Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 6: The Little Problems in Caspian's Life

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!!

(I got tired of using the word "huge" - and "major" sounds more professional anyway. Lol.)

Meanwhile, Caspian is having something of a rough time with the Narnians. First, he gets into a swordfight with Nikabrik and spills Trufflehunter's soup! Then he is running from Telmarine crossbow men in the woods, only to be rescued by Reepicheep, who finishes off the soldiers, then wants to finish off Caspian! (See the Weekend in Narnia YouTube vid - the clip is at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vROoHve-iU) Fortunately for Caspian, Trufflehunter intervenes.

Reepicheep: "Trufflehunter! I trust you have a good reason for this untimely interruption!"
Nikabrik: "He doesn't. Go ahead."

The Dancing Lawn meeting is not a council of war, but almost a hanging party. The Narnians want to take their revenge on Caspian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRkv3BIGgUQ&feature=related

Caspian: "You would hold me accountable for the crimes of my people?"
Nikabrik: "Accountable... and punishable."

Trumpkin and Glenstorm begin to talk sense into the Narnians, however, and Caspian makes his own impassioned speech.

"Together, we have a chance to take back what is ours!"

After this point in the film (if I remember correctly), we don't see Caspian again until he charges at Peter!

Coming Next: The Kings and Queens of Old

Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 5: Trumpkin Takes Center Stage!

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS!!

Meantime, Trumpkin is taken to Miraz, who "frames" the Narnians as Caspian's "kidnappers". Trumpkin is shown off before the Telmarine council as a Prisoner Of War, then taken out to the river-mouth to be drowned.
The Telmarine who rows the boat complains to his companion that the Dwarf is looking at him. The second Telmarine tells the first, "Don't look at him." The first Telmarine tries to look away, but is rather unnerved by Trumpkin's steady glare.
And as the Telmarines are about to toss Trumpkin out into the water, a young woman's voice shouts, "Drop him!" The Pevensies to the rescue!
We hear the recurrence of the Narnia theme as it played when Peter, Susan, and Lucy were riding the ice on the river in Wardrobe. The Telmarines do drop Trumpkin... into the water. As Susan shoots at the soldiers, Peter and Edmund dive into the water to help the Dwarf.
On the beach, Trumpkin grumbles about Susan saying "drop him," saying that the Telmarines didn't need any help trying to drown him. In less than a minute, though, Trumpkin realizes something.

Trumpkin: "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're the Kings and Queens of old."
Peter: (holds out his hand to shake) "High King Peter the Magnificent."
(Trumpkin stares at Peter's hand.)
Susan: "You probably could have left out that last bit."
(Edmund laughs.)
Trumpkin: (grins and almost laughs) "Probably."

Peter gives Trumpkin his sword to fight Edmund - Trumpkin has some trouble holding it at first! He soon recovers, and Edmund go at it fairly well.
And instead of wasting precious time over Trumpkin's disbelief, he believes right away. Also, he tells the Pevensies what is happening in Narnia on the way to meet up with the Narnians - another good use of screen time.

Coming Next: The Little Problems in Caspian's Life

Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 4: Called Back into Narnia

(Note: Journey through Narnia began as a review of Prince Caspian and is turning out to be something of a cross between a review and a commentary. That's why I've been putting up the spoiler warning, and that's why I'll keep on using it throughout the Journey.)

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS!!

A train comes, and the station starts ripping apart, until the Pevensies can see a beach on the other side of the rails. When the train has rushed past, the Pevensies find themselves in a huge cave with the beach just outside, and the train fades away as it leaves.

I really like how they worked the pull into Narnia. The kids aren’t being pulled back to Narnia – they’re being pulled towards it.

And as they start to play in the water, we hear the recurrence of the beautiful song “One Day” from the first film. In Wardrobe, the song appears both in the train-ride scene and when the Pevensies enter Narnia together for the first time. In that context, this song works beautifully for this scene.

Edmund: “Where do you suppose we are?”

Peter: (grinning) “Where do you think??”

Edmund: “I don’t remember any ruins in Narnia.”

One change to the story that I really appreciate is that the Pevensies know right away where they are, and that they figure out their position at Cair Paravel quickly, too. In the book, it takes them all day to figure it out! Every time I read the book (or hear the Focus on the Family radio adaptation), I feel like saying, “Oh, come on, guys! It’s so ridiculously obvious! Where else would you be but Narnia??” If you’ve read the books, have you ever had that feeling?

The gold chess piece – a Centaur – that Susan finds is Edmund’s, and he says so.

Peter: “Which chess set?”

Edmund: “I didn’t have a gold chess set in Finchley.”

And the Pevensies also quickly work out that since their castle looks like ancient ruins, they must have been gone for centuries. These kids are really using their heads!

It’s so sad to see the kids standing where their thrones once were, looking out over what was once their throne room. Watching that, I could see in my mind’s eye where everything was supposed to be, and it was just so sad! The Pevensies have returned to find that their beloved Narnia has changed even more than they have.

Edmund inspects a remaining section of one of the stone walls. He says that the damage did not happen naturally – it was done by catapults. When Edmund said that, I had a mental shiver – this was something I’d never thought of before. The implication is that the Telmarines attacked Cair Paravel and destroyed it.

When the Pevensies are about to go down into the treasure chamber, Peter rips off part of his shirt for a torch. When he asks about matches, Edmund produces his new "electric torch" (flashlight, if you don't know). Peter laughs: "Why didn't you say so before?"

Each Pevensie has his or her own chest. Only Peter holds back at first from opening his as the others rummage through theirs. You could interpret his reluctance to open his chest several different ways, and I won't try right now.

One thing that I appreciate (another something I've always thought should be mentioned in the book) is something that Lucy says... with tears in her eyes.

"Everyone we used to know... Mr. Tumnus, the Beavers... they're all gone."

It's seemingly small tragedy compared to the bigger tragedies of what has happened in Narnia, but it really is an important one. The old Narnia is forever gone... and with her are the Kings and Queens' beloved friends.

Coming Next: Trumpkin Takes Center Stage!

Memorial Day

To all my fellow Americans,

Happy Memorial Day!

Take some time today to thank God for our service men and women, those who are in action right now, those who are at home, and those who are dead. They have fought and are fighting for the freedoms that we enjoy here in America. If you know anyone in the military, show them some appreciation today.

(Now we'll return you to our regularly scheduled program of Journey through Narnia.)

Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 3: "I wasn't always a kid."

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS!!

When we first see Susan Pevensie, she is being approached by a boy known in the credits only as the "geeky boy." Poor kid! You have to pity him even more when Susan rebuffs all his attempts at friendly conversation! He says that whenever he sees her, she's alone. Susan has not been adjusting very well to the Pevensies' return to England.
And neither has Peter. We first see him right in the middle of a fight with several other boys in a subway station. When Peter's and Susan's eyes meet, Susan looks a sort of resigned "not again!" and Peter looks guilty. Then Edmund heroically leaps into the fray, and - as a huge fan of LotR - I could just hear a triumphal statement of the Fellowship's theme (music example: Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli running at the beginning of The Two Towers). Edmund jumping in reminded me of Gimli doing the same thing to help Aragorn at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers. My brother noted that Edmund kept jumping on the older boys' backs.
Andrew Adamson looks at something in the movie that C. S. Lewis never looked at in the book, and it's something that I've wondered about before: how did the Pevensies adjust to going back to being kids back in England? And the film says (realistically, I think) that it was hard. Peter had been a thirty-ish High King of Narnia! Warrior king, even! Then he goes back to being an English schoolboy??

Peter: "I'm tired of being treated like a kid."
Edmund: (frowning) "We are kids."
Peter: "I wasn't always one..."

Peter - understandably - has a major attitude problem!
In fact, since we don't really find out anything about Edmund and Lucy in England, it's safe to assume that the younger two are coping better than their older siblings!

Coming Next: Called back into Narnia

Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 2: All That You Know Is About to Change

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS!!

The Walden Media logo turns into an eclipse of the moon in the Narnia sky (a neat effect) – or is it actually Tarva and Alambil? We zoom in towards a castle – not Cair Paravel – to a woman (Prunaprismia) giving birth. Now that is an intense beginning. And at first I was confused: General Glozelle calls Miraz “Lord,” not “Your Highness.” Then we find out that Miraz is still Lord Protector, not yet King. And when Caspian’s tutor, Dr. Cornelius, comes to save the Prince, Caspian asks for five more minutes! Then his bed is shot to pieces by four rounds (at least, my brothers say it is three or four) of crossbow bolts. If Caspian had really been there, would they even have found any of him left?? But Caspian has already escaped – through a wardrobe of all things!

And it is Cornelius, not Aslan (as could be inferred from the trailers), who says, “All that you know is about to change.” Then Caspian is in for the race of his life as he rides his horse Destrier to escape General Glozelle and several of his soldiers. One shot of the chase is on open plains, and though the scene takes place at night, it reminded me of the Ringwraiths chasing Arwen in The Fellowship of the Ring.

(On a side note, this part is one of the scenes with the most consecutively original music in the entire film.)

And fans of The Chronicles of Narnia are surprised when Trumpkin is captured by Glozelle and Caspian blows the horn early.

Definitely different from the book, and the changes in the very beginning set off quite a few of the changes in the plot throughout the film. But all in all, I think that the opening scene is very cool, very fast-paced, and very, very exciting.

Coming Next: Back in England

Journey through Narnia - Prince Caspian Part 1: Returning to Narnia

After having watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe DVD a couple of times, I began to long for Prince Caspian to be filmed, as well. About a year ago, a friend of mine sent me a poster for the movie.

Finally, Prince Caspian as a movie was a real thing to me. Then come December, the same friend sent me a link to NarniaWeb, where he had seen the theatrical trailer for the film: http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1355&dl=14478175 The family computer was slow, however, and the wait for the trailer to upload completely was pure torture! Finally, my family and I were able to see it, and we were blown away. I remember commenting that just the trailer was better than the trailer for Return of the King. I retract that, but only so far as to say that the two are equal!

After that, I started checking NarniaWeb (http://www.narniaweb.com/default.asp) periodically for updates on the movie. I think that it was in March when things started heating up – after all, it would only be two more months until Prince Caspian's theatrical release in the US. By the time April came, I was checking NarniaWeb almost every day – I would be doing my daily email-check and my daily NW check at the same time! And, of course, in the four weeks before the release, there was a lot to check out. http://www.narniaweb.com/newsarchives.asp There was something to see almost every day – I probably downloaded over twenty YouTube videos in those four weeks! And I could not believe all the spoilers I was getting! My brother succinctly summed it up by saying that we knew just about everything that would happen in the movie before we saw it! We even got to see a few scenes almost completely like they are in the movie (only a few seconds here and there would be cut out of them).

The past couple of years, my family and I would watch the first movie on Easter, since Wardrobe is, after all, a fantasy retelling of The Greatest Story Ever Told. (Click here to find out about the LWW super-trailer http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=642&dl=6859770, and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZOCZtQafn4 to see the trailer on YouTube.) This year, we decided to wait until the day before we went to see Prince Caspian. By the opening weekend, I wasn't just dying to see Caspian – I was dying to see Wardrobe, too! But opening weekend finally came, and we went to the theater on the second day. My siblings and I were hyped.

And sitting there with the commercials playing, I felt a sense of unreality, like I couldn't believe that we were finally here. But after half a year of excited anticipation, we really were here! We were about to return to Narnia!

Coming Next: Part 2: Everything You Know Is About to Change

Skywalkers

YouTube Commentary - Luke, Arwen, Peter, and Susan?

The first time I saw this video on YouTube, I saw Arwen Evenstar first... on a video that is called "Skywalkers!" I thought "what?" I kept watching, and saw Peter and Susan Pevensie. "What?!" And finally, Luke Skywalker. "WHAT?!"
So I read the description on the side:

"Its Several years after the Empire was defeated and A New War is starting, Luke and Jordan sit down with their Children Ben and Liv to talk about the upcomming war when Liv and Ben try to tell Luke they don't want him to go until luke explains what needs to be Done, Ben Changes his mind and wants to help and Liv Gets Mad at them all and well im sure you all can figure out the rest, just something i did randomly cause i was bored, hope you enjoy -Jordi
Also If anyones curious, Liv Tyler sings the song. Thanks To LovelyLivTyler.com i was able to download it!" - TheBrokenAngel8

I call this one of my favorite YouTube vids. It's very creative and well-edited; and it contains one of my favorite songs from The Lord of the Rings movies as well as all three of my favorite films: LotR, Narnia, and Star Wars! As I am a fanatic of all three, it's cool to see the three of them mashed together.
If you turn up the volume on the very beginning, you can hear Susan ("Liv") say: "We wouldn't get caught up in a war."
The creator did a very good job picking the clips of the different films with the right lighting. Luke and the Pevensies, if not quite Arwen, look like they're really in the same room. And Luke's clips fit so well in the context, e.g. when he's trying to "convince his kids" and his "reaction to Liv's departure."
And I love the song, too:

With a sigh, you turn away
With a deepening heart, no words to say
You will find that the world has changed forever

The trees are now turning from green to gold
And the sun is now fading
I wish I could hold you closer

I love that song! Liv Tyler has such a beautiful voice!
I think that this video is an excellent example of what people can do with a little creativity, a lot of imagination, and - of course - the right ingredients!

The Journey Begins

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you'll be swept off to."
- Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring

My first post on my new blog!

If you know fantasy, then you're sure to know my interests just by my title...
1. Rings: The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Lightsabers: Star Wars
3. Wardrobes: The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis

On this blog, I'll be talking about just about anything and everything, but especially about LotR, Star Wars, and Narnia. I'll be posting book reviews and short essays, and giving links to and commenting on YouTube videos...
Posting on this blog is going to be an interesting journey. I've stepped out onto the Road, and I can't wait to find out where it takes me.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can...