A year has passed in the lives of the four Pevensie children in wartime London but when they return to Narnia they find that 1,000 years have elapsed and the place has gone to rack and ruin.

They have answered a bugle cry for help from Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), the heir to the throne of the neighbouring Telmarines who has had to flee for his life from his nefarious uncle, Mirza (Sergio Castellitto).

The despot uses it as a pretext to invade Narnia, and Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Hensley) join the fight to restore order. Their allies are an assortment of strange creatures - a talking badger (Ken Stott), wisecracking sword-wielding mouse (Eddie Izzard), cranky dwarf (Peter Dinklage) and phalanx of centaurs. But the help of Aslan the talking lion is desperately needed.

Barnes makes a dashing princely hero complete with the Spanish accent assigned to all the Telmarines and the four kids maintain that old-fashioned English spunk that manages to prevent the film becoming over-run by CGI trickery. Though the film has a few flat moments, there are some exciting battle scenes which should satisfy young fans.