Chronicles of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Audio Commentary-Director & Cast Featurette-Circle Vision Interactive: Creating the Castle Raid Featurette-Inside Narnia: The Adventure Returns Featurette-Sets of Narnia: A Classic Comes to Life Featurette-Big Movie Comes to a Small Town Featurette-Previsualizing Narnia Featurette-Talking Animals and Walking Trees: The Magical World of Narn Deleted Scenes Featurette-Bloopers of Narnia Featurette-Secrets of the Duel Featurette-Becoming Trumpkin Featurette-Man behind Nikabrik Easter Egg
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	149:58
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Andrew Adamson
Studio Distributor	Walden Media Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Ben Barnes Georgie Henley Skandar Keynes William Moseley Anna Popplewell Sergio Castellitto Peter Dinklage Warwick Davis
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Norwegian Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Danish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Finnish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Swedish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Icelandic Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Prince Caspian is the second Narnia film to be released in high definition. As with its predecessor, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I imagine Prince Caspian will be enjoyed by most children, but it will again leave many adults feeling unsatisfied. An emotionally hollow film, lacking any real sense of drama, suspense, or excitement, Prince Caspian manages to be even more disappointing than its predecessor. That noted, I'm happy to report that the gorgeous New Zealand and Eastern European scenery, and the excellent quality of the High Definition transfer and the lossless 7.1 dts-HD audio does makes it watchable. The two-disc Blu-ray edition also comes loaded with extras.

    Clive Staples ("Jack") Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898. Lewis and his older brother were brought up by their father, following his mother's untimely death when he was just nine. Educated at home for three years, Lewis read many, many books as a child, and he particularly favored those filled with fantasy, such as Norse myths. He is remembered for being a very creative child, and he started writing his own fantasy stories very early in life. Lewis graduated from University College, Oxford, in 1923. His love of reading and books in general led him to become an English tutor at Oxford. A position he held for nearly thirty years (1925-54). Following this, he was to become a professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University.

    Along with his university friends and colleagues, J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, Lewis formed a literary group called The Inklings, which held lunch time discussions of books that held their interest. It was here that both Tolkien and Lewis discussed ides for their fantasy novels. It is also during this time that it is believed that the strongly committed Catholic, Tolkien, interested Lewis into returning to Christianity. A decision that was to influence Lewis' later works, such as The Chronicles of Narnia.

    Despite often being dismissed as haphazardly written, Christian propaganda, until the arrival of Harry Potter, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia were the World's best selling fantasy books. But as I mentioned in my earlier review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I object to Lewis' crude mixing of various myths, derived from other sources. For example, apart from all the Christian mythology, the novels also feature a variety of mythological creatures ranging from the traditional giants, dwarfs, ogres, mermaids, dragons, sea monsters, wizards, and witches, to the fauns, satyrs, dryads, naiads, minotaurs, unicorns, and centaurs taken from Greek mythology; then on top of this, we have armies of talking animals. Interestingly, despite their long friendship, Tolkien, who had spent decades planning his complex and coherent world in The Lord of the Rings books - its geography, history, botany, and languages, apparently hated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, describing it as "carelessly put together out of mismatched scraps".

    Walden Media has optioned all seven of Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books, and while Disney never made a firm commitment to producing the entire series of Narnia adventures beyond the first two films, it seems that Disney and Walden Media opted to produce the films in their own order, depending on their financial success. (Prince Caspian was the second book published, but the fourth story in the chronological order of the series). As a film, Prince Caspian disappointed heavily at the box office, and is rumored to be the end of the series.

    As for the plot, the four Pevensie children: Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skander Keynes), Peter (William Moseley), and Susan (Anna Popplewell), are standing on a platform in the London Underground, when they magically escape the WWII Blitz to be returned to the magical land of Narnia which is about to experience its own war. The children discover that while only one year has passed for them since their last visit, many hundreds have passed in Narnia, and the land again is in ruin having been overrun by humans led by the usurping King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). The Pevensie children team up with the exiled Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), to again lead a revolt to deliver Narnia from oppressive, totalitarian rule. It seems Narnia's native population can only to exchange one set of foreign rulers for another?

    The film seems to run very slowly, and takes over half an hour before it even starts to warm up. Writer-director-producer Andrew Adamson shows little interest in the film's characters, and as a result, there is little genuine dramatic content. Indeed, Adamson seems to skip through the story to get to the large battle scene. Also, while the acting performances from the four children are much better this time, Adamson gives their characters little to do emotionally, and this leaves the film dramatically hollow. Also, the film leaves little room for the children's individual personalities this time round. The novel's interesting central theme of a 'crises of faith', where the children question and even stop believing in the Christ-figure of Aslan, is only lightly touched upon with Adamson's focus on battle scenes and political intrigue. While the battle scene is the only part of the film that seems to be made with passion and interest, it certainly lacks imagination, and any real suspense or excitement. There is also nothing remotely original here - it's merely a childish 'cut and paste' from far superior (adult) films, such as Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, and the Lord of the Rings films.

Video

    The film's main saving grace are the gorgeous locations of New Zealand and Eastern Europe, as well as the film's wonderful sets and costumes. As with it's predecessor, Prince Caspian has many visually stunning scenes. Fortunately, the BD's high definition transfer is wonderful, and noticeably more detailed than the DVD's transfer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Originally released theatrically with dts, SDDS, and Dolby Digital audio, the main audio option on the DVD is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 384 Kb/s. The audio options on the BD are: English 7.1 dts-HD Master Audio, English Audio Descriptive (192 Kb/s), and Norsk, Dansk, Svenska, Suomi, and Islenska 5.1 Dolby Digital dubs all encoded at 640 Kb/s. There is also an English audio commentary (192 Kb/s).

    As I mentioned in my review of the predecessor, I have never been a fan of talking animals in films. That aside, the dialogue quality and audio sync are generally excellent on the default English audio track. As you can imagine, there is a lot of ADR work in this film and some times the use of looped dialogue is noticeable, but it was never distracting.

    Prince Caspian features a sweeping orchestral musical score credited to Harry Gregson-Williams, who also scored the previous film. There are a number of character-based themes, and the score adds a lot to the film.

    Prince Caspian has an excellent sound design, and the surround presence is immersive and engaging. dts-HD Lossless Master Audio can potentially support an unlimited number of surround sound channels, and down-mix to 5.1 if required. Both the DVD and the BD's tracks are excellent in their clarity, range, and depth, but the dts-HD 7.1 Master Audio creates a truly enveloping presence that fills the room, and surrounds the listener. The surround sound mix is very aggressive, and the rear speakers are used throughout to help carry the score and to provide ambience. Boasting a 7.1 mix, there are many rear directional effects, such as panning between speakers, which adds spatially to the images presented on screen. As I have noticed with other BDs, there is also a very noticeable improvement in the clarity of the ambient sounds throughout.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support the film's many sound effects and score.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Prince Caspian has been released as a two-disc Blu-ray edition, with plenty of extras, most presented in high definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Floating Pop-Up Menu

    As with other BDs, the menu can be accessed while the film is playing.

Disc One

Audio Commentary

    A light-hearted, screen-specific commentary with Director Andrew Adamson and cast members, Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, and Anna Popplewell. As the children are quite excited and chatty, the commentary tends to be a collection of anecdotes and recollections around the locations and costumes, rather than anything technical.

Circle Vision Interactive: Creating the Castle Raid

    Introduced by Director Andrew Adamson, this is an interactive and detailed look at the "Castle Raid" sequence of the film. Using 360 degree hi-resolution photography, viewers can use their remotes to explore the set and particular aspects of the filming of this sequence.

Disc Two

Inside Narnia: The Adventure Returns (34:45)

    Featuring clips from the film, behind the scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and crew, this extra looks at the film's production overall.

Sets of Narnia: A Classic Comes to Life (23:44)

    Featuring key crew members and Douglas Gresham, a stepson of CS Lewis, this extra looks at how the film's locations were chosen and how the sets were developed from the sparse descriptions provided in the book, including New Zealand's beautiful Cathedral Cove used for the spectacular beach scene featured in the film.

Big Movie Comes to a Small Town (23:13)

    Director Andrew Adamson introduces us to the natural beauty of the town and surrounds of Bovec in Slovenia where the river and valley was chosen for one of the final scenes of the film.

Previsualizing Narnia (10:09)

    A look at the use of 3D animation of the script prior to filming - similar to story boards - that allow the film to be better planned and executed.

Talking Animals and Walking Trees: The Magical World of Narnia (4:51)

    A look at the story's love of nature.

Deleted Scenes (11:15)

    This extra is a collection of 10 deleted scenes with a brief introduction to each.

Bloopers of Narnia (3:06)

    A short collection of fluffed lines, stunts gone wrong, and actors/extras tripping over.

Secrets of the Duel (6:48)

    A detailed look at designing and filming the duel between Peter and Miraz.

Becoming Trumpkin (4:48)

    Featuring actor Peter Dinklage, this extra looks at both the actor and his character of Trumpkin.

Man behind Nikabrik (11:08)

    Well-known actor, Warwick Davis, has a camera follow him around on set to allow viewers to see what happens behind the scenes to create the look of the character Nikabrik.

Easter Eggs

    There are a number of hidden extras, easily found with the remote control.

    Prince Caspian was released as two and three-disc BD edition in the US, and their version seems to have the same content as our discs, except the third disc contains a standard definition digital copy of the film.

    Prince Caspian will be enjoyed by most children but I imagine it will leave many adults disappointed again. As with the film's predecessor and Walden Media's other big recent film, The Waterhorse - Legend of the Deep, the film's excellent costumes, sets, and stunning New Zealand locations, all help make it watchable.

The video quality of the high definition transfer is excellent.

The audio quality is excellent and very immersive.

The extras are plentiful and genuine.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall