Now for the thirtieth edition of the NarniaFans Mailbag!  It’s good to be back, and I’m having a great time at this so far.  I just need more letters.  Then my esteemed team will be able to help answer questions (the earlier you ask them, the better).  It gives us more time to do research and give you the best answer possible on the Thursday release date!  This week’s questions cover the qualifications of Michael Apted, if there is any more Dawn Treader promotional material and scenes that a reader feels were missing from Prince Caspian.

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Return to the magical world of Narnia in the second installment of C.S. Lewis’ timeless epic, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, coming to market on December 2, 2008 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Packed with exclusive featurettes, interviews and deleted scenes, the entertainment title of the year is available on DVD and Blu-ray Hi-Def, as well as a special two-disc Collectors Edition perfect for holiday giving. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian packaging also includes a special DisneyFile, a digital copy of the movie that can be viewed on a variety of portable devices for the whole family to enjoy anytime, anywhere.

From the creators of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian features even more groundbreaking special effects and breathtaking action than its predecessor. William Moseley, Georgie Henley, Anna Popplewell and Skandar Keynes return as Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the Pevensie siblings, along with Academy Award® nominee Liam Neeson (1993 nominee for Best Actor, Schindler’s List) as Aslan the Lion and Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton (2008 winner for Best Supporting Actress, Michael Clayton) as the White Witch. They are joined by Ben Barnes (Stardust) as Caspian, heir to the Narnian throne, with Sergio Castellitto (Arthur and the Invisibles), Eddie Izzard (FX: The Riches), Warwick Davis (the Harry Potter films) and Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) appearing as new residents of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is fantasy adventure that will delight the entire family.

Lewis’ seven-book Chronicles of Narnia series is regarded as one of literature’s most enduring classics, selling over 100,000,000 copies in more than 35 languages, making it the second biggest book series the world over.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children face a perilous mission and a greater test of their faith and courage. They find a world in which 1,300 years have passed. The White Witch is gone, the realm is ruled by a cruel tyrant and Aslan has been missing for over a thousand years.

The four children embark on a remarkable journey to restore magic and glory to the land. Accompanied by Trumpkin, a valiant dwarf, Reepicheep the talking mouse and a suspicious Black Dwarf named Nikabrik, they raise an army of Narnians to rise up against the evil king Miraz.

BONUS FEATURES:

DVD

• Special audio commentary by director and actors

Collector’s Edition DVD

All of the above, plus:

• Special audio commentary by director and actors, a behind-the-scenes interview with the cast and crew, a tour of the film’s locations and sets, inside view of the technology and production behind the movie, bloopers, deleted scenes and much, much more!

Blu-ray Hi-Def Exclusives

All of the above, plus:

• Enhanced Disney’s BD-Live Network exclusives, interactive Narnia game, downloadable features and much, much more!

• Circle-Vision Interactive: Creating the Castle Raid – Walt Disney’s famous Imagineers introduced the world to Circle-Vision in the 50’s and 60’s, which immersed Disneyland visitors in 360-degree film tours of America, and later, China and Canada. Now, through HDRI camera technology and the rapidly-evolving interactive capabilities of Blu-ray, the Disney team has taken the first step towards advancing this unique and memorable experience. Only on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN on Blu-ray Disc can fans take a 360-degree look behind the scenes of the castle raid sequence and get unique access to the secrets of how this latest adventure to Narnia was pulled off. It’s all a part of CIRCLE-VISION INTERACTIVE: CREATING THE CASTLE RAID. First, start off in the CIRCLE-VISION preview lobby, and choose to get a private tour of the castle raid from Director Andrew Adamson, Producer Mark Johnson, or a number of other key filmmakers and artists who brought the latest adventure to NARNIA to life. Then, select one of the exclusive CIRCLE-VISION experiences to be virtually transported to the set in the Czech Republic. The moment you enter these panoramic worlds, you will be able to turn in any direction, and fully-explore how this compelling sequence was painstakingly created. Discover a myriad of progression reels, developmental animatics, 13 audio commentaries, pop-up facts, slide shows, and a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes footage with cast and crew that is revealing, interesting, compelling, funny and exclusively accessed through this new-reimagining of a classic idea. It’s all a part of CIRCLE-VISION INTERACTIVE: CREATING THE CASTLE RAID, only on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN on Blu-ray Disc.

The DVD of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has a suggested retail price of $29.99 (U.S.) and $35.99 (Canada). The Two Disc Collector’s Edition is $39.99 (U.S.) and $46.99 (Canada). The Blu-ray disc is priced at $35.99 (U.S.) and $45.99 (Canada).

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Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: Fight For The Throne

Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: The Fight for the Throne.
Based on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
Adapted by: JE Bright
Publisher: HarperEntertainment (April 1, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0061231584
ISBN-13: 978-0061231582

Summary of the book:

Late one night in the Telmarine castle in the land of Narnia, Prince Caspian was woken up by his mentor Dr. Cornelius. Caspian’s uncle Miraz had a son, and Caspian had to escape as his uncle was trying to kill him. Before leaving Cornelius gave Caspian a gift, the horn of Queen Susan Pevensie to use to summon the heroes of old.

Fleeing from his Uncle Miraz’s soldiers, Prince Caspian falls into the company of three of the Narnians, Trufflehunter the badger, along with Nikabrik and Trumpkin, two dwarves. Caspian blew the horn to summon the heroes. The three of them were pursued in the woods and Trumpkin was taken captive. Guided by Nikabrik and Trufflehunter, Caspian was led further into the woods where he then meet Reepicheep and other Narnians. They were afraid to trust him at first as they hated the Telmarines because they had stolen their land. He assured them that he would restore Narnia to them if they fought alongside him.

The Narnians agreed and training begun. Sometime during their training Trumpkin returned with the four Pevensies who were only children.SPOILERS! By the urgings of Peter, and despite the protests of Lucy, the Narnians engaged in a futile Night Raid, in which Caspian rescued Cornelius and learned that his uncle Miraz had killed Caspian’s father.

In the process of this night raid many Narnian lives were lost. Nikabrik and some companions of his attempted to convince him to resurrect the White Witch. With the help of the Pevensies he was able to defeat Nikabrik and his two friends.

They at last decided to do the right thing. After sending Lucy out to find Aslan, Peter decided to engage in a duel of single combat with Miraz to by time. Peter won the duel and was given the choice to kill Miraz he refused as it was not his job. To deal out justice He handed over the sword to Caspian who also refused as he would not sink to Miraz’s level. Miraz was then killed by two of his generals and they blamed his death on the Narnians.

A massive battle broke out. The Narnians routed the Telmarine forces to the river where they meet up with Lucy and Aslan. Aslan summoned up the River God and the forces of the Telmarines were defeated. Caspian was crowned king and the Pevensies returned home.END SPOILERS!

Review of the book:

Let’s see if you can follow this. This book, Prince Caspian: Fight for the Throne, is an adaptation of the movie, which is an adaptation of the book Prince Caspian pretty much like most tie-in books dealing with the Narnia books. It’s almost a given fact for a big movie release. With this book, however it does something different. It looks at Prince Caspian’s story through his perspective.

It is meant for readers who are in the early junior high stage. It is meant to be like it were Caspian’s journal so it is written in a very simple, strait forward manner, with no frills attatched to it, much like a journal entry. This, combined with the books choice on limiting the perspective, means that it does not try to be too challenging. The concept itself of telling the story from Caspian’s perspective is interesting and does intrigue a reader enough. However, it also means that many key plot points for the original novel are cut out as it is based on the film.

SPOILERS!Caspian and Peter do butt heads, but on the plus side Peter seems like less of a jerk in this book than he did in the film and more like he’s trying to help free Narnia. This book also does not have the apparition of Jadis appear in the ice or the “kiss that was heard around the world.” In many ways this book flows like a possible fan edit of the film would.END SPOILERS!

The battles are described in detail but they come off as very lethargic. While they are fun to watch on screen they are less enjoyable in print. One becomes grateful that CS Lewis did not focus on battles as much. Readers realize that he knew what he was doing. By not describing the battles in detail he left them for the readers to imagine and choreograph on their own, which when you are reading a book is much more fun than having it spoon feed to you.

There is also much less of Lewis’s symbolism in this book.SPOILERS!The limited perspective features Aslan only briefly at the end and we have no idea what else is going on in the other parts of story, such as with the Pevensies.END SPOILERS!In a small way, the original book’s beauty is taken away and in it’s place is a quick adventure story for adolescent boys to read in between rounds of playing Nintendo Wii. But in another way there is more mystery about Aslan and the Pevensies as no one sees them until they come.

There are no pictures as this is not meant to be a children’s story book. This is a young readers novel. The advantage of this is that it does give the reader more room to imagine what the characters may look like, even though their versions of the Pevensies in their minds may be the ones played by William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, and Georgie Henley.

Readers may enjoy this book just for the virtue it looks at a favorite story from one characters perspective. However, in reading it there is one thing that must be kept in mind: this book is not a supplemental book, a replacement, or even an introduction to the story. It’s a companion story. It should only be read if readers have first read ( or heard) the original novel by CS Lewis and then seen the movie, other wise there will be huge blanks left to fill.

Prince Caspian: Fight for the Throne has an interesting premise behind it and does make for a good read for a few times. Next to the original book however, this book is merely the Shadowlands: a good reflection for readers of the wondrous world of Narnia.

3 ½ out of 5 shields.

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Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: Caspian’s Army.
Based on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
Adapted by: Sadie Chesterfield
Illustrated by: Justin Sweet
Publisher: HarperEntertainment (April 1, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0061231576
ISBN-13: 978-0061231575

Summary of the book:

Fleeing from his Uncle Miraz’s soldiers, Prince Caspian falls into the company of three of the Narnians, Trufflehunter the badger, along with Nikabrik and Trumpkin, two dwarves. Caspian is taken further into the woods, where he meet up with other Narnians, They were afraid to trust him at first as they hated the Telmarines because they had stolen their land. He assured them that he would restore Narnia to them if they fought alongside him. With a magic horn that could summon the heroes of old in hand and his new army, Caspian was ready to began his quest.

Review of the book:

While this may sound like an apples to oranges comparison, this particular book, Caspian’s Army isn’t as good as the other adaptations of the Narnian Chronicles in this particular series. While the illustrations are just as splendid and the retelling of the tale is nicely paced, this story is a bit lackluster, especially after reading the Tail of Reepicheep.

Part of the problem would be that this book functions like a prologue for Prince Caspian as it’s ending is just left dangling. An old writers adage is to leave the reader wanting more, and this book left you wanting a lot more. While this book may be meant for children, I’m not sure if it’s ending would be as satisfying as the Tail of Reepicheep for them. It would be very easy to picture a little kid sitting up in bed after hearing this story and going ,“is that the end?”

The somewhat disappointing ending of the story aside, it isn’t that badly written. It’s still paced fairly well, and it does contain a good bit of dialogue. One of this books strongest features is it’s use of more “challenging” words like “extinct”. While most reading comprehension courses may teach that kids should skip a challenging word and only read what they know, it is far more important for them to be challenged and improve their skills in order to become better readers, and this book would help with that.

The art is still great. The use of the concept art just helps the story so much more than using a still shot form the film which could easily be blurry from the motion in it, and leave the characters looking rather awkward. This style of art just keeps the story going.

If you are looking for a well paced book for young readers that will challenge their vocabulary skills, with great illustrations this book is certainly worth the try. Certainly, the Narniafans that have to have every book, and parents with younger readers, would like having this in their library. However this story is simply “good” but not “great”, and it is almost better to wait until they are older to read the full story of Prince Caspian to them.

3 1/2 out of 5 shields.

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Peter Dinklage, who appears in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian as Trumpkin the dwarf, told SCI FI Wire that it was easier than expected to join the hit film franchise.

“A lot of the actors and crew had worked on the first one, so you are entering into a family, but everyone welcomed me with open arms,” Dinklage said in an interview at New York Comic-Con last week. “It was a nine-month shoot. Sometimes you go and do movies for a few weeks or a month, and you are out and on to the next thing or your own life. But this becomes your life. Nine months is most of the year, so I saw these people more than my wife!”

In Prince Caspian, Trumpkin has lived through the destruction of Narnia and becomes a cynical survivor with little faith that the Pevensie children can restore his world to order. Due to some structural changes in the screenplay, his role is actually larger in the film than in the book.

“I love the books, but the adaptation that Andrew Adamson and the other writers did is my blueprint,” Dinklage (TV’s Threshold) said. “I think the greatest film adaptations of books are very different from the books and [are] their own entity. When things are too faithful to the books, it’s sort of like why make the movie when you can read the book? What I like about this is they tweaked things here and there and changed things, and maybe I’m speaking because they expanded my character quite a bit,” he added with tongue in cheek.

Dinklage Joins Narnia Family

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Peter Dinklage has steadfastly avoided the sorts of roles that Hollywood tends to offer an adult actor who is 4-foot-5.

Santa’s elves, evil leprechauns, hobbit doubles.

So it is meaningful that he is willingly decked out like a warrior garden gnome in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second film based on C.S. Lewis’ seven-part book series.

Not even three hours of makeup each morning could discourage Dinklage as he was transformed into Trumpkin, the doubting red dwarf who joins the fight to reclaim Narnia.

“I’m not interested in doing something not fully fleshed out,” he says of his previous avoidance of such make-believe adventures. “Often, you get the hero and the villain and not much in between. Trumpkin is in between. He is not a lovable Snow White dwarf. Audiences appreciate these cynical characters. It helps parents and adults to go along with the journey.”

As director Andrew Adamson says, “Trumpkin is a great acerbic, curmudgeonly character.” After Disney production chief Oren Aviv looked at dailies last week, “He felt Peter was the heart and soul of the film.”

You can read the rest of the article at USA Today.

Further down the article, Anna Popplewell speaks a bit, about her role in the film as well:

As a father of two daughters ages 4½ and 2, Adamson made sure that the girls weren’t off to the side during the fighting but directly involved. “Susan really kicks (butt) in this film, and Lucy gets to use her dagger,” he says. “Georgie would have complained loudly if she hadn’t.”

Popplewell proudly notes, “I shoot lots of people with my arrows. We kept a sort of death count, and I reached 14 halfway through shooting.”

Not to worry. The film is still a family-safe PG.

Anyone who has read Caspian knows SPOILERS!that Susan and Peter are told by Aslan the lion that they are too old to visit Narnia again. The Dawn Treader, due in 2010, will set sail without them.END SPOILERS!

“We shot the scene near the end of filming, and it had a ring of truth to it,” Popplewell says. “It’s bittersweet. Yet, in some ways, it feels perfect.”

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We’ve received word from publicist Ernie Malik:
Reepicheep and Miraz have NOT been cast yet. We’re still awaiting word on Doctor Cornelius. Trumpkin will be played by Peter Dinklage.

You may know Peter Dinklage from his role as Miles Finch in the comedy “Elf” with Will Ferrell. He also appeared in 2005’s excellent “Lassie.”

[View our Peter Dinklage page, here on NarniaFans.com!]

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