The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The largest stretch of Andrew Adamson’s film is not in the book. The night raid on Miraz’s castle was invented for the screenplay; Adamson says his licence came from a moment where Reepicheep proposes attacking the castle and the attack never happens. It runs long and ends in defeat: much screen time goes to an operation the heroes lose. Peter is not the Peter of the novel either. On the page he has no claim of his own and fights Miraz to settle the war for Caspian; here he is wounded, imperious, and in open friction with the prince. The closeness between Susan and Caspian is absent from the book too, added by the screenwriters. The castle was not faked with miniatures: it was built outdoors at Barrandov studios in Prague. The rock arch into Narnia is Cathedral Cove in New Zealand, the bridge at Beruna the river Soca in Slovenia. Ben Barnes took Caspian’s accent from Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. North American takings fell to half the first film’s, and Disney left the series that December. A good fit if you can accept an invented siege at the centre of the story and then watch it fail. Not for anyone looking for warmth between the siblings, since the live friction runs between Peter and Caspian.