The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Starring: Ben Barnes, Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, William Moseley, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes
Directed by: Andrew Adamson
(Walt Disney, May 16, 2008)

The Plot: It's been about a year since the four Pevensie siblings returned from Narnia, but their normal lives don't last long. Pulled back to Narnia, they discover that over 1,000 years have passed, and that a race of humans has nearly wiped out the realm's magical inhabitants. The Pevensies find themselves trying to help a sympathetic royal heir regain his rightful place from an evil usurper.

The Pros: All's well that begins well? The first Narnia film scored with the novel's fans and the general audience at large, and there's no denying that, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, the literary source material is strong.

The Cons: Unlike Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, this isn't a straight continuation of the story. With an entire epic franchise's worth of backstory needed simply to explain Caspian's basic plot, will the causal viewer be lost or, worse, bored by the film's inevitable need to explain it all in detail?

Cheat Sheet:

Warwick Davis — in addition to appearing in the Star Wars and the Harry Potter films, also appeared in the BBC TV adaptations of Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair (all based on C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" novels).Narnia duties kept director Adamson from helming Shrek the Third, the first film in the animated trilogy he didn't direct. He did, however, serve as executive producer.C.S. Lewis wrote seven Narnia books in all, and Adamson is already prepping an adaptation of the next one: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.The band Phish have a song called "Prince Caspian," based on this story, on their album Billy Breathes.