When the rightful heir to the throne, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), is threatened by his uncle (whose wife just gave birth to a son), he is spirited away to fight back later. All he is given by his teacher (who helps him escape) is an ancient horn supposedly from the great Queen Susan (Anna Popplewell). In the old days, when Narnia was ruled by the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, the horn was used to call help, and maybe it can still be used to call the old rulers from the past, or maybe even Aslan himself. At least that's what Doctor Cornelius (Vincent Grass) hopes.
Caspian's escape causes him to run into a pair of dwarfs and a talking badger, which of course convinces him that the old tales might be true. You see, it seems that many years have passed since the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and apparently in that time, a group of humans (known as Telmarines) have invaded Narnia and killed off all of the previous magical inhabitants. Well, while their numbers are severely depleted, it turns out they have just gone into hiding, and the remaining creatures have decided to rally against Caspian's uncle, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). When Caspian uses the horn to call for help, it pulls Susan, Lucy (Georgie Henley), Peter (William Moseley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) back from our world into Narnia.
When Caspian and the four rulers meet up, there is immediate tension between Caspian and Peter who both seem to be jockeying for the alpha male position. Meanwhile, Lucy claims to see Aslan (Liam Neeson), but when the others can't, they ignore her advice. Of course, every time they do, they find themselves in more trouble than before, so eventually the group has to have faith in his help and actually listen to Lucy if they are actually going to accomplish their goal.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian actually deviates from the C.S. Lewis novel in only a few ways. For one, the raid on the Telmarinian castle doesn't happen, and for another, many of the events shown with the kids alongside Caspian actually happen before they return to Narnia. But for the most part, all of the events from the book are present, and the reshaping that was done seems to be necessary in order to make it a good movie. Quite frankly, if the screenwriters had stuck religiously to the book, the action sequences would be short and it wouldn't be nearly as fun a film.
The movie has quite a few notable names in the supporting cast area. Not only does Tilda Swinton return briefly as the White Witch, but Peter Dinklage (Elf) plays a great Trumpkin and Warwick Davis (Willow) does great as Nikabrik (both dwarfs). I also really enjoyed Eddie Izzard's portrayal of the brave mouse fighter, Reepicheep.
This 3-Disc Collector's Edition (mind you, one of the discs is reserved for the Digital Copy DVD) has a good bit of stuff as far as extras are concerned. The movie's second disc contains a ton of special features. Between focusing on what it took to return to Narnia as far as making the movie is concerned and what this second story is all about, this is just a really good featurette. Another one focuses on creating the sets, while a third discusses making the animals of Narnia talk and their trees walk. But the ones I probably enjoyed the most are "The Secrets of the Duel" and the ones that focus on Warwick Davis and Peter Dinklage.
Fans of the books, or even just the first movie, will really enjoy this next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia. Not only is it a fun action/fantasy film, but a lot of the underlying messages laid out by C.S. Lewis still shine through.
