What's the use of a fairyland in which trees don't dance, animals don't talk and one's once majestic castle has fallen into ruins? Returning to the world of Narnia, the Pevensie brothers, Peter (William Moseley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes), look thoroughly petulant if not downright pissed off, in the manner of juveniles who plead with mum and dad for cash and then go all the way to Disneyland only to find that Space Mountain is closed for repairs. Awwwww.

The four Pevensie siblings are back in the second installment of "The Chronicles of Narnia" franchise, which is fast on the heels of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series in global box-office revenues. Notably darker and more restrained, the latest, "Prince Caspian," picks up where the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (2005) left off — the kids have tumbled back into London via the musty wardrobe in their aunt's spare room. They're now enduring the rigors of British school life in the 1940s — each longingly recalling the time when they fought heroic battles and were treated as royalty in the fantasy land of Narnia.

Waiting for the underground to take them to school, Edmund is resentful of the drab, grim reality that they're powerless to change and in which they are treated "like children." The film, though, wastes little time on his complaints — almost immediately they are sucked once more into that magical realm where they once consorted with delightful dwarflike creatures such as Mr. Tumnus and beavers with cockney accents.