Caspian Loses His Accent for VDT
BenBarnesFan was sent a scan yesterday of an interview between Kingston University’s student magazine, ‘Mouth’ and Ben Barnes.
Mouth Magazine: How did it feel reprising your role as (the now) King Caspian?
Ben Barnes: It was a great experience reprising the role. It’s a different take on the character with a new director and new studio invovled. We decided that Caspian and the Telmarines will no longer have European accents, as they felt CS Lewis is a quintessentially an English writer. The story is my favourite of the seven books and it has a feel of a roving, mythical, adventure tale.
The Telmarine accent in Prince Caspian got a lot of mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. As the accent has now been removed for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it should be interesting to see how everybody reacts.
Thanks to ‘Cass’, ‘Sir Jack’, and ‘bkey’ for the information!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS! I LOATHED his accent in prince caspian it was utter rubbish. That's great news.
I can't belive, I was right! I mean, I didn't like the accent, but its weird having caspian changing his accent within 3 years..
What? I liked the accent. How is that logically possible? How would a person be able to change their accent in three years? I know a guy that is Greek that has been in the U.S. for ten years and still has a strong accent. So the accent just magically disappears? I don't get it. They'll have to come up with an explaination for that because it just doesn't seem logical.
So, he loses his accent in 3 years. Wow. Really bad planning on somebody's part.
YEAH!!! we get to hear his beautiful british accent!!!
I like Spanish, I love the accent, and I thought it cool that they made the Telmarines somewhat Spanish. I kind of have mixed feelings about this one. For one, continuity. It may seem as though now that there's a different director and so on, that everything is changing (like Caspian's ponytail and Reep's voice, for example).
However, I do agree with various other people who are saying that since Caspian's hanging out with more Narnians than Telmarines, he /should/ typically start talking more like a Narnian.
Personally, I never saw Caspian as with an accent. (Though I didn't much mind it for the movie and the whole Inigo Montoya joke /was/ kinda funny for a while….)
Don't forget that Caspian now also has a ponytail. That's far worse than the beard (I think).
This makes no sense…HOW ARE THEY GOING TO EXPLAIN HOW HE RANDOMLY LOSES HIS ACCENT?! Continuity problem much?!
Although, Ariel, you do make a valid point. Okay, never mind, that makes a *bit* more sense 🙂
*not freaking out as much anymore* Thanks for pointing that out, now I'm not as bothered 🙂
YAY! I mean, I think it sounded sort of fake…So I am relieved =) It makes sense that he could possbily have a "european accent" due to the men who found the cave and wandered into Narnia (thus how the telmarines came to Narnia) or they could have British accent because of King Frank and Queen Helen. 🙂
Well, the movie IS being made by a completely different director, different company (or whatever you would call Fox), and different writers. It's bound to be a least a little different from the previous movies. We just have to hope that it will be a GOOD different. People who have seen the Biola Media trailer thought it looked very good and consistent with the other movies. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Who knows–maybe you'll be thrilled with all the changes when you actually see them and get used to them. 😉
yeah im sort of glad the accent is gone, lol I mean it was funny at first but then it sort of went a little odd. But me and my friends would always mock the `I am Prince Caspian` moment it was so funny! Good the accents are going but i will miss the laughs
Huzzah!! I'm really glad about this change!!! Of course, the best change I can imagine would be to go back, take the waterfall scene out of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and change a great deal of Prince Caspian (especially the opening scene).
I agree– he must have adapted really well to Narnian ways and picked up their accent.
What's the big deal with the beard? What's wrong with a guy growing a beard? I mean there on a sea voyage, it must be hard to shave when your living in a very confined space (he gave his room to Lucy remember) and the ship is rocking back and forth. I see no continuity promblem with a beard…come on it has been three years.
Too bad! I liked his accent, but that's OK, I'll get used to it.
~Jill~
NOOO WAY!
I am Happy And Confused! I guessed the accent was fine with me in the 2nd one i never really thought about it! but they should let him have alittle of the accent that he had to make it make more since, then just losing it!
I'm actually really glad of this. The accent in PC just struck me as…weird. I only wish there wouldn't be a continuity issue between PC and VoDT. I don't like to *feel* like it's a movie and be thinking about how there's a new director/production company. Anyway, I think it will be good and hopefully not too much of a switch. Ben Barnes' voice is his voice, no matter the accent (and it often felt in PC like he wanted to fall back on his native dialect, so I think it should be fine.) Can't wait!
YAY! I hated that accent!
I'm neither happy nor unhappy with the change of accent, it all depends upon whether they ignore it or explain it. It wouldn't take much to explain it – for example, the Telmarines who stayed decided to follow the lead of their King and sound more like the Narnians for the sake of unity. Once they do that, they can then get on with the story.
I'm sure they thought about the continuity issues and still decided drop the accent nevertheless. The decision makers must believe it the best way to go but it would be nice to find out the reason why when VDT is released. 🙂
I am fine with Caspian losing his accent I will however be interested to see what reepacheep sound like with his new voice.
Yeah, in my opinion the beard is a minor issue. I liked Caspian without a beard, and I like him with one. And you're right, Ana, it's more practical and realistic for him to grow a beard while aboard a ship. Besides, I think it makes him more manly. 😉
whoah! wait a sec, slow down there…..
…. the Telmarines lose the accent? wha-huh? with all the efforts they've done to establish their culture in PC they just toss it out like it never happened?
and i thought the only thing Caspian lost was his tan…. apparently with the merging of two cultures pretty much everything Telmarine goes bye bye as well.
*groan*
liking or disliking the accent is beside the point, this flies in the face of consistency. if they've all been struggling with what kind of accent to use for Telmarines, then just use the standard hispanic/ mexican accent that most of the planet is used to hearing. is that so hard?
makes me kinda wonder if 20th Century Fox played creative director again and put their noses in where it doesnt belong….
I think the voices of the characters in the new movie The Chronicles of Narnia the voyage of the Dawn Treader if it can be in Spanish and also you can tered the Spanish recording the voices of the characters and simple but we hope what I said this will be good for you good luck bye.
well that's…interesting. is he going to british now?
hmm…The European accents were pretty cool. I'll just have to wait to see which one I like better.
lol! It made me laugh too! I HATED his accent and acting for PC!! I'm glad it's not there anymore, but it'll be weird hearing a completley different voice for Caspian. I just hope he does alright in acting.
I thought the spanish accents were good for the telmarine soldiers. Not Caspian. But I guess if you take away Caspian's spanish accent, then you have to take away the others'. I still have my hopes high for this one.
liking or disliking the accent is beside the point, the main thing their breaking is CONTINUITY. if the accent was an issue in the past, then for goodness sakes IMPROVE ON IT, not drop it like it never happened.
Hmmmmm, I don't know what I think about this. It might be a nice thing, but I thought his accent was really neat in PC.
WHAT?!?!? I loved his accent! I don't know why he had to change it in order to appear more Narnian…
The implied loss of Telmarine culture is what kills me the most. It figures the "foreigners" are anglicized only after it's established that they're good guys. I hope that's not the case, we'll just have to see when the film comes out.
lol. i'm a Narnia freak. 😉
If that happens let me know, so I can write a veeerrry looooooong complaint email with you. 😉
haha lol
he has WHAT?!?!
I have only a little problem with the beard, if you think about it logicaly, you are right. I just think it is going to be hard to get used to. 🙂
actually, Inigo never actually said he accepted the title of dread pirate Roberts. 😉 but maybe he did off-screen.
(but to be honest I never liked the idea of dread pirate Roberts)
"logical" explanation from a Narnia freak(me): all of Narnia is magic
logical expanation: haven't though of one yet…
so does this mean he won't say "hello, my name is Caspian the 10th you killed my father, prepare to die!"? lol 😉
Okay, I mean his accent was kinda weird but changing it is even weirder
aww too bad, I loved Caspians accent!
I liked his accent. (Some of my friends didn't, tho). Changing the accent, however is kind of weird. Oh well.
I did not care for the Prince Caspian character AT ALL in the movie and I think was one of the main reasons for the failure of the movie. They tried to bring in some older, romantic, foreign swashbuckler to the role. This is not the Prince Caspian of the actual book.
I really do not care what accent he has. I just hope he has little part in the upcoming movie so Voyage of the Dawn Treader is not ruined too.
I'm so glad he's doing this. On one hand it's a bummer for continuity's sake, but on the other, he won't be so much of a stereotype anymore.
Hmm.. at first I commented saying I'm glad he's getting rid of it, but three seconds later… I don't know. Continuity is probably more important than Barnes thinks it is.
Not happy. Click on my name and look for the article "No Telmarine accent in Dawn Treader" to see why.
So long as they give a reason for it – for example, Lucy points out that his accent is different and Caspian says that with spending all his time with Narnians and no Telmarines their accent was bound to rub off on him – then that would be ok. If it's just a sudden jump and no one comments on it as though he always spoke like that – that would be disappointing.
–
I did like the accent though – it really showed a distinction between the Telmarines and the Narnians.
YES! Exactly! If they explain it, it won't be as random and the continuity is at least half there. But if suddenly Caspian just has a different accent… Ugh. That's like taking Harry Potter and suddenly making him Irish. People would notice. Especially us Narnia 'freaks' :P.
I dunno, this accent thing bugs me slightly (things like this, even Reep's voice, don't usually bug me), and though I liked his spanish accent to a point… I was expecting some sort of change in accent. Just not a total recall. So strange. I hope they do this right.. The movie makers seem to be doing well, so maybe I'll just trust 'em.
It does seem really odd in the continuity vein to have Caspian drop his cheesy hispanic accent suddenly. I guess if they come up with a not-so-cheesy explanation for it's dissapearance, it could work. On the other hand, why would the lost Telmarine lords have dropped their accents?
In PC, the accents of the other Telmarines; Miraz, Sopespian, and so on, were not cheesy at all but natural to the actors for the most part. I love how they vary slightly from actor to actor, depending on their ethnic origins. The baroque, lilting sound of those accents (not Caspian's) is one of my favorite elements of PC. . Plus, they provided and excellent device for delineating the sense of a whole separate culture without any real backstory.
The movie will probably be just fine without the accents but it's going to take some getting used to, hearing a Telmarine lord speaking Oxford english.
I agree HQN…because of such a variety of Med. actors it was easier to have one (BEN) change his rather all the Med. actors changing theirs to English….204…
yeah i realized that after i posted it… actually my younger sister had to correct me on that, not really the biggest fan of that movie (princess bride)
I agree to some extent – continuity is important in a series like Narnia, but still, I think I'll be bugged by it perhaps the first 10 minutes and then just be dragged into the story so much I won't care:)
You're totally right. Why do they have change the Telmarine/Hispanic culture?! (Even if I hated the accent. It's gonna lose the flow, and it's gonna make it look choppy. What's done is done!
How does dropping the accent equal dropping the culture? There's been no indication that they've eliminated the clothing or armor styles or any of that. Just the accent.
It has nothing to do with planning. It has to do with the taste of the director and the creative team.
the accent *is* part of the culture, its short of them having their own language and us having to read subtitles. and notice the design of the ship, the costumes, even some of the weaponry, there is a conscious effort to bring back the glory days of Narnia (thats true), but for pete's sake bringing back the culture of the High Kings and Queens doesnt equate to the total elimination of Telmarine culture as well. or what was that talk about uniting the Narnians and the Telmarines all just a lot of hot air?
i'm looking over the photos with new eyes in light of this recent revelation and i notice that the only thing remotely Telmarine thats left is the weaponry. that was fine if you still had Caspian and some of the crew still have some aspect of Telmarine about them. but now Caspian is as pale as a London boy (ahem) and will obviously sound like one, whats more a lot of the ship's crew hardly look Telmarine at all, even if you say a lot of them are of Galman origin, if you look at the extras most of them hardly look hispanic (due partly because of the casting done in Australia). i wouldnt mind these "paler" Telmarines if only they would carry on the accent, but now it feels like they've never existed.
Even though I love Princess Bride, I totally agree!
well i can't say that im dissapointed. I kid of thought he wouldn't have had an accent in the first place. Although I see the reasoning behind Andrew's take on where the Telmarines came from. but I think it will be a good change. not sure how i feel about him looking like jesus however. 🙂
Ditto! 😀