Whatever its eventual flaws (and if it’s anything like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, it’ll have lots of ’em), it appears that Prince Caspian will at least look like a studio-produced fantasy epic. Amazing what a $744 million wordwide box office gross will get you.
Location-wise, the saga still seems kinda small, but if audiences could deal with the cut-rate look of the last Narnia installment, a lack of scale shouldn’t scare them off. Frankly, the appeal of this series (i.e. to non-Christians) is baffling to me; though The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was one of my favorite stories as a kid (thanks largely to the 1979 animated adaptation), the rest of the books were incredibly underwhelming. And forgettable. While it’s been over twenty years since I read Prince Caspian, you’d think that something in this trailer would jog a memory or two. The train station opening is vaguely familiar, but I can’t tell if I’m getting my C.S. Lewis in my Harry Potter.
Perhaps you’ll derive more enjoyment from this 2.30 tease. If so, you’ll be all over Prince Caspian when it debuts on May 16, 2008.