Of all the Narnia books, PC feels the least eventful. Oh, plenty of things happen in it, but the structure and pacing of the book make it feel like you’re wandering around, waiting for something important to happen. Rather fitting, because a good chunk of the book is the characters wandering around. However, while the pacing is a glaring flaw, it wouldn’t be as big of an issue if it weren’t for how the book is structured. The book frames the story from the point of view of the Pevensie children, but it’s not really their story. The book is ultimately Caspian’s story, and the Pevensies wind up joining in near the end of his journey. So we’re spending a whole lot of time following characters who have a thin connection to the plot, and much of that time accomplishes very little. The combined effect of those two problems are why Prince Caspian is regarded as one of the lesser Chronicles by many.
However, it’s still a Chronicle of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis, so there’s plenty of merit there. It’s full of memorable characters and has some of the best dialogue exchanges in the series. In addition, many of the concepts and ideas it introduces are intriguing and could have made for interesting stories if Lewis had decided to keep them around. It’s not bad, but it could’ve been better.
That last sentence applies to the film as well. To its credit the writers learned from the book’s mistakes and made Caspian and the Pevensies equally important, and kept the pace moving quickly. Unfortunately, the film rushed quite a few things, like Caspian’s backstory, and for a lengthy period it took on a much more dour tone. Now, it’s true that plenty of Narnia stories had dark moments, but the problem is that this film winds up going dark for a large chunk and loses a lot of the whimsy and adventurous spirit that made the books and the first movie so enjoyable in the first place. The ending does shift and bring things back to a lighter tone, but the damage is already done. The film sticks the landing, but the dive was very uneven.
So to conclude, I do believe there’s a good story in Prince Caspian. I just don’t believe that the book or the film quite managed to tell it. There’s a lot of good ideas here though, and if someone really tried, they could probably make something truly special.
Both the Book and Film Have Room for Improvement
Of all the Narnia books, PC feels the least eventful. Oh, plenty of things happen in it, but the structure and pacing of the book make it feel like you’re wandering around, waiting for something important to happen. Rather fitting, because a good chunk of the book is the characters wandering around. However, while the pacing is a glaring flaw, it wouldn’t be as big of an issue if it weren’t for how the book is structured. The book frames the story from the point of view of the Pevensie children, but it’s not really their story. The book is ultimately Caspian’s story, and the Pevensies wind up joining in near the end of his journey. So we’re spending a whole lot of time following characters who have a thin connection to the plot, and much of that time accomplishes very little. The combined effect of those two problems are why Prince Caspian is regarded as one of the lesser Chronicles by many.
However, it’s still a Chronicle of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis, so there’s plenty of merit there. It’s full of memorable characters and has some of the best dialogue exchanges in the series. In addition, many of the concepts and ideas it introduces are intriguing and could have made for interesting stories if Lewis had decided to keep them around. It’s not bad, but it could’ve been better.
That last sentence applies to the film as well. To its credit the writers learned from the book’s mistakes and made Caspian and the Pevensies equally important, and kept the pace moving quickly. Unfortunately, the film rushed quite a few things, like Caspian’s backstory, and for a lengthy period it took on a much more dour tone. Now, it’s true that plenty of Narnia stories had dark moments, but the problem is that this film winds up going dark for a large chunk and loses a lot of the whimsy and adventurous spirit that made the books and the first movie so enjoyable in the first place. The ending does shift and bring things back to a lighter tone, but the damage is already done. The film sticks the landing, but the dive was very uneven.
So to conclude, I do believe there’s a good story in Prince Caspian. I just don’t believe that the book or the film quite managed to tell it. There’s a lot of good ideas here though, and if someone really tried, they could probably make something truly special.