Alex Kirby

Director of Wonderworks Narnia movies.


The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) -- Possessing the same charm as the predecessor, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, this BBC/Wonderworks production is even more ambitious than the first and features many great actors (including Warwick Davis as Reepicheep).  It was a smart idea to combine two books, since Prince Caspian was a more slight story, the meatier stuff happening to the title character later in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, arguably the best of the Narnia books.  (See below for the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair.  See Marilyn Fox for the predecessor, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) A

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair (1990) -- Another faithful adaptation of the C.S. Lewis stories, but this time the literal translation gets in the way a bit.  Where the first three books had lots of stuff going on, this is more of an internal book (and one of the lesser ones anyway), and so sometimes what's on the screen is slow going or sometimes even confusing.  Too much of the movie is spent with the main character (and the other two characters as well) unrealistically not being able to remember four simple steps that Aslan has given her.  Besides these setbacks, the movie is as well-shot and acted as the rest (Camilla Power as Jill Pole and Dr. Who's Tom Baker as Puddleglum especially stand out) and ranks high in the world of children's entertainment.  It's too bad that Wonderworks didn't continue in 1991 with The Horse and His Boy. (See above for the predecessor, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.) B


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