Here in the un-enchanted world of ordinary moviegoing,it has been about two and a half years since The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first installment in Walt Disney and Walden Media’s mighty Chronicles of Narnia Franchise.In Narnia, to which the four plucky pevensies return in Prince Caspian, the second movie in the series, centuries have passed, and everything has changed.The grand hall where Peter,Susan,Edmund and Lucy were made monarchs of the realm has fallen in ruin,and the friendly woodland creatures with their homey British accents and Computer-animated fur seem to have vanished from the scene.
When the exiled child kings and queens are thrown back into narnia (thanks to a sudden ourbreak of special effects in a London tube station),theyseem no longer to be in a children’s fantacy story but rather in some kind of Jacobean tragedy, a reminder that C.C.Lewis was,along with everything else, a scholar of English Renaissance literature. In a dark Castle in a dark forest, men with heavy armor and beard-shadowed faces quarrel and conspire.instead of fauns and Turkish delight,there are murder and betrayal, and a grave, martial atmosphere lingers over the story,even when the spunky dwarfs and chatty rodents return.(Aslan the lion also shows up eventually,speaking in the soothing voice of Liam Neeson.)
So Prince Caspian is quite a bit darker than The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe,both in look and in mood.It is also in some way more satisfying.its violent (thoug gore-free) combat scenes and high body count may rattle very young viewers,but older children are likely to be drawn into the thick political intrigue.
The chronicles of Narnia:Prince Caspian is rated PG. This rating may be a Little Misleading,Since some of the Violence is fairly Intense, and some of the deaths may unsettle younger children.
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