I believe it was my good friend Jim Hysell who called Disney's adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, "Diet Lord of the Rings." To this day I have used his words to describe that movie. After viewing The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, I can't say that it is another movie that can be best described as "Diet Lord of the Rings," instead I would call Prince Caspian "Caffeine Free Lord of the Rings." I say this because, like pop, Prince Caspian provides the same great flavor as Lord of the Rings but doesn't pack the same punch. I realize that comparing the Narnia movies to the LOTR movies is like giving Narnia a death sentence, considering, in my opinion, LOTR is one of the greatest things ever done for film. What I praise Prince Caspian for is not staying in the middle when it comes to seriousness and humor. The first installment seemed kind of neutral in both areas. This movie hits both extremes. You get great laughs all throughout the movie all while moving through a serious narrative. I found the tone of the movie to be somewhere between LOTR and the Harry Potter franchise with very small doses of early British history bio-pics like Elizabeth. Looking back at The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, I remember that my biggest problem with the movie was how child friendly the movie was. I remember walking into the theater with extreme joy to finally view a book I loved as a kid put on the big screen. The movie read childish to me, and on top of that Santa Claus shows up with a bag of weapons. Sure its cool that he brings them weapons instead of toys, but I was still like "oh yeah, I liked this book when I was in 3rd grade. No wonder its not as enjoyable for me now." While watching Prince Caspian, this feeling of an overly child friendly movie never came over me. I attribute most of my feelings about Prince Caspian being a more adult toned movie due to a head decapitation conducted by King Peter. The kids were just so young in the first movie that I couldn't take them serious at all. They are a little more grown up now and seeing them in a battle sequence is more believable. You can tell that there was a lot more time spent on sword play and combat training.
This movie has great Landscape shots, faceless Ents, Biblical references, a mentally handicapped bear, an awesome mouse named Reepicheep voiced by the great cross dressing Eddie Izzard, and to my surprise a song titled "The Call" by Regina Spektor. Hearing Regina's voice at the beginning of the end credits got me even more hyped than I already was about the movie. I love her, her voice, and this new song for the movie.
The overall experience was a great one. Not once did I feel bored. Even though the movie answers a lot of questions as it progresses, I feel that it is necessary to watch the first installment before seeing Prince Caspian. I actually went with a friend who hadn't seen the first installment and he had a very good time watching the movie, but I'm sure it would have been a more smooth and less confusing ride for him had he seen The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe first. The only time I felt lost was when Aslan started sending people off to some island through a tree. I think he said pirates were there. I was really hoping Johnny Depp would show up as one of the pirates. didn't happen. I feel that Prince Caspian was a great follow up to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I can't wait to see what Disney has to offer for the next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia.