When
Prince Caspian breathed new life into
The Chronicles Of Narnia franchise (
after the pretty bland Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe), I had high expectations for the next adaptation from the cycle:
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.
And I wasn't disappointed.
Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) find themselves transported once again from war-torn England to the fantastical land of Narnia.
This time the method of transport is a magical painting and they are joined by their obnoxious and cowardly cousin Eustice (
the great Will Poulter in an early role).
Plucked from the sea by King (
formerly Prince) Caspian (Ben Barnes) on board the sailing ship Dawn Treader, the children soon find themselves swept up in an epic voyage to track the location of seven lost friends of Caspian's father who held seven magic swords that are required to defeat a growing evil in the East.
The evil manifests itself as a green mist that has the ability to project itself as one's fears and doubts.
There is a moment, towards the end, when Edmund realises that the green mist has latched onto his own fears and with the look he gives, and the way he says "oh no", you just know 90 per cent of the adults watching are thinking: "
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man".
Voyage Of The Dawn Treader is a classic sea-borne, island-hopping tale, in the style of
The Odyssey and
Sinbad stories, with every island being a different - increasingly dark - encounter for our party of adventurers as they make their way towards their final destination.
A true family action adventure film, this expands the fantasy world of Narnia beautifully, with some truly amazing visuals - to rival those of Peter Jackson's
Lord Of The Rings movies - and high quality special effects that are so slick they never threaten to shatter your suspension of disbelief.
Director Michael Apted ensures there's never a dull moment here and, even though our heroes never actually set foot on the final island, the story wraps up in a suitably magical and convincing fashion that shouldn't leave anyone dissatisfied.
Although there is physical conflict in
Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, most of the story revolves around dealing with intellectual and emotional problems - but in ways far more exciting than I've just made it sound!
A clever story, unsurprisingly there are "messages" in the text, but they are reasonably subtle and good natured, working on a fairy tale moral level rather than a sledgehammer approach.
The returning young performers, Henley and Keynes, have grown into their roles.
For completists there are some nice cameos by Tilda Swinton as The White Witch, Anna Popplewell as Susan Pevensie and William Moseley as Peter Pevensie.
Liam Neeson once more lends his vocal skills to Aslan and geek-favourite Simon Pegg replaces Eddie Izzard as the voice of warrior mouse Reepicheep.
The source material's Christian allegory gets a bit heavy-handed at the end when Aslan is talking to Lucy about "being known by another name" in our world (
I'm presuming it's not Leo), but given then one of the characters willingly volunteers to travel on to "Aslan's country" (
Heaven?) is this also advocating suicide as the character wasn't dead, just satisfied that he had had enough adventures in Narnia?
And, of course, the big difference between believing in Aslan, in Narnia, and believing in God, in the real world, is that Aslan is a walking, talking, breathing lion - not so much a test of faith as a test of eyesight.
Sometimes, I guess, it doesn't pay to think too much about these things!
