…Because when I said that Prince Caspian, the movie was like Prince Caspian, the book, I lied. Inadvertently, of course, but it was a lie nonetheless.
I re-read Prince Caspian the day after I saw the movie, and was quite amazed at all of the differences I found between the original writing by C.S. Lewis and what had happened onscreen.
As I believe I mentioned in my last post, the movie gave a bit more introduction to the characters than the book had, which I actually found nice. On page 3 in the book, the Pevensie children are already back in Narnia. I guess Mr. Lewis didn't feel like waiting to get the story started. The beginning of the movie, in its deviations from the story, may almost be seen as symbolic for the rest of the screenplay versus what really happened in the books.
The four Pevensies, though they knew they were back in Narnia, had no idea of where they were. Things had changed so much over the time they'd been gone—what was it, 1300 years? I'm not sure1—that Cair Paravel was actually on an island. The siblings were quite a bit disoriented, and they didn't run across the dwarf for a while after they had arrived.
Trumpkin2 is quite another story altogether. In the movie, he had been caught by scouts after Caspian had run away from his castle. In the book, he was caught as he was out looking for whatever help might arrive after Prince Caspian had used Susan's horn.
In fact, quite a bit had happened in Narnia before Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy arrived by Lewis' tale. I can see that this might be a logistical nightmare for the screenwriters3, but I'm sure it could have been done. In the book, Prince Caspian wasn't chased upon leaving the castle. No one actually discovered that he was gone before his horse (which he did actually fall off of after a small fiasco involving galloping at high speeds through the woods and an inopportunely placed tree4) returned to the castle riderless. And then there was no talk of kidnap spread by Miraz. He simply told his armies to go attack Narnia.
Dr. Cornelius, Caspian's tutor and a half-dwarf, made himself scarce when Caspian's horse was discovered. When he found out that Miraz was planning to start a war with the Old Narnians, he rode off as quickly as he could to find Prince Caspian and his people. The King (as he became recognized by the Narnians) then decided to make for Aslan's How5 to set up a defense there.
Miraz and his men quickly discovered Caspian's location and arrived. The armies were stronger than Caspian expected, and though the Narnians put up a brave fight, they were outnumbered by too much. After a major battle had been lost, a council of war was called and it was decided that Caspian would wind the magic horn of Queen Susan. It was then, after much of the fighting had been done, that the Pevensie children were actually called into Narnia.
As Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and Trumpkin travel toward King Caspian's camp at Aslan's How, the movie gets the general idea of what happened. Lucy actually was almost killed by a bear and saved by Trumpkin. I'm fairly certain that the movie cut out quite a bit of the traveling, actually, because how much do we want to see of people tramping through the woods6? In the book, Lucy saw Aslan telling her to follow him, but the group ended up going the other way. However, book-Aslan didn't want the children to go down the gorge as was suggested in the movie. He wanted them to go the other way. Trivial details such as this don't exactly make or break the story, but I am always happy to point them out. In the end, Aslan eventually leads the group of travelers to Caspian's camp an all is happy7.
When they reach Aslan's How, Trumpkin, Peter, and Edmund are told by Aslan to go meet with King Caspian. Lucy and Susan stay with the Lion in the woods and awaken the tree people.
The group of men8 arrive in Aslan's How not a moment too soon. At the time of their arrival, Nikabrik (a dwarf) and his "friends," a hag and a werewolf, are trying to convince King Caspian to call upon the White Witch for help. As Nikabrik begins to call upon the Witch; Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin all jump into the room and, along with Caspian, Trufflehunter (another dwarf), and Dr. Cornelius, kill all three conspirators. A quick note—the hag and the werewolf were very well portrayed in the movie, and their lines came almost exactly out of the book. They did a fantastic job on that! But now back to what happened in the book.
Kings Peter and Edmund become acquainted with King Caspian, and unlike in the movie, there is no animosity between them. They all work together. What happened then in the movie is pretty constant with the book's plot—Peter calls for a fight with Miraz; Miraz is goaded into accepting by his own men; Miraz ends up dead after the fight by the hands of one of the men who motivated him to accept the challenge. Then comes the great battle. There is no fantastic collapsing ground in the book, though that scene was very exciting in the movie. Without that, the battle seems to be going a bit poorly for the Narnians until the trees come to attack. This causes the whole Telmarine Army to flee back to Beruna's Bridge. The bridge had been removed from Beruna by this point in the book, but again, I see how this could have been a bit of a problem in movie-land. In the book, though, the Telmarine armies simply surrender instead of whatever else it was that happened in the movie.
At this point in the story, we cut to a random scene of Aslan running through the towns that they Telmarines have built in Narnia and freeing the true Narnians from the Telmarines. Susan and Lucy are still with him, having been kept away from the battle because they're girls. I must say, I like the movie version of this part better, in that the girls get to fight and there are no random deviations from the main plot.
When the main battle is won by the Narnians and all the Narnians have been freed from Telmarine rule, Aslan then comes back, recognizes Caspian X as King of Narnia, and then everyone has a happy little feast. Oh, and Reepicheep, the cute little mouse, gets his tail back. As in the movie, the Telmarines are offered a chance to go back to their world; some are skeptical of the deal once the first men disappear; and Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy prove that everything is safe by going through the barrier themselves. Then we have ourselves a happy little ending.
The scene in the movie involving an attack on the Telmarine castle never happened in the book. There wasn't much of a problem with it except for that, though9. Well, that and the fact that I don't think griffins were ever mentioned by C.S. Lewis in any of his Narnia books. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.
So ends my corrections of my last post. Sorry about the misunderstanding.
I re-read Prince Caspian the day after I saw the movie, and was quite amazed at all of the differences I found between the original writing by C.S. Lewis and what had happened onscreen.
As I believe I mentioned in my last post, the movie gave a bit more introduction to the characters than the book had, which I actually found nice. On page 3 in the book, the Pevensie children are already back in Narnia. I guess Mr. Lewis didn't feel like waiting to get the story started. The beginning of the movie, in its deviations from the story, may almost be seen as symbolic for the rest of the screenplay versus what really happened in the books.
The four Pevensies, though they knew they were back in Narnia, had no idea of where they were. Things had changed so much over the time they'd been gone—what was it, 1300 years? I'm not sure1—that Cair Paravel was actually on an island. The siblings were quite a bit disoriented, and they didn't run across the dwarf for a while after they had arrived.
Trumpkin2 is quite another story altogether. In the movie, he had been caught by scouts after Caspian had run away from his castle. In the book, he was caught as he was out looking for whatever help might arrive after Prince Caspian had used Susan's horn.
In fact, quite a bit had happened in Narnia before Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy arrived by Lewis' tale. I can see that this might be a logistical nightmare for the screenwriters3, but I'm sure it could have been done. In the book, Prince Caspian wasn't chased upon leaving the castle. No one actually discovered that he was gone before his horse (which he did actually fall off of after a small fiasco involving galloping at high speeds through the woods and an inopportunely placed tree4) returned to the castle riderless. And then there was no talk of kidnap spread by Miraz. He simply told his armies to go attack Narnia.
Dr. Cornelius, Caspian's tutor and a half-dwarf, made himself scarce when Caspian's horse was discovered. When he found out that Miraz was planning to start a war with the Old Narnians, he rode off as quickly as he could to find Prince Caspian and his people. The King (as he became recognized by the Narnians) then decided to make for Aslan's How5 to set up a defense there.
Miraz and his men quickly discovered Caspian's location and arrived. The armies were stronger than Caspian expected, and though the Narnians put up a brave fight, they were outnumbered by too much. After a major battle had been lost, a council of war was called and it was decided that Caspian would wind the magic horn of Queen Susan. It was then, after much of the fighting had been done, that the Pevensie children were actually called into Narnia.
As Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and Trumpkin travel toward King Caspian's camp at Aslan's How, the movie gets the general idea of what happened. Lucy actually was almost killed by a bear and saved by Trumpkin. I'm fairly certain that the movie cut out quite a bit of the traveling, actually, because how much do we want to see of people tramping through the woods6? In the book, Lucy saw Aslan telling her to follow him, but the group ended up going the other way. However, book-Aslan didn't want the children to go down the gorge as was suggested in the movie. He wanted them to go the other way. Trivial details such as this don't exactly make or break the story, but I am always happy to point them out. In the end, Aslan eventually leads the group of travelers to Caspian's camp an all is happy7.
When they reach Aslan's How, Trumpkin, Peter, and Edmund are told by Aslan to go meet with King Caspian. Lucy and Susan stay with the Lion in the woods and awaken the tree people.
The group of men8 arrive in Aslan's How not a moment too soon. At the time of their arrival, Nikabrik (a dwarf) and his "friends," a hag and a werewolf, are trying to convince King Caspian to call upon the White Witch for help. As Nikabrik begins to call upon the Witch; Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin all jump into the room and, along with Caspian, Trufflehunter (another dwarf), and Dr. Cornelius, kill all three conspirators. A quick note—the hag and the werewolf were very well portrayed in the movie, and their lines came almost exactly out of the book. They did a fantastic job on that! But now back to what happened in the book.
Kings Peter and Edmund become acquainted with King Caspian, and unlike in the movie, there is no animosity between them. They all work together. What happened then in the movie is pretty constant with the book's plot—Peter calls for a fight with Miraz; Miraz is goaded into accepting by his own men; Miraz ends up dead after the fight by the hands of one of the men who motivated him to accept the challenge. Then comes the great battle. There is no fantastic collapsing ground in the book, though that scene was very exciting in the movie. Without that, the battle seems to be going a bit poorly for the Narnians until the trees come to attack. This causes the whole Telmarine Army to flee back to Beruna's Bridge. The bridge had been removed from Beruna by this point in the book, but again, I see how this could have been a bit of a problem in movie-land. In the book, though, the Telmarine armies simply surrender instead of whatever else it was that happened in the movie.
At this point in the story, we cut to a random scene of Aslan running through the towns that they Telmarines have built in Narnia and freeing the true Narnians from the Telmarines. Susan and Lucy are still with him, having been kept away from the battle because they're girls. I must say, I like the movie version of this part better, in that the girls get to fight and there are no random deviations from the main plot.
When the main battle is won by the Narnians and all the Narnians have been freed from Telmarine rule, Aslan then comes back, recognizes Caspian X as King of Narnia, and then everyone has a happy little feast. Oh, and Reepicheep, the cute little mouse, gets his tail back. As in the movie, the Telmarines are offered a chance to go back to their world; some are skeptical of the deal once the first men disappear; and Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy prove that everything is safe by going through the barrier themselves. Then we have ourselves a happy little ending.
The scene in the movie involving an attack on the Telmarine castle never happened in the book. There wasn't much of a problem with it except for that, though9. Well, that and the fact that I don't think griffins were ever mentioned by C.S. Lewis in any of his Narnia books. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.
So ends my corrections of my last post. Sorry about the misunderstanding.
Caryn
1 Actually, they never specified in the books, but I'm sure the movie people wanted something a bit more concrete than "a long time." Things like that, I don't mind quite so much since it didn't drastically affect the story.2 Yep, that's the dwarf's name. You learn something new every day, eh?
3 And I'm not yet sure if this is a good excuse for what they did
4 If you get my drift…
5 The place where the stone table was buried.
6 Actually, if by people you mean "Peter," then I'm not minding so much, but that's just me. And probably most other obsessive girls in America, but that's missing the point.
7 Or as happy as things can be in the middle of a war that's going badly, I suppose.
8 How very sexist of C.S. Lewis—though I suppose that's just how things were back then.
9 But you know, I did always feel that that scene was a bit off. Now I know why. I wonder why they put it in? We may never know.
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