Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian finally came out in the theaters! Our family has been waiting since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out! We have so enjoyed reading those two books and were pleased that Disney created such great movies.

I think our favorite chapter book we've read as a family is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What a great story for all ages. I grew up on The Chronicles of Narnia and am enjoying sharing them again with my children. We were so excited for the movies to come out in the theatre. We bought the L,W&W right away and have loved watching it. Soooo of course we couldn't wait for Caspian to come to the theaters as well. Caleb was especially excited. He asked to go watch the movie for his birthday. So last night we took Caleb, Aly and a friend of Caleb's to see Prince Caspian. It was very well done as far as the movie goes! Very exciting and beautiful! But, I wish I would have watched it before I took Aly (4 yrs old) and Caleb's 5 yr old friend. (Very scary at times)!I knew the book was a bit darker than L,W&W but it had a good message. The message I got from the book (which was harder to catch in the movie) was that Narnia went on after the children left and forgot about Aslan. A new race of people took over and "old Narnians" were killed off or forced to hide. The new race was commanded not to share the stories of "old Narnia." Even the children (minus Lucy)forgot their faith in Aslan and could not see him. It was a great parallel to me how easily we lose sight of the Lord in our world 'taken over' by new philosophies.

I felt like they really changed things up this time and strayed away from Lewis's original work. I know it may have been less 'cinema friendly' than book 1, but they changed the main plot. They added a lot of fighting...practically the whole movie. Even so, they did leave in my favorite lines from the book. When Lucy was talking to Aslan for the first time, (I love their relationship - she is so in love with him) she said "Aslan, you have grown!" and Aslan replied "Every year you grow, I become bigger." I do like it better in the book:
"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."
"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.
"Not because you are?"
"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
I think that's such a beautiful picture of our relationship with God!

Another line in the book that was similar in the movie was toward the end when Aslan was honoring the kings and queens and welcoming Prince Caspian.
"Welcome, Prince," said Aslan. "Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the kingship of Narnia?"
"I-I don't think I do, Sir," said Caspian. "I'm only a kid."
"Good," said Aslan. "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not." I'm so thankful for C.S. Lewis's work and for how it helps to encourage me in the walk with my Lord.

Bella

Chuck and I actually sat down and watched a DVD last night. It has been so long since I've watched a whole movie (meant for people over the age of six)! I rented Bella because it was so highly recommended. It was good...a great message and very clean. I would recommend it too. There are some people I'm related to though, that will need to have kleenexes handy. :)
I watched a video clip on the movie that showed the passion behind it. The clip showed the movie's producer/lead actor speaking about a personal story that took place during the filming of the movie - really good. Click here to see the clip.