“All That You Know Is About To Change.”

I can toot my horn better than Shia LeBeouf!

It has since been three years since we last saw the insides of a fur coat wardrobe with the Pevensie children and one year has retroactively passed in reel time.

Narnia itself has however aged 1300 years and has, like how one character described, become a “much more savage place”. Where proud castles once stood tall, now laid in shambles filled with ruins and destroyed masonry and where once animals were free to walk and speak with equal dignity as Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve, now were reduced to nothing but fleeing refugees eager to find the closest hole to hide - their presence no more than a fairy tale.

In this time, a new human race called the Telmarines has dominated much of the pristine world of Narnia and transformed it into a realm filled with Spanish-accented aristocrats befitting a Zorro movie. And like how you would expect of a land ruled by a royal family, ascension conspiracies abound when the current regent Lord Miraz attempts to off his King apparent nephew Prince Caspian at the advent of his own son.

The latter escaped death through the machinations of his teacher who hands him an ancient horn belonging to one Queen Susan and runs off into the haunted woods that no Telmarine would dare enter. However, his would-be assassins proved to be too dedicated to their task at hand to pay heed to common folk superstition and continues to give chase.

Cornered, Caspian proceeded to blow the horn and that was how the four Pevensie children were once again bundled into the lush but wild world of Narnia.

Prince Caspian continues off what was left off at the end of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and seeks to continue to enthrall viewers with a fantasy tale set in an equally fantastic land created by C.S. Lewis.

However you may ask, is the magic that permeates so much throughout the first film still present in this second one?

The answer is yes albeit in a wholly different manner. Where the first was all light, fluffy and uplifting, the second serving is dark, machiavellian and adult in every sense of the word. Prince Caspian does not expense with violence but rather seem to embrace it in a world where evil uncles seek to gain power by killing their kin. Fortunately for parents looking to bring their kids to a good holiday movie, much of the violence and bloodshed are implied and take place off screen but you know it’s there, that’s for sure.

The Pevensie children or rather the young actors have once more filled in their roles as the former Kings and Queens of Narnia really well and has lent more gravity to their characters either due to experience with the role or plain aging into their characters quite similar to the wizarding trio we see in the Harry Potter films. Peter, Edmund and Susan are ever practical and find it hard once more to believe in Aslan and Narnia despite having been there just a year before. However Lucy remains the ever hopeful sibling who never fails to try to find Aslan.

The political undertones in the film are perhaps the main driving force behind the show and may seem to be pretty heavy to swallow for the younger audience but Disney films being Disney, never fails to try to liven things with a healthy dose of talking CGI critters of which a certain vocalising mouse named Reepicheep stood out the most.

Sadly, the film can’t really seem to decide at parts whether to be a young adult show or a movie aimed primarily at children when serious sequences were often broken up almost rudely by the talking furries and thier cutesy antics.

But still Caspian is an enjoyable 2 hour and 15 minute romp into the fantasy world of Lewis that has so kept me wrapped up in my younger years and credit has to be given to director Andrew Adamson for piecing together the original story into bite-sized chunks for moviegoers who may not have read the book.

Look out also for the grand battle scenes near the end as well as a stellar performance by Sergio Castellitto as the evil Lord Miraz - his presence surely lifting up the show and preventing it to go too deeply into the childish end.

Although a functional sequel in plot, Prince Caspian does have its merits where effects and acting are concerned, and these should be more than enough reasons to want to catch it.

And oh for Aslan as well. Liam Neeson’s voice is a pleasure to hear once again.