The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian [Blu-ray]

In the follow up to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, we find ourselves back on an adventure with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

With a murderous plot on Prince Caspian after his uncle Miraz has a son of his own and will stop at nothing to get the throne for himself and his heir, Prince Caspian escapes to the woods where he enlists the help of the Narnians, who are believed to be long extinct, and the four Pevensie children. 1300 Narnian years have past when the royal children find themselves back in Narnia. Things are considerably different from how they remember and want to help restore order to the land and the magical creatures.

The Blu-ray version has a spectacular picture quality and is offered in English DTS-HD Master Audio. I have to admit that I had a problem with the audio not working with my Panasonic Blu-ray player and Pioneer receiver. It seems that the disk doesn’t like that combination and I researched and found that I wasn’t alone with my problems so please take that into consideration. I usually am thrilled by the picture quality that Blu-ray has to offer but, the different uncompressed audio tracks is what really immerses you into the film and gives you that true cinematic experience.

With bonus material becoming more and more sought after, this disk doesn’t disappoint with its wealth of material. Most notable is “Inside Narnia: The Adventure Returns” which has an in-depth look at making the feature and with the actors during their down time on the set and issues with the director’s concerns to be a part of the sequel.

Bonus Features:

Disc1:

• Audio commentary with Writer/Director Andrew Adamson and actors Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Mosley and Anna Popplewell
• (HD) Circle-vision interactive: Creating the raid – A 360 degree behind the scene look at the complex sequence as it is broken down into a multi-segmented feature that can be viewed at once or separately via a rotating menu
• BD-Live access

Disc 2:

Behind the Magic:

• (HD) Inside Narnia: The adventure returns - Featurette
• (HD) Sets of Narnia: A classic comes to life - Featurette
• (HD) Big movie comes to small town - Documentary
• (HD) Previsualizing Narnia - Featurette
• (HD) Talking animals and walking trees: The magical world of Narnia - Featurette
• (HD) 10 Deleted scenes with optional introduction by Andrew Adamson
• (HD) The bloopers of Narnia
• (HD) Secrets of the duel - Featurette
• (HD) Becoming Trumpkin - Featurette
• (HD) Warwick Davis: The man behind Nikabrik - Featurette

Disc 3:

• Digital Copy Bonus Disc – contains a standard definition version of the film that can be downloaded to a portable device from a PC

While I preferred the first installment, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will find you enthralled and captivated with the wonderful world of Narnia. One of the highlights for me was the butt-kicking mouse, Reepicheep, whose voice was done by Eddie Izzard. He is definitely a scene-stealer and I wouldn’t be surprised if Reepicheep has a bigger role in the next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I do wish we had more scenes with the might Aslan but, when he is on screen, he is very majestic and reminds you why a lion is the king of the jungle.

The graphics are flawless and picture quality is spectacular on this Blu-ray feature. I wish I was able to hear the sound effects properly and hopefully through Blu-ray player firmware upgrades, I will be able to someday. I definitely feel that both installments of the C.S. Lewis books are adapted to the big screen quite well and are the perfect way to spend your next snow day with the family having a movie marathon in the land of Narnia.