Running, jumping, climbing trees…

Prince Caspian by Gandalf

Published in Madrid, May 2008

I always feel rather optimistic on the whole when I am presented with the promise of spending two hours watching an adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia. Featuring the combined efforts of a pack of wide-eyed and awfully polite English public school children and a healthy selection of benevolent fauns, glorious lions and stubborn dwarfs, C.S. Lewis’ collection of novels provide a welcome escape from the grind of daily life.

Adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia fall into a cinematic slot somewhere between the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings franchises. Akin to the Potter films, director Andrew Adamson has nurtured a cast of talented child actors to play Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie and the film makers have developed their depiction of landscape in much the same vein as Peter Jackson did famously in the Lord of the Rings. Not for the first time this century the vast open spaces of New Zealand have been exploited for their dramatic vistas, with producers also making use of evocative landscapes in Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Travelling through a rather rustic looking London underground station in wartime Britain, a year has passed since the Pevensie children emerged from their first dramatic visit to Narnia. Forever the nursery of unexpected surprises, London underground suddenly becomes the gateway once more to Narnia, where 1300 years has passed and the children are required to help Prince Caspian in his struggle for the throne against his uncle, the unsavoury demagogue King Miraz.

Cue two hours worth of an undulating battle between good and evil, peppered with colourful characters such as Trumpkin and the wonderfully named Reepicheep, a swashbuckling mouse. Comics Eddie Izzard, David Walliams and actor Liam Neeson all lend their voices to the film, adding a sense of subtle familiarity to the already well-known plot.

Prince Caspian is the latest of what seems to be a flurry of fantasy films that have been released over the past decade. Signs are already auspicious for the franchise, which is headed by a talented director and a talented cast, and best of all gives the British acting aristocracy yet another opportunity to strut their stuff on the big screen.