Yes, I am catching up on my movies this month. 🙂
So I can now say that Prince Caspian is a much, much better film adaptation than the Golden Compass.
I love the decision to let the Pevensies have remembered Narnia–always hated their forgetting anyway. (ETA: I may be remembering this wrong, too–I really need to reread!)
The return to Narnia, to discover it in ruins and under siege and not the haven from their own world it was the first time around was painful and wonderful and right.
Movie-Caspian had more personality than remembered-book-Capsian. The added tensions between him and Peter made lots and lots of sense–the former high king and the would-be king in one place.
The movie quietly, effectively, with just a few words and expressions, engaged in the whole problem of Susan that will be part of the final book. While also bringing in the problem of living in two worlds, which isn’t part of Narnia at all, but is the sort of thing that fascinates me.
Reepicheep is mostly on, yay! And mostly survived the movie with his dignity, honor, and personality intact.
I recall the book version of Prince Caspian as being a little dull, sandwiched between Wardrobe and Dawn Treader as it was, though I’m probably due for a reread now. But the movie version won me over in all sorts of ways that the book didn’t.
And Prince Caspian, as depicted in said movie, made for a rather nice good boy, too. He and Peter both, come to think of it, which makes for an interesting sort of movie all by itself.