Audio Commentary
While you would think it would be incredibly annoying, an audio commentary with four teenagers on it is not as bad as you would imagine. Mostly because the kids who play the Pevensies seem fairly mature and intelligent, and also because their director, Andrew Adamson, and their slightly older co-star, Ben Barnes, are there. They also have a lot of questions, which Adamson always patiently answers, to the benefit of everybody. And since they all know each other so well (after two movies together in quick succession), they tease each other about their quirks and foibles on the set, and try to establish a timeline for where the shots happened in the timeline of the production (they were mostly shot in order), as well as where on Earth they were shot (everywhere). So if you don't mind having everything explained to you like you're a child, you'll actually learn quite a lot!

Disc 2

Inside Narnia: The Adventure Returns
Because you demanded it, we get to hear from the producers of Chronicles of Narnia ... and the director, and the actors, and everyone else, explaining why they all decided to do another one. Subtitle: Narnia 2: The Search for More Money

Sets of Narnia: A Classic Comes to Life
Considering that the high production values are the only real reason to watch these movies (although Peter Dinklage helps), this is pretty incredible. We hear from the director and production designers about the ruined castle at the beginning (that hidden door on rollers wasn't in the book; it was originally just behind some plants), the underground treasure room (it must be an awesome job to sit around and make fake treasure all day) and the bridge they built for the final scene. Oh, and we hear about the massive goddamn castle set they built. Seriously, it's huge. If you look at it from the outside (and in this doc, they do), it's even more impressive that people actually built this thing. Am I wrong to think that a budget this big shouldn't be wasted on material this dull?

Big Movie Comes to a Small Town
Because this film traveled pretty much anywhere it wanted to go to get footage, Adamson went looking for the most beautiful river he could find for the film's climactic scene. Apparently, it's in Slovenia, near a small town called Bovec, and that meant that Bovec would have to support, for all intents and purposes, a film crew of as many as 1200 people (and 370 trucks) on a given day. It's actually an interesting look at what goes into getting permits to build a bridge across a nationally protected river, and coordinating housing for a huge number of people, as well as the problems of filming a scene like the final bridge crossing on a river they had little control over.

Easter Egg: Toastie
On Disc 2, Menu 1, a small crown in between "Set Up" and "More" will take you to a small film about the movie's secret code name. Because fans the world over were desperate to get onto the set of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (or perhaps simply because the name is so freaking long), the movie was called simply Toastie on the set. "Toastie" is apparently a Kiwi term for a grilled cheese, although craft services would apparently put anything you wanted on it, including creamed corn. Anyway, the toastie was a staple on the first film shoot, and on the second, as well.

Previsualizing Narnia
Apparently, because of the complexity of the movie, and since the director came from the world of animation (Shrek, Shrek 2), the entire movie was not only storyboarded, but also animated, using video-game-quality graphics. That's right, the entire movie exists as a previsualized animatic, which was then used as a guide for the actors and camera crew, and the visual effects were even used as stand-ins for the real ones in filmed footage. Why not just release it as a video game, and save everybody the trouble.

Talking Animals and Walking Trees: The Magical Worlds of Narnia
The only place on the DVD where they give Eddie Izzard (the voice of a mouse in this film) a chance to speak, and it's not nearly enough. Basically, various cast and crew observations on the talking animal phenomenon, and a little bit about the trees. Speaking of which, I know these books were written at around the same time as the Lord of the Rings series and the authors were friends who read each other's works-in-progress, but c'mon -- two sets of walking trees in two different fantasy series? Snooze.

Easter Egg: Monster Cam
Another crown on Disc 2, Menu 2, will take you to behind-the-scenes footage of the "running through the catacombs" scene, full of men dressed like Minotaurs and men dressed like centaurs, all with bright green leggings on, for CGI purposes. In fact, some of the footage is shot from inside a Minotaur's head, hence the title. A good alternate title would have been Being John Minotaur. "It's my head, Schwartz!"

Deleted Scenes
These are mostly small moments that were totally unnecessary... unless you were hoping to develop characters or inject any fun into this whole affair. Mostly it's banter that would have thrown off the dramatic action sequences, including some serious flirting between Lucy and Caspian, and a scene where Reepicheep (Izzard) and Bulgy Bear (Little Britain's David Walliams) volunteer to be Peter's second in the fight with Miraz. (Trumpkin cautions against the latter, since Bulgy tends to suck his paws.) Also, we see a CG dryad made out of leaves scream and dissolve as a tree is chopped down. Ridiculously preachy, and thankfully cut.

The Bloopers of Narnia
Mostly line flubs, but a couple of shots where people fall down stairs, and one minotaur rams his head into a gate. Like, badly. Like, worse than that stormtrooper in Star Wars.

Secrets of the Duel
This sucker is all about the big, final duel. They talk to the weaponers, the stunt coordinator (who is also Miraz's stunt double) and the cameramen, and you can see how much planning went into this thing. The number of ways they filmed it, with cameras mounted on the shields and circling on tracks around the arena, is pretty impressive.

Becoming Trumpkin
Peter effing Dinklage. The man is awesome, and it looks like he went through hell to get the Trumpkin makeup right. It doesn't get into specifics, like how long he spent in the makeup chair each day, but we see them casting his head, and him goofing off on set, and everybody talking about how much they love him.

Warwick Davis: The Man Behind Nikabrik
Warwick effing Davis. Perhaps even awesomer than Peter Dinklage -- hell, he is awesomer, since he was in Return of the Jedi and Willow and Harry Potter -- this documentary follows Warwick through a day on set. In his case, we actually do see that he spends three hours in the makeup chair every morning, then a little bit more later to get his beard put on. We also see him filming the scene in the forest, running from the Telmarines. Again, everyone loves him, and he's a total professional. Of course.

Easter Egg: Shane Rangi, Suit Actor
A crown on Disc 2, Menu 3, will take you to a documentary about Shane Rangi, a New Zealander who specializes in "suit acting." He played a Minotaur in the first Narnia film, and plays the lead Minotaur in this film, as well as the werewolf and the bear that attacks Lucy. And, apparently, he's the sweetest, nicest guy you'll ever meet. Also, he doesn't complain about anything, ever, even when he runs headfirst into a gate. (Yes, that was him on the blooper reel.)

Disc 3
...is the digital copy.

Buy it now!