Prince Caspian Rocks!

Brace yourself because there’s going to be a lot of exclamation points in this blog…

This weekend, my family and I finally made it to see Prince Caspian (my husband keeps calling it Prince Cassidy) and I loved it! Everything from the scenery - amazing (I want to move there) to the battle scenes, was wonderful. One of my favorite parts - and I always like these scenes - was watching Prince Caspian flee on horseback. There’s just something about watching a lone rider racing on a horse across the open plains, or through the woods, or wherever it may be (though I don’t actually like horse racing, go figure). I also liked watching the fauns jumping around and one scene where a centaur reared. Very cool. One of the repetitive images that I enjoyed was whenever they showed the four siblings lined up in a row. I don’t know why I liked that, but I did.

Prior to heading off to the movie, I read some reviews on the movie. My reasoning for reading reviews is always this: I don’t want to heap unrealistic expectations on the movie because that always ruins it for me. As the reviews were quite good, however, I felt free to maintain my medium to high expectations. Well, my expectations were met and then some. If you are looking to spend time in a mythical, fantastical world, this movie will do it for you. To be fair, there are some glitches - line delivery was off at times and some scenes were a little slow, but I was willing to brush all that aside like an inconsequential mosquito. When the movie was over, I wanted to watch it again. There just wasn’t enough time to drink it all in!

It’s been a long time since I’ve read the Narnia series. A couple years ago I read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to my son. Then I started the Horse and His Boy, skipped that and went on to Prince Caspian (I must have been channeling the old order - see below*). The beginning was a little slow for my son and for me, personally, so we set it aside. I’m glad that I did so that I could just enjoy the movie without comparison. I’m also afraid that if I reread the story, I will lose the magic of that time when I read it as a child with a worldview innocent and untainted by life. I’ve done that with books I loved as a kid - read them as an adult - and found myself vastly disappointed. It’s just not the same. So I’ve learned not to read them again. I’ll just have to read new books, or write my own!

Anyway, I give this movie an A. I’m sure there are people out there who didn’t like this and didn’t like that (there always are), but I was totally sucked into the world the director and actors created. I also thought the violence wasn’t all that bad. It wasn’t graphic, there wasn’t any blood that I remember, the worst that I can think of involved a head, but that wasn’t much, either, surprisingly. This is a children’s movie, after all. I’m glad that the powers that be are dedicated to making the effort to tone things down without losing the power of the story.

In summary, loved the movie, am working on getting my husband to stop calling it Prince ‘Cassidy’ (he misses Shaun), and I really want to see the movie again. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Prince Caspian Is Coming!

So who’s getting excited about the next Chronicles of Narnia movie coming out? Me! And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be excited, too. Spring has sprung in New England and everything is looking fresh and wonderful. I am full of hope and ready for all the great things coming my way. What better way to greet spring than with an epic adventure that was filmed in Ireland, one of my favorite ‘I can’t wait to visit’ countries, among other exotic locations?

Ah, yes… Prince Caspian is coming!

On May 16th, 2008, the movie opens. I’m pretty sure I won’t be seeing it that very day, though. I am going to delay gratification and wait for a day when the family and I don’t have to fight off other people with only our hands and a banana just to get a ticket, though the kids would probably be up for it. This movie is supposed to be more adventurous than the first and made on a grander scale.

Once I see it, I shall write a thoughtful, riveting review. I like giving my opinion and I’m sure you’ll be waiting breathlessly to hear it. And since it’s been many, many moons since I read the book, I shouldn’t have the problem of comparing the movie to the book like I did with the Spiderwick Chronicles.

So it’s all good.

At any rate, I hope the movie is great so that my childhood memories of Narnia remain untainted. Luckily I’m good at blocking things out, so if it isn’t, I shall pretend it never happened.