Thoughts on Prince Caspian: the book and the movie and a comic strip

a)

I recently read Prince Caspian, and of course thought quite a bit about how it compared to the movie. So, although these thoughts are real late (since the movie came out a year ago), here are my thoughts:

Prince Caspian is subtitled The Return to Narnia, but rather than simply revisiting the same themes as Wardrobe, the book explores a Narnia more than a millennium after the great deliverance of Aslan. This is a place where unbelief rules, history has been rewritten, and Aslan has been forgotten. Thus, the Pevensies return to restore Narnia to those who serve Aslan, and to bring back the chivalry and honour of earlier days. Essentially, it was a criticism of an unbelieving, corrupt world and a celebration of Christian faith and morality.

Caspian: The Movie shares the same general storyline, but attempts to discuss quite different questions. The Pevensies have had a hard year back on earth, and when they are transported back to Narnia, they are not greeted by Aslan. The small amount of guidance that Aslan gives them seems more like a test than help. When they finally begin to fight, they suffer a terrible loss as their attempted raid of the castle results in innumerable deaths. It is then that they are approached with the possibility of an alliance with a dangerous power. The question of how we can continue to have faith when it seems like Aslan is absent becomes the center of the movie.

In short, the movie has a much different spirit than the book, though it is hard to fault the movie for being able to add more action and craft its own identity in the process.

But it is interesting to wonder what the differences tell us about our culture. Perhaps the answer is that the question of how we can have faith in the midst of suffering is more relevant to our generation.

Yet, can that really be true when we compare our times to Lewis’s just-post-WW2/Red-scare 1949? Would a movie that was closer to the spirit of the book been embraced by this generation? Or have contemporary Christians ironically become like the world Caspian criticizes: a generation cynical towards clear answers and childlike faith?

b)

No other original thoughts worth mentioning. Here is a webcomic, with some insightful thoughts.