by I know, Prince Caspian is from the Chronicles of Narnia, but I just saw it this past Saturday with my family, and I can’t get over the number of lessons that I saw that could be learned from this story, so I’d like to spend some time this week telling you them, before getting back on the VeggieTales track.
I’m going to try to go about this from memory and work my way chronologically, but we’ll see how it goes. (If you don’t want the movie spoiled, you may not want to read past this part.)
The first lesson that really struck me was the continued reference to the children in their size and abilities. This also happened in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the Narnians were expecting great kings and they got children instead.
In this one, the four children save a dwarf from the Talamaranes only to be questioned as to whether they’re truly the people that the horn promised it would bring. Then, an amusing demonstration is in order– Peter has the dwarf sword fight Edmund who handles him easily.
These children were skilled– their small stature was something that many thought was a liability. How often do we treat those that are younger or that seem weaker as less important to the body of Christ, when in fact these may be the prayer warriors, they may be they which are truly strong.
It’s all part of not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.
Peter, you’re so right. There were a ton of lessons in this movie, and I like that you picked that one to focus on. There’s a reason the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children.
@Anna Ananas: What I’m also liking, Anna, is reading through the books with my kids. I had a moment where I had to laugh out loud last night because he was saying something that was only obvious to me now. I’ll have to cover that at some later date…
the makers of Prince Caspian kept to the original story better than i would have expected… i had heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not so much the case
@patrick: Yes, they did a pretty good job– though what I’m finding out after reading through The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is that they made what was a one chapter affair into the biggest moment of the movie. Not a problem, because they kept to the story.
Actually, I remember watching an interview or a breakdown of the first one before it came out where they said that the writer basically wrote the script from what he remembered of the book, rather than taking directly from it.
It will be interesting to see what they do with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader without a big battle scene.
I absolutely cannot wait for [i]The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.[/i] I heard someone interviewed on the radio (I think it was Lewis’ son) who said they’d keep making the movies as long as people kept seeing them. Is it naïve of me to think that people will keep seeing the movies long enough for us to see [i]Dawn Treader, Magician’s Nephew,[/i] and [i]The Last Battle[/i]?
@Anna Ananas: The question is, will the movies survive The Silver Chair and A Horse and His Boy. I can’t even remember the basic thrust of these two stories, though I clearly remember the last two.
If they can make it through those, the last two should be easy to get a crowd.
Oh, I hope they can make it through those two. Silver Chair was where they journeyed through the center of the earth and Horse and His Boy was about the boy who escaped from Calormen into Narnia. Those were both fantastic books!
@Anna Ananas: My little veggies told me last night that they like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe more than they like Prince Caspian reading through both books.
Then again, it’s not like they’re totally able to follow everything that’s going on. 🙂 They are still young, you know.
When you’re young is the best time to read some of Lewis’ works. I actually didn’t get to read the Chronicles of Narnia until I was out of high school. And then I finished all of them in less than a month. They were fantastic. Because of that, though, sometimes the story lines blend together in my head.
I wonder if I favor the others over The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe because that’s the book everyone knows. I suppose it feels a bit cliche to like it the best. But I’m just weird.
And now I really want some veggies and ranch.
@Anna Ananas: I couldn’t get through the books trying to read them when I was younger. I got stuck on Silver Chair and gave up. I think it was the older English.
When I picked them back up in High School they were much easier. Now that I’m the dad, they actually make sense and I can see the storyline much easier.
You’d better not be eating my neighbors again.
(Peter: “You’d better not be eating my neighbors again.”)
*grabs some of Peter’s neighbors and a big bowl ‘o ranch dressing*
Nom nom nom nom nom.
@AG: Where is Larryboy when you need him!?!
*dips cucumber into ranch… crunch*
Hmm, I don’t know where Larryboy is. O:)
Ha ha, I so posted by the wrong name.
@Anna Ananas: Never reveal the super secret identity!