Caspian Really Mixes It Up

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is scheduled to be released in just ten months, in May of 2008. While that may seem like an entire school year away, it's still just around the corner in movie-making time. The film is a follow-up to the enormously successful: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and although Caspian is technically the 4th book, it does feature the children from the first and unfortunately, unlike their literary counterparts, they age normally.

It has been 1300 years since the children last stepped through the Wardrobe and an evil king named Miraz is preventing his nephew, Caspian, from assuming the throne. It's Caspian who uses Susan's horn to summon the children back and fulfill the prophecy of restoring Narnia once again.

Disney's filmmakers met the challenge of this film head on and according to Howard Berger, the creature supervisor for the film, there will be a huge diversity in the types of fantasy characters to populate the landscape of the film. The first one, as you may remember, featured Aslan the lion, the White Queen, Mr. Tummus, the Beavers and the centaur.

In Caspian, you can expect to see male and female dwarves, old dwarves and young dwarves. There are fawns (old and young, and more. Not all the characters will be digitally added, in fact, filmmakers are blurring the line between fantasy and reality by mixing up CGI animation right alongside extras in costumes in an effort to create more realism so that movie goers will find it easier to suspend their disbelief.

It's a challenging prospect and just as Jackson did in Lord of the Rings, the more you can bring the literary landscape to life, the better. It sounds like the filmmakers are on the right track with Prince Caspian.

Among some of the other creatures you can expect to see are:

• Werewolf
• Minotaur
• Bulgy Bear
• More

Are you planning to see Prince Caspian?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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