‘THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Return to Narnia
‘Prince Caspian’ is a two-part adventure based on the novel by C.S. Lewis.
This is a somewhat truncated version of ‘Prince Caspian’. This was briefly made as a prelude to ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ as part of the second season of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by the BBC.
But it’s not a terrible truncated adaption of the original novel. On the contrary, it’s action-packed and very gripping to watch. It’s just it’s not as detailed as ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ was.
A year has passed since Peter; Susan; Edmund and Lucy left Narnia. But it’s been a hundred years in Narnia, and is now under the tyrannical rule of the human Telmarines who are led by evil King Miraz.
But there is for hope, as Prince Caspian wants to restore old Narnia to its former glory. Escaping King Miraz, Caspian finds the Narnians and calls Peter; Susan; Edmund and Lucy back into Narnia for help.
It was nice to see the four Pevensie children again. It’s such a shame that all four children weren’t featured much in the second season of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ as this was a two-part adventure.
Richard Dempsey is very good as Peter. In this version of ‘Prince Caspian’, Peter is on his way to school. Peter gets to be the warrior king of Narnia again and fights King Miraz in a duel to the death.
Sophie Cook is equally lovely as Susan. In this version of ‘Prince Caspian’, Susan is on her way to go to America. She’s sceptical when Lucy says she saw Aslan and both have to stay with the Great Lion.
Jonathan R. Scott is great as Edmund. His voice has changed since the last time in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. He too shares the action with Peter and gets to fight Trumpkin the dwarf.
Sophie Wilcox is good as Lucy, although she seemed out of character compared to how she was in ‘LLW’. She’s jealous of Susan and both she and Edmund have to go to stay with their cousin Eustace.
I was disappointed with how the girls were treated in terms of story in this version of ‘Prince Caspian’. They seemed inactive and didn’t do much to help save Narnia during the battle against evil.
Jean Marc Perret stars as Prince Caspian. I liked Jean’s performance as Caspian and his enthusiasm for old Narnia. It’s a shame he didn’t play Caspian later on in ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ story.
Warwick Davis stars as Reepicheep the mouse in this version of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. I liked his performance as Reepicheep. He would later play Nikabrik in the movie version of ‘Prince Caspian’.
The guest cast also includes Robert Lang as King Miraz; Henry Woolf as Dr. Cornelius; George Claydon as Nikabrik; Big Mick (who was in ‘LLW’) as Trumpkin and William Todd-Jones as Glenstorm.
It was good to see Aslan return in ‘Prince Caspian’ (voiced by Ronald Pickup). Trufflehunter the badger seems to be female in this version of ‘Prince Caspian’ and ‘she’ is voiced by Joanna David.
The fight and battle scenes were more impressive in ‘Prince Caspian’ compared to ‘LLW’. This was because of the stunt-work being done by Gareth Milne as he worked on ‘Doctor Who’ in the 1980s.
This version of ‘Prince Caspian’ has been very enjoyable indeed. It’s not the best version, but it was interesting how it was adapted for TV by the BBC and leads into ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’.
‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ (BBC) rating – 7/10
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Bradley's Basement 
A excellent summary of this series, i found this to be the weakest story out the four series but saying that it’s better than those Disney movie versions.
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Thanks Timelord. Yes this is the weakest out of four stories adapted by the BBC. It certainly is more faithful to the book compared the Disney version in terms of following the same structure as the book.
I recently heard the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version of ‘Prince Caspian’ and enjoyed that very much as that’s more faithful to the book than the BBC and Disney versions of the story. I can’t wait to review the FOTF Radio Theatre series of ‘Narnia’ stories on my blog.
Thanks Simon. Tim. 🙂
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