Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ~Book Cut~

Grew up loving the 2005 film of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, and while I was aware of “Prince Caspian” at the time of its release in 2008 (remember schoolmates talking about going to see it at the cinema) it was not until a long time later that I finally sat down to watch it.

It struck me as a bit of a let-down, with a large contributor being the new plot elements introduced: this edit was generally successful in removing them, it is likely that new audiences would be unaware that a large chunk is missing.

If one is familiar though you do notice immediately where there are gaps, with certain references being now orphaned and a few lingering looks remaining between Caspian and Susan. I would be the first to admit though that I’m not sure if or how these narrative changes could be achieved better, and this edit definitely fulfils its title in the broad sense.

Despite the disclaimer at the beginning I felt that the inclusion of the scene with unfinished VFX was distracting, if only they could be completed! The actual recutting was done well, particularly the “silent ending” (as described by tomh1138) though there were occasions that felt slightly non-original. I think it is an improvement overall, but would have to watch the original again to be sure.

I watched the original film exactly once, and was so disgusted with the castle raid and all the Suspian that I refused to watch it again, preferring the BBC version (which actually respected the book's content). But I took a chance on this edit fixing a lot of that, and I was relieved to see it removed both of the elements I detested most.

I had to dock a star from the audio/video quality because of the unfinished CGI scene - but at the same time that really isn't Sobo's fault, and it is a good scene to have! Also, the song-only ending was lovely but it was very noticeable that the children were speaking to each other on the train - and we couldn't hear what they were saying - so it was slightly jarring.

I docked a star from the narrative mostly because there were the occasional oddity/holdout such as Nikabrik's disappearance, and the bits of Suspian in the form of some longing looks. Overall I felt those elements were more or less handled as best as they could given chopping out whole scenes such as the White Witch one that would've explained where Nikabrik went. I don't remember that scene well enough to know if it were possible to retain much of it while still cutting the worst parts, so I won't suggest that the editor should have done that, though if it were, that might've been a better option.

On the whole I felt that this was a major improvement on the original film, and highly recommend it for any book fan who (like me) was disgusted at Disney's attempt to turn this book into film. The minor issues listed above are just that - minor - and don't significantly detract from the overall enjoyment.

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As a fan of the Narnia books since childhood really enjoy the seven books and the first two movies, not to mention the BBC miniseries, although the adjustments had their differences had the spirit and many of the elements of the novels, but returning to see the second, I've noticed that (like many films produced by Disney), always tries to be as long as possible so they often resort to fill, as proof this whole '' Suspian '' and the sequence castle, elements that have to account only gave the best-looking one more clumsy and slower pace.

In this edition it was decided to give a route and spirit more similar to the book and to be honest I think it does, the movie is narratively much more skilled, when I noticed, had already spent two hours of footage and not even notice the cuts. Well there is a scene in which Peter for and sits immediately for some reason, but it's a detail.

The introduction is almost perfect (eliminating a detail that speaketh then), then advances with buenritmo to a surprising climax that does not feel overloaded, it feels with the right amount of war to this story.

I only had two problems with the edition:

1) The romance between Susan and Caspian: While they are not romantically involved, there are some scenes that made me fear for a moment that they would be, there are several scenes that seem to be giving himself looks somewhat strange for people who are just allies, but the most noticeable is when Lucy and Susan will go to Forest, the scene has too many silences and looks to be normal allies and several times it looked like both really have something.

2) The Nerd: That scene is horrible and sadly is in the assembly, had it not been for that scene, the introduction would have been perfect.

I do not bother the disappearance of Nikabrik, since this is not the first time I see an adaptation in which a character disappears without reason, but it was something strange, I think a good way to put it without the sequence of the castle, looks like this: Come the Telmarines, Caspian is doubtful about what to do because of the large army, Nikabrik tells him that if he wants to end the war need your help and is introduced to the white witch.

In general, an improvement on a clumsy narrative film.
Recommendable.
It is the closest thing to a purist version that will derive from this movie.

The recent films based on C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books left many fans, including myself, less than pleased, with pointless added subplots and with the central allegory muddled or ignored, among other problems. Fans generally liked the first one but had bigger problems with the next two. Thankfully, SoboFilms is here to try to set things straight.

Sobo has cut out about a half hour from the film, but the cuts are so seamless that I had trouble recalling where the cuts were even made. There are no jarring transitions in terms of sound or video. There is one deleted scene that’s a bit startling to watch, as it has unfinished CGI of Reepicheep and some other characters. But Sobo warns us with a disclaimer at the beginning of the edit that this unfinished scene will be there, so I didn’t have a problem with it. And I can see why he wanted to include it: The scene is one of the few taken from the book with virtually no changes. I note with some frustration that naturally such a scene would be one of the first to hit the cutting room floor for the original filmmakers.

To some degree, Sobo can’t make the film exactly like the book (such as starting with the Pevensie kids rather than in Narnia with Caspian) because the film itself is so heavily structured to work a certain way. (In fairness to the filmmakers, the book was a difficult adaptation anyway. If the movie were exactly like the book, about half of it would involve the Pevensies listening to a flashback from Trumpkin the dwarf while sitting on a beach.) Sobo does the best he can with what he has.

There’s an early scene in the movie where a nerdy kid attempts to flirt with Susan, much to her dismay. The scene comes off as very mean-spirited humor, and it’s nowhere in the original book. The author C.S. Lewis was a nerd himself who had a difficult time with women; he would never have written a scene like that. I was hoping that this scene would be missing from this edit, but it’s still here. Nonetheless, I can see Sobo’s reasoning. The nerdy kid appears again in the very end scene, and there’s no editing around him, so Sobo likely kept him for visual continuity.

(Major spoilers ahead in the next paragraph!)

As with the other reviewers, I do have to say that I kind of wish that Sobo had kept the scene where Trumpkin tries to resurrect the White Witch, but simply cut it shorter. Certainly, the scene in the movie is a disaster. Caspian shouldn’t be so easily tempted, and the White Witch gets way too close to actually coming back to life. However, with this scene missing, Trumpkin disappears inexplicably from the rest of the edit. Plus, Edmund shattering the image of the Witch is one of the few things added for the movie that I actually like. It shows how much he’s really changed. Having said all that, I haven’t tried editing this scene myself, and it may be that with all the other material cut, the scene simply didn’t flow or work anymore.

(End of major spoilers.)

I think that few people watching this edit realize how much work went into the last scene. Sobo opted for a silent, heartwarming return to Earth with just the music (“The Call” by Regina Spektor) and the actors’ expressions carrying the scene. But the scene originally had dialogue along with the Spektor song. So he removed the dialogue, added back in the music, and then painstakingly assembled sound effects for a train station from scratch! The effect is so seamless that you may not even notice it, but it’s extremely well done.

Bravo to SoboFilms for a terrific edit! I can’t wait to see his completed take on the next film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.