Six years ago Disney brought the first “The Chronicles of Narnia” movie to theaters and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was an enormous hit. In 2008, the second film in the series – “Prince Caspian” – was a bit of a disappointment.
For this third trip to “Narnia”, Disney was replaced by 20th Century Fox. And, I’m happy to say, the series, based on the popular C.S. Lewis novels, gets back on track.
“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” begins in London, with Edmund and Lucy, the two youngest of the original four “Narnia” children, living with their aunt, uncle and obnoxious cousin, Eustace. A special painting hanging in the house takes the three kids to Narnia, where they meet back up with Prince Caspian and the rest of their old friends.
We learn that after three years of peace (following the end of the last film) an evil force is threatening to take over Narnia and it’s tied to the missing Seven Lords. So the crew of the Dawn Treader head out to try to find the Lords and collect their seven swords, which, once brought together, will break the evil spell.
After the failure of “Prince Caspian” I didn’t have high hopes for “Narnia 3”. But the magic, wonder and joy of the first film are back. “Dawn Treader” is more of an adventure film than an action film – which is great. One of the main problems with “Prince Caspian” was there were too many battle scenes, too much fighting, and not enough time devoted to character development. “Dawn Treader” focuses more on the characters and the story, making the one, major action scene even more effective.
Another positive here is the running time, which is just under 2-hours. The first two films were close to 2 1/2 hours each. There are no unnecessary subplots or extra scenes in “Dawn Treader”. Director Michael Apted moves things along at a nice pace and keeps you interested the entire way.
All the main actors from the first two films are back, and Liam Neeson returns as the voice of Aslan, the God-like lion who rules Narnia. Simon Pegg takes over as the voice of Reepichepp the Mouse, and he has one of the major roles in the film. And newcomer Will Poulter is very good as the bratty Eustace. You may hate the character at the beginning of the film, but that will change.
“Dawn Treader” was converted to 3D after it was shot for it’s theatrical release, and it looked fine. But you won’t lose anything seeing it in 2D on your TV. It’s rated PG for fantasy action violence, but there isn’t a lot, and only a few, brief scenes that might be scary for kids. It’s appropriate for children 8 and up. Fans of the books and the other films should be quite satisfied with this latest installment. The movie made only $104M at the box office domestically, but did gross over $400M worldwide.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “The Chronicle of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” gets a B.
I thought this series may have been dead after the second film, but now I’m looking forward to a fourth. Talks have begun between Walden Media and Fox to produce “The Magician’s Nephew”, which is the 6th book in the seven book series, and a prequel to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”