Prince Caspian

I've talked before about my love of the Narnia books. While it is true that my absolute favorite is LWW, all of them have a special place in my heart for various reasons. As I have commented before, I had trepidation about Walden and Disney making the books into live-action movies, but the first one was a pretty solid success. I have also experienced a rather poor version of the book, which completely missed the point.

Prince Caspian arrived via Zip today, and I watched it. There were many scenes that were very directly from the book, and in these scenes I rejoiced and was quite pleased. For example, the opening scenes were quite good-- the children on a platform, the wind rushing, being pulled into Narnia. Also, the very quick intro of Caspian and his professor and getting Caspian out of Miraz' palace. The scenes where the hag, werewolf, and evil dwarf call Jadis. The one-on-one duel between Miraz and Peter. All incredibly faithful to the book and well-executed film.

However, the problem was that the remaining hour and a half was the Andrew Adamson's idea of how to make the book more action-oriented, spice up (and by that I mean totally fabricate and include) a love story, and concoct entire scenes that don't even exist nor are referenced in the source material.

Once again, the filmmakers have forgotten the most important point of translating source material to the big screen: don't alienate your core audience. This movie, had it not had the title Prince Caspian, very likely would have been a pretty decent hit. It had all the makings. But those of us who know the novels want to see that novel put onto the screen. We accept some changes to make things "more cinematic" but, as the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter have shown us, you CAN stay true to the source while making those changes and gain a win-win with new audience and the core. Because, and here's the important thing that filmmakers always seem to forget, if you lose the core, the film will tank. We are the ones who will give it positive or negative buzz. We are the ones who will take our families, our friends, talk it up at work, blog about it, and, ultimately, get the non-core audience to go.

Andrew Adamson is credited as a writer, a producer, and the director of this film, so its success or failure needs to fall squarely on his shoulders. What was he thinking by adding the entire "Peter forces his troops to attack Miraz in his castle" scene? That was 20 minutes that could have been spent on characterization, on showing the hopelessness of the Narnian's plight, on any number of things. Was it exciting? Yes. Was it action-packed? Definitely. Did it drive the story forward in any way? Nope; had he stayed truer to the book, the same message would have been delivered and probably in less time. Why did he choose to move so many points of the story around? The calling of Jadis happens much later in the film and, while beautifully rendered, doesn't make sense where it happens an the reasons behind it don't hold with the characters.

Once again, the final battle is much more visual, visceral, and larger than described in the book. This is justified and expected. However, some of the scenes felt bloated and forced. The way the Narnian's create a sink hole to help kill some of Miraz's men seemed dumb-- why would they destroy part of the fortress in which they are hiding? The coming of the trees was very reminiscent of LotR's defense of Helm's Deep scene.

Lastly, why is Aslan so absent from the film? He is seen much more in the source material and his presence changes a lot of things. Without him in the film, Adamson had to invent ways for things to happen to provide the salvation that Prince Caspian's troops require. It again felt false.

I have said it again and again (too many times to link to every post in which I've said it): people want to make a film of the source material because of the core audience and because of the source material's enduring success. When you stay true to the source, movie magic happens and the films become huge hits (LotR, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Casino Royale, Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jurassic Park, Jaws, et al). When you don't, the film is stillborn before you even get it into theaters (The Dark is Rising, Catwoman, Elektra, Dukes of Hazzard, The Omen, et al).

I am hopeful that, now that Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been picked up by Fox, that the new creative crew will learn from the successes of LWW and failures of Prince Caspian, and will hold truer to the original story.