As a huge fan of the books, I am very pleased with the quality of the first two Narnia films.

With that said, I think Disney needs to reevaluate their approach to the series.  Prince Caspian should not have cost $200 million to make.  Although it's definitely high fantasy, the series is far more contemporary than sagas like The Lord of the Rings.  It doesn't need to be nearly as elaborate or as expensive to make.

Dawn Treader also shouldn't require as nearly as large of a budget as Caspian.  If they stick to the novel and don't go overboard, it should only need a fraction of the effects shots.  I'm actually glad they're sticking to a tank stage because I think it would do just as good of a job as filming it on location at a fraction of the cost.

I'm excited for Dawn Treader.  It's probably my favorite Narnia novel and it's definitely the most unconventional of the seven, as it's purely about exploration and self-discovery.  To me, it's the book that really helps set the series apart from other fantasy series.

Iger really hit the nail on the head.  There was too much competition this summer for Prince Caspian to make a dent.  If it had come out this fall we wouldn't be talking like this.

I agree with Tuckenie, our family of five voted to pass on Narnia this Summer, and we ended up seeing Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indy, and Wall-E in theaters and agreed to buy Narnia on DVD. There were so many other blockbusters this Summer that Narnia just fell though the cracks and really didn't hold my kid's interest compared to the others, even though they have all seen the first several times, and one has read the entire series. Maybe the first one did turn them off to the rest!  

Maybe I'm in the minority here (or not, considering how poorly Caspian did), but I thought "Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" was horribly mediocre. The book really isn't that long, so they had to pad the film with a lot of unnecessary scenes. And let's face it: The children are terrible actors.

Eisner wanted his own Harry Potter, not realizing that the reason the Harry Potter franchise has survived for six films now is because they've had great screenwriters, directors and an amazing cast. It's difficult to clone that kind of success. Disney should end it with Caspian, or at least consider a television mini-series to continue the story.

"Eisner wanted his own Harry Potter, not realizing that the reason the Harry Potter franchise has survived for six films now is because they've had great screenwriters, directors and an amazing cast."

The Potter films are successful because they're able to ride on the wave of the Harry Potter phenomenon.  The Narnia books have been out half a century and don't have the same convenience.  I love the Potter books (well, the first four) and I think the movies are dreadful.  I find the Narnia films to be far closer in spirit to their source material, even if they take liberties with it.  The Potter films suck all of the charm out of the novels.

I definitely agree that Disney totally screwed up the release of Caspian.  Granted, I don't think anyone expected Iron Man to be nearly as successful as it was, but you don't mess with a good thing.  LWW did gangbusters in December, so why on earth would you move it to May?  I'm glad to hear that Iger wants to move Treader back to December because it would be insane to keep it in May.

People I have talked to enjoyed both movies. They agree that there were alot of good movie out when Capian came out. I, however, think that a big difference was repeatability. I loved LWW. It was very close to the book and captured NArnia wondefully. Caspian strayed too far from the source material. I know they had to add stuff but I felt like they changed too much. That is why I think alot of people that loved LWW and went to see it a number of times saw Caspian but did not go back again and again like they did for the first movie.

Imagine if it came out three years from LWW. What's in it's way? Bolt and Twilight would've had two weeks to run their course, albeit Disney didn't know this a year ago. It would open against the reboot of Punisher and have nothing in its way until The Tale of Despereaux, which wouldn't have posed much of a threat. It would've been just fine.

Chalk me up to another who feels it was the timing that ruined the release of 'Caspian".  The Narnia stories, with their clear religious tones, dovetale perfectly into the Christmas season.  It would've been much stronger then.  The added level of competition this Summer just made a bad idea worse.

I don't think it was bad word-of-mouth on the first film that hurt it.  It seems to me most fans of the books and kids and families in the target demographic loved the film.  I certainly did and while I like the books, I'm no huge fan.  I just watched LWW again the other day.  Right after I watched the film, I *had* to watch it again with the cast/director commentary and then *again* with the directer/crew commentary.  A great film.

Well, frankly, I thought "Prince Caspian" was pretty bad. Some nitwit at Diz decided to leave out all the fun, magic and celebration that so enlivens the book, and threw in a bunch of bloody battles instead. As a result, the film is a pretty dark affair, and actually comes off as the one thing many Narnia fans feared the Narnia films would be turned into - a pale imitation of "The Lord of The Rings". And I greatly disliked the way the characters were handled. Reepicheep the Mouse, in particular, was poorly translated from the book. His valiant and flambouyant personality was eschewed in favor of lame short and mouse jokes. It was painfully obvious to me that the people in charge of the film didn't understand or appreciate the book, which is why they decided to change so much of it for the cinematic version. After seeing the film once, I had no desire to see it again - as opposed to my reaction to "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", which certainly had its flaws, yet had just enough of Lewis' vision in it to be enjoyable. I fear for "Dawn Treader". It helps that it has a different director, but I still don't feel easy about it...

I cannot wait for the new Lord of the Rings films.

But, as with Indy 4, I'm probably going to be disappointed.  Good on Disney for trying something new, please don't slash the budget though.  We will be able to tell!

ie.  lots and lots of Lucasesque blue / green screen is what I fear

What I found telling about Prince Caspian was that the brief scene with the White Witch overshadowed the supposed main villain. I think you can still get the audience going with a Rathbone-style villain, but that was not the case here.

Timing-wise, I think Holiday Season 08's original slate was a factor in Caspian coming out in summer. It would've been up against Potter 6, which was only rescheduled about a month ago. It will be interesting to see if Twilight ends up as the upcoming fantasy franchise it's being positioned as.