The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Official Discussion Thread

Movie Plot

Caspian X uses Susan's magic horn to call the four Pevensies to Narnia.The Pevensies find themselves back in the land of Narnia one year after their first adventure, but in Narnia, a thousand years has passed since they left. The children are once again enlisted to join the colourful creatures of Narnia in combating King Miraz, an evil villain who prevents the rightful Prince from ruling the land. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will be released on December 14, 2007.






Book Synopsis

The year is 1941. The four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are waiting for a train at a trainstop when they hear a horn and are sucked into Narnia and find that more than a thousand years have passed since they reigned there as kings and queens (in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe&#8221.
They arrive at the ruins of Cair Paravel on a small island at the shores of the Eastern Sea. They go exploring in the treasury and dicover the gifts they recieved from Father Christmas. Edmund did not get a gift and so he gets a sword, and they cannot find Susan's horn, which she says that she lost on the last day. They soon afterwards meet a dwarf called Trumpkin (banned to the island by the Telmarines who fear the entire area), who explains that much of the old magic has been lost and the land has been "civilized" under the domain of a race of men from Telmar. The old inhabitants of the kingdom, talking animals and dwarves and other fantastic creatures, have been driven into the wild and unfriendly parts of the land to live in hiding.

Trumpkin goes on to say that a Prince named Caspian X is the rightful owner to the throne (at that time was held by the prince's evil uncle, King Miraz who killed Caspian's father). Prince Caspian's nurse is gotten rid of for telling him about old Narnia. Thus, he gets a new teacher, Dr. Cornelius. One night the old man wakes Caspian and shows him the planets on the top of a deserted tower. He then tells him that he is half dwarf half human and that old Narnia really exists. Another night, he awakens him and tells him that the king's wife had a son and that Miraz would now kill him. He gives him Susan's magical horn. Caspian flees the castle and runs through a forest and falls off his horse during a storm.

A talking badger and two dwarves (one of them Trumpkin) ,who have gone into hiding, find him and take care of him. They show him to the "old Narnians" who invite him to a dance at the Dancing Lawn. Dr. Cornelius comes to the dance and says that the king is coming to attack. They are soon drawn into the struggle between the usurping Telmarine, Miraz. They flee to Aslan's How where they set camp. Miraz's army surround the mound of earth that now covers the Stone Table where Aslan died for Edmund. Prince Caspian blows the magical horn of Queen Susan, which has brought the Pevensies to Narnia. Trumpkin says that he'll go to Cair Paravel and see if the four came.

The four children and dwarf travel to Aslan's How. On their way they meet Aslan, the great lion. Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin go to the aid of Caspian and fight a hag, werewolf, and dwarf that were thinking of calling upon the evil White Witch, Jadis for support in the battle. Susan and Lucy aid Aslan as he restores the old Narnians and frees them from their bounds so they will have more people for the battle.

Peter kills Miraz in a duel, and a war breaks out between the two armies. Aslan brings the others to help. The old Narnians win and Aslan crowns Caspian as King of Narnia. A mouse called Reepicheep comes to Aslan. The mouse has lost his tail and he pleads for it. Aslan restores his tail for the kindness that his kind showed him at the Stone Table. The children return to their own world through a door made out of three sticks by Aslan (the Temarines also go through this door to their own world). Aslan sends word to Peter and Susan that they can never visit Narnia again.

Caspian reappears (as King Caspian) in the two following books in the series: “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and “The Silver Chair”.


Production Status

Pre-production began on February 4, 2006 with filming set to begin in Fall 2006, possibly on location somewhere in Ireland, which is Belfast-born C. S. Lewis's native country, or New Zealand, where the first Narnia film was shot.

It has been reported that the visual effects team behind “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” has promised that “Prince Caspian” will have bigger and better effects, including a much larger Aslan and more creatures and battle sequences than the first film.

Dean Wright, the Oscar-nominated visual-effects supervisor for "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", told SCI FI Wire that he and his colleagues are already looking ahead to the sequel, "Prince Caspian".
Wright also confirmed that the sequel will bring back the main animal character, Aslan (voiced in the first film by Liam Neeson), as well as a host of familiar and new creatures - "There's new hero creatures, specifically Badger and his mouse, Reepicheep. Again, there are huge battle sequences. I know from talking to Andrew just briefly before he left: He wants to make this bigger and better than the first Narnia film".

Director Andrew Adamson hasn't written the sequel's script yet, but Wright said the effects team will begin computer "pre-visualization" of scenes from “Prince Caspian” "probably in a couple of months, and then full on into preproduction. You know, the film is going to kick off before you know it, and we'll be going like gangbusters, probably, I would say, within the next two to four months".

"One of the challenges [is that] it's described in the text that he does increase in size. At one point, he's finally referenced as being the size of an elephant. That's where interpretations of the filmmakers are going to come into play, how to pull it off... we also successfully avoided Aslan getting doused in water in the first film. But as soon as we get into “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, and that sort of stuff, it's going to be harder to avoid" says Wright.


Sequence/Order

Many young fans of the book series are confused as to the order of the films's production. Many people ask why “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”, to them the second book, was filmed first, followed by “Prince Caspian”, to them the fourth. The reason is that original collaters of the series numbered them according to the order in which they were published, and, thus far, the films are following that order, which is:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy (According to C. S. Lewis' stepson, The Horse and His Boy was the 4th written, 5th released)
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

It may also be noted that “The Horse and His Boy” and “The Magician's Nephew” may be entirely skipped because they do not really effect the final outcome of the series.


Contact With Our World

There are seven documented events of contact between the world of men and the world of Narnia. Dates are taken from a timeline provided in the book “Past Watchful Dragons” by Walter Hooper.

“The Magician's Nephew”
Narnian Year 1
Four humans, Frank (last name unknown), Andrew Ketterley, and children Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, were present at the creation of Narnia, having been brought there by a series of unfortunate events. The same day, Aslan called Frank's wife, Helen, from England, and the two remained in Narnia as King and Queen. The children and Andrew returned to London.

Narnian Year 460
As alluded to in Prince Caspian, six human pirates and their wives from the South Sea entered the land of Telmar through a magic cave. They remained in Telmar and their descendants formed the Telmarine civilization.

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Narnian Year 1000
Four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, entered Narnia through a wardrobe Digory had built from the wood of a magical Narnian tree. Aslan returned to Narnia at the same time, defeated the foreign ruler Jadis, now known as the White Witch, and set up the four children as kings and queens. They ruled for fifteen years before returning to England back in the state of their childhood.

“Prince Caspian”
Narnian Year 2303
The Pevensie children were summoned to Narnia by magic to help remove a Telmarine usurper King Miraz from the Narnian throne and establish the teenage Prince Caspian as king. After this, Aslan allowed the Telmarines, descendants of the pirates, who had arrived long ago, to go back to an island in the South Sea if they so wished.

“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”
Narnian Year 2306
Edmund and Lucy Pevensie and Eustace Scrubb entered Narnia through a magic painting in a frame made of wood from a magical Narnian tree, and took part in Caspian's voyage to the edge of the world.

“The Silver Chair”
Narnian Year 2376
Aslan brought Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole to Narnia, where they rescued Rilian, son of the now elderly Caspian, from his enchanted captivity. Caspian died, but was resurrected in Aslan's country. Aslan briefly allowed him to cross over into the children's world (England, 1942) to help them in return, which resulted in the removal of a corrupt school administrator.

“The Last Battle”
Narnian Year 2575
In 1949, King Tirian of Narnia appeared to the friends of Narnia in England, and Aslan brought Eustace and Jill to Narnia to assist Tirian at the end of his reign.