, by having him feel conflicted and sympathetic. It kind of flesh out his character as not really being loyal to Miraz. The sadness about the old days being gone was really in depth. However, they cut out the romp with Bacchus and Silenus and the freeing of the school children.

I think there are a lot of things that a new PC adaption, still possibly from Netflix, could approve on. One is not have the tension between Peter and Caspian. I think they should find a way on how to do Peter, "I have not come to take your place but to put you in it." Another is no Caspian and Susan romance. I mean, I would be fine if the girls got more interaction with Caspian than they do in the book. But I think I would like to have Caspian and Susan to have more of a sibling like relationship. Perhaps when he offers the horn back, she can say, "You keep it. Who knows when you need to call for help?" I would also like to see some more sympathetic Telmarines. I think it will count for something if we finally see the romp with Bacchus and Silenus and the freeing of the school children.
 
Hollywood would force a romantic subplot into Winnie the Pooh. Gotta be honest...seeing studio after studio starting with LWW and working forward the same little bit and dying off is a bit like the myth of Sisyphus pushing that same stupid rock up that same stupid slope time and again for ALL ETERNITY and NEVER reaching the top. It would be hard to muster enthusiasm for Apollo 93 if none of the previous craft had ever landed a man on the moon.
 
It would be hard to muster enthusiasm for Apollo 93 if none of the previous craft had ever landed a man on the moon.

Andrew Adamson's perfect solution -- and Joss Whedon probably would have the same idea -- would be that an all-female space crew could easily avoid all the errors committed by those dorky males. In fact, they would visit Mars and the asteroid belt in the same trip, no problem.

And yes, Jasmine, freeing the schoolchildren was a CRUCIAL part of "Prince Caspian," which Adamson snubbed.
 
Yeah...about Prince Capsian...

I remember how excited I was when the first trailer came out. The opening shot captured the girls in school uniforms running across a London street behind a double-decker bus, with one of the lions, "like the lions of Trafalgar Square" watching solemnly, this to indicate it was not just any lion watching over them...it was Him. This single shot set a mysterious tone, while raising questions such as Why? Where? When? How long? To what end? This gave me chills.

Then, as Copperfox so succinctly described, Adamson spoiled it.

I have a tendency to walk away from a flawed film I'm emotionally invested in, in a certain manner. I tend to be overly optimistic about it, at least initially after the fact. Then with the passage of time, digesting other viewers' keen observations, honestly voicing my own, and self-acceptance of even mildly reasonable expectations, I was able to acknowledge I was utterly duped. "One (or 2.5) years for them"..."1300 years for Narnia"..."Cringeworthy duplicity for the fanbase." Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic now. Or perhaps I'm just trying to strike the balance of realism.

Even so, I can tell you some of the things I liked (past tense?) about the film:

-Opening with the conjunction of Tarva and Alambil was an effective means to immediately introduce multiple characters: two heavenly bodies opposed to two earthly ones: Prunaprismia and her false heir apparent. I'll admit the birthing was a bit intense (sorry MrBoB). It was also a slight misfortune that we then moved to an adult (trapped in a youth's body?) version of Prince Caspian. Stargazing was but a memory, as Doctor Cornelius helps Caspian escape. For its time, and what the movie was trying to accomplish, the opening sequence was compelling and engaging. It did well to set up the story, at least the way the filmmakers envisioned it. The Logos theater actually devised a far superior introduction for the title character in its onstage adaptation of Prince Caspian. Please take a moment to review my brief analysis of said introduction of this outstanding production within the Narnia Stage Plays and Musicals forum, post #4 in "Prince Caspian - Logos Theater." Douglas Gresham himself (quoted on the playbill) states he wished he had met the directors before embarking on the films as he would have loved to have utilized their ideas in the films.

Let's get back to reality, or fantasy, whichever it is. "You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember it."

-The filmmakers wanted to reintroduce the Pevensies early on. To do so they had to have Caspian blow Susan's horn prematurely. Once we see them get to the beach, however, I can sigh a deep relief breath of fresh air. The two brothers and sisters, post-London tube-fiasco, finally like each other again. I personally loved the interlude of "Evacuating London" not only because it's the kind of soothing music I'd listen to on a sun-soaked peninsula or island shore, but also because it paid a fitting homage (and contrast) to the poignant moment the four of them persevered past a lamp post into the unknown wintry woods of a magical world that would soon melt into Spring.

-Peter Dinklage was outstanding. I love the way Lewis wrote the character of Trumpkin. There is an ongoing journey of self-discovery in each of the Pevensies alongside the doubting dwarf. Together, they steer a course toward the truth. Even so their pilgrimage only succeeds when Aslan himself leads them. It is here too, that I found the film to be at its best visually. The breathtaking overhead view of the Soca River-turned-Glasswater Creek draws the children's gaze upward toward the still-sleeping trees just as Peter confesses to Trumpkin that they the once and future regents never meant to leave Narnia.

At this point I am having a bit of trouble recalling what else I liked about the film, and may have to come back to it later. There are certain sequences or themes that worked well, such as they mystery and intrigue hewn into the mound of Aslan's How. I will say that beginning with the failed siege of Miraz's castle, the second half of the film was pretty downhill for me. It left MUCH to be desired and really distorted the vision Lewis had created. I am glad Aslan was able to get in a few words about the origins of the Telmarines. Given that Peter and Susan would not return again to Narnia ("oops we lied about their upcoming cameo in The Voyage of the Dawn Treador Lucy's dream"), I'm not sure why, after a horribly forced romance, I kept hearing a young lady sing "I'll come back...when you call me...no need to say goodbye..." as the film drew to a close.
 
jasmine tarkheena said:
I know there was various opinions about how successful it was. I think Andrew Adamson at one point thought about skipping Prince Caspian.

I do agree about how they've changed Peter's character. There was even tension between Caspian and Peter in the movie. I've read a trivia that CS Lewis have actually thought about writing about a night raid at Miraz's castle in the book. However, the idea got scraped. They even changed Susan's character to a warrior queen. It made no sense, given her title as "Queen Susan the Gentle." I also wasn't a huge fan of the Caspian and Susan romance. I thought it was a bit forced. I kind of get it's a trending or cultural thing in Hollywood. Though I'm sure that a lot of us are getting tired of a romantic sub-plot being forced into just about every Hollywood production.

There are still impressive things about it. The landscape, while distracting at times, looks really nice. The duel between Peter and Miraz, while intense, was spot on! I think they even got Reepicheep right, as being a valiant mouse! I've also liked what they did with Glozelle, by having him feel conflicted and sympathetic. It kind of flesh out his character as not really being loyal to Miraz. The sadness about the old days being gone was really in depth. However, they cut out the romp with Bacchus and Silenus and the freeing of the school children.

I think there are a lot of things that a new PC adaption, still possibly from Netflix, could approve on. One is not have the tension between Peter and Caspian. I think they should find a way on how to do Peter, "I have not come to take your place but to put you in it." Another is no Caspian and Susan romance. I mean, I would be fine if the girls got more interaction with Caspian than they do in the book. But I think I would like to have Caspian and Susan to have more of a sibling like relationship. Perhaps when he offers the horn back, she can say, "You keep it. Who knows when you need to call for help?" I would also like to see some more sympathetic Telmarines. I think it will count for something if we finally see the romp with Bacchus and Silenus and the freeing of the school children.
Click to expand...

These are excellent points.


I rather like what they did with "GENERAL Glozelle and Lord Sopespian." (emphasis added to accentuate Miraz's insinuating intonation). Although a heavy military slant detracted from the heart of the story, it was at least a conceivable perspective of the antagonist. The battle between Miraz and Peter was well done. After some recollection, I'd concur that in fact William Mosley does well in both of the first two films when it comes to his swordfighting moments in the First and Second Battles of Beruna.

I'm still unclear as to what happens or why it happens, in the movie, with regard to the aforementioned lords. If I understood the book correctly, it describes Peter decapitating or slaying them both within seconds of each other through one integrated, decisive motion. However, in the movie, one of the lords appears to awkwardly show up alongside the recently widowed Prunaprismia at the tail end, when Aslan sends descendant Telmarine volunteers back to the world they came from. So, I'm not really sure what purpose it served for one of the lords to survive for this purpose. It's particularly frustrating to me that they omitted virtually ALL of Chapter 14. There is so much comic relief and even catharsis with Gwendolyn, Miss Prizzle and Caspian's old nurse. All we get to see is the rushing river god make a splash, though it was an effective unchaining of Beruna's bridge, and the look on Sopespian's face was priceless!

I think the interaction between the Pevensies and Caspian in a future onscreen production ought to be kept to a minimum, with the exception of Peter. Peter is there to humbly help Caspian, not school him. There is no particular reason for Susan to engage with him, as Caspian is to become king, whereas Susan is to eventually abandon Narnia. As a sidenote (one my mind seems to be borrowing from another forum member many posts ago), I thought the BBC production handled the sensitive subject of Susan's fate well at the ending of Prince Caspian by showing her as the first of the four to walk out of Narnia and back into the train station. Aside from Susan, I don't remember much interaction with Caspian and Edmund and Lucy, either. All that is needed is enough for Lucy to recognize him when she lands in the sea at the start of the next story. Save the development of those friendships for The Voyage of the Dawn Treador.
 
I wonder if they have thought that decapitating a person would have been too violent for young viewers. That may have been the reason why they went with Sosespian being swept away by the River-God (though some could argue it was a Lord of the Rings knock-off).

I wonder if Douglas Gresham is still in favor of an episodic series for Narnia. If so, we might see an episode about the romp with Bacchus and Silenus. We could even see an episode about the nurse telling Caspian of the old days.
 
Back
Top