Sometime next month, I plan on analyzing the 2008 Prince Caspian movie scene by scene on my blog and I was wondering if I should listen to the audio commentary for it to prepare. (I don't think my DVD has the audio commentary, but I could probably get a version from the library that does.) When I blogged through the LWW movie, I referred to the filmmakers' audio commentary to explain the director's justification for his storytelling choices. Even if I disagree with those choices, I feel like it's only fair to let the filmmakers' make their best case for them. (Then it looks really impressive when I dismantle their reasoning. ) But does the audio commentary for Prince Caspian talk about storytelling much or is it just about the filming process? Since most of the commentators are actors, I've assumed it was mostly the latter, which is why I never listened to it before.
However, I vaguely remember people on the old forum (I think) saying that the director's stated reason for adding a romance between Susan and Caspian to the story was that he wanted to give Susan a character arc where she starts out not wanting to get attached to Narnia to avoid the pain of parting from it again, only to learn that the joy of loving things (and people) is worth the pain of losing them. (By an interesting coincidence, if my memory serves, the C. S. Lewis biopic, Shadowlands, has the same message.) If the director talks about stuff like that in the audio commentary, I really should listen to it for research purposes before I write a lengthy analysis of the movie.
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I watched it with commentary a year or so ago most recently, and a couple times before that. From what I remember, it is largely anecdotes from the set (the addition of Ben Barnes makes for a bit more actor remarks than in the LWW commentary), but there are a few times when Andrew Adamson talks about his own processes, which includes (if I remember correctly) restructuring the narrative beyond the book's flashback approach, design choices regarding the trees and the Telmarines, and how they handled the kid's journeys (Peter's "former-royalty teen angst," etc.). I forget if there's too much about the Suspian romance decision though... if I recall Anna and Ben start telling a film-set story at this point in the film, but I may be wrong.
Definitely worth a listen, I'd say. It's not all meaty discussion of how they structured the story itself, but there's probably enough of that in there to make it rewarding for your research.
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On Cleander's advice, I listened to the commentary and I'm very glad I did because I heard a couple of interesting things I hadn't before. (I don't think I'll be able to work them into my blog series but they're nice to know.)
The costumes and hairdos for Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy when they're in England were designed to make them look as young as possible. The ones they sport as they movie goes and spend more time in Narnia were designed to make them look increasingly mature. (The commentary didn't say how they did this. Maybe I should have read the Official Movie Companion.)
The location for the ford of Beruna is part of a national park. The filmmakers were allowed to divert the river (or something like that; I've only listened to the commentary once) as long as they put it back to normal when they were done filming. I feel like that was appropriate given the themes of the story.
I've got to say though rewatching the movies of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian for my blog has really reminded me how I love the world they created and made me sad that we didn't get to see any more adaptations set in that world. (Please don't take that to mean I'm one of those people who wants Netflix to make a continuation of the Walden Media series. I'm not. I believe that would feel contrived and put the new filmmakers in a creative straitjacket. It's just that there are so many cool characters and locations of which we never got Walden versions and I just can't help wondering about what might have been.)
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
-The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen check out my new blog!