Outer Rim Territories

Musings, ramblings, and nonsense from the fringe of space and time

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Prince Caspian

I think its ironic that most of the Caspian reviews I have read have disliked the new Narnia film for the very thing it is speaking against. Caspian is anti-modern intentionally. The reviewers miss the point and criticize the film for being too contemporary. How can a film (or book) speak against modernity without being in a modern setting? My hope is that the film still does well on the heels of the first success. Yes, it will lack the charm of the first film. This book does not intend to charm the audience but to horrify the audience at the result of neglect of faith (and Aslan.) I have not doubt that the Narnia of Caspain's time will be ugly, brutal, and disenchanting. But Caspian will triumph in the end and faith in Aslan over modernity will return. I've been working through an excellent tome on the themes of Caspian by Dr. Veith. I urge you to read it as well to prepare for the film. On a side note, I don't think CS Lewis would intend for children to see these films until they have become disenchanted themselves. Perhaps then they should read the book. if their imagination is still dead, the film might then bring it back to life. In my opinion, the genius of the story is its transcendence. It may well be best a children's film for adults who have lost their wonder and amazement.

May 15, 2008
Christopher Gillespie said...
NarniaWeb - NYC Interview Series: Andrew Adamson
It is, but there's a lot more action in this one. Now is that going to be the trend for these films? Or are you going to try to incorporate both or what?

AA: I think you always try to incorporate both but in both cases they're very much driven by the original story. This book was a bit more of a boy's book. It's centered around a young Prince. It's centered around battles — human on human battles and human on creature battles, there's a lot more danger. And from the time Caspian escapes the castle in the book he's then fighting with Miraz throughout the whole time the Pevensies are traveling. So it is just kind of centered around that. There are things that we obviously expanded out, in the book Reepicheep suggests raiding the castle of the Telmarines. Not that they do, but I felt that that was something interesting and worth expanding, and sort of new imagery we hadn't seen before. But really I think for me, I just tried to immerse myself in what book was and see what came out of that, and it just sort of evolved into what came out on screen.