Blu-ray Review: The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian

Part of: The Wild Blu Yonder

While not the powerhouse adventure the original was, Prince Caspian is a fun, enjoyable Chronicles of Narnia follow-up. The action is bigger, visual effects (mostly) stunning, and the scale feels more involved. However, it’s lengthy, with drawn out dialogue that doesn’t feel necessary and the action is sparse. Despite its flaws, this one can easily keep this franchise going into a third installment.

The original Narnia was a reference quality disc, and Caspian has little trouble living up to that expectation. This razor sharp HD presentation is loaded with detail (Aslan is a sight to see), bringing the immense care put into the costumes to the forefront. Black levels are incredibly rich, ensuring even the murkiest scenes inside caves maintain a sense of depth. Color is bold without being oversaturated.

Disney goes all out with a DTS-HD 7.1 mix for the film. While non-action scenes are relatively sparse in terms of their audio presentation, the action truly delivers. The battlefield delivers plenty of bass, especially as the army marches towards their goal. Arrows, horses, and heads (yes, in a PG film) fly through the sound field with stunning accuracy. It’s impressive how well this disc tracks audio. It’s a shame the dialogue sequences offer so little ambience, and since there’s far more of those than action, it’s somewhat of a letdown.

A commentary leads off this two-disc set (three if you consider the digital copy), featuring director Andrew Adamson and much of his main cast. CircleVision is an annoyingly done featurette piece. Here, you select from a stack of featurettes or scene-specific commentaries about the castle raid sequence. Unfortunately, there’s so much of this content, and it’s laid out so poorly, it’s impossible to know if you’ve found it all. Also, BD-Live features are included, but locked up the PS3 every time they were accessed.

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Article Author: Matt Paprocki

Matt Paprocki is a 12-year movie and game critic. He currently freelances for Blu-ray review site DoBlu.com and video game site MultiPlayerGames.com.

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