Aslan Returns, Part VI: CG Characters

For any of my following statements to make good and perfect sense, we must delve into one of my favorite areas of film making: computer generated animation, otherwise known as CG fill-in-the-blank.

As could be expected, the CG characters were wonderful, and were carried out perfectly. The movie, as was previously mentioned, begins in Narnia, and it isn't long before we see a computer animated figure in Trufflehunter, the badger that lives with Nikabrik and Trumpkin. Keeping--and even surpassing--the high standard that has been set for computer generated characters, Prince Caspian hits every note that was laid out in the book. the characters move flawlessly around, the stilted movement of early animation from the BBC version completely lost. The mice are mice, not puppets. And Aslan is larger than ever, just as Lewis had noted.

And boy, does it ever enhance the film. Trufflehunter is vaguely reminiscent of the Beavers, being of the same approximate shape and height, and the centaurs are--well, some of them are just darlin'. There are some smaller centaurs, including a child centaur, which I later found out was one of Tilda Swinton's children. More about that when we hit "Rumours."

The river god is amazing. I think the only thing that could have improved that segment was to actually mist the audience with water when the river god charges. The river god is not, as I had orginally thought, a nyad (the water version of dryads) sort of creature, but is actually a mass of water in and of himself, and quite reminiscent of the water horses in Lord of the Rings. The water is not static, but moves within the form. Unfortunately, he does not speak to Aslan as in the book, but that is definitely not the animator's fault.

And yes, Reepicheep is as cute as all get out.