''You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember,'' the four Pevensie siblings are warned early on in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second film adaptation of the C.S Lewis fantasy series that began with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Although only a year has passed in London since Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) first stepped through a closet and into the magical realm, more than 1,300 years have elapsed in Narnia, and a lot of awful things have happened. Most of them are the work of the Telmarines, a race of war-loving humans led by the villainous despot Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), who murdered his brother, the former king, usurped the throne and is now trying to off his nephew Caspian (Ben Barnes) in hopes of securing the kingdom for his own newborn son.

Essentially a war movie for children, Prince Caspian charts the not-always-successful attempts by Caspian, the Pevensies and the varied denizens of Narnia -- who run the gamut from centaurs and minotaurs to sword-wielding mice -- to set aside their differences and unite against a common foe. Befitting the subject matter, the movie is more somber and less wondrous in tone than the first film, especially since the lion Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), who would have been instrumental in leading the Narnians to victory, has disappeared.

Returning director Andrew Adamson takes an old-school approach to this material, shaping the film like a 1950s adventure-swashbuckler with battle sequences that grow steadily in size and scale alternating with stretches in which the diverse characters bond and plot against their tormentors. The performances are adequate without being remarkable: The somewhat bland Barnes doesn't succeed in radiating Caspian's princely stature, but Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) stands out as a curmudgeonly dwarf who helps the heroes in their quest, often belittling them as they go.

Despite the prevailing seriousness, Adamson manages to find humor in the proceedings, most notably with the character of Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard), a crusading rodent with a chip on his furry shoulder about being thought of as adorable (the scene-stealing mouse deserves a stand-alone adventure alongside Shrek 2's Puss In Boots, which Adamson also directed).

Mindful of his young audience, Adamson keeps the plentiful mayhem essentially bloodless: This is about as kiddie-friendly a war picture as one could conceivably make. The Christian allegories inherent in Lewis' books aren't quite as prominent in Prince Caspian as they were in the previous film, although for viewers who want them, there is much made about the importance of faith and believing in what one cannot always see.

Despite the care and skill with which Prince Caspian has been made, the movie never quite comes fully alive in the way classic adventure films do: Like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the movie is just good enough to enthrall children and many of their parents, but Adamson isn't enough of an artist to give the straightforward story real magic. It's hard to imagine the legion of viewers who lined up for Wardrobe will be complaining, though. The little girl who sat next to me during a preview screening was so enraptured by the movie there were moments when I could swear she was levitating in her seat in Disneyfied bliss. In Narnia-land, that qualifies as a rave.

Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage, Sergio Castellitto, Vincent Grass, Damien Alcazar, Tilda Swinton. Featuring the voices of Eddie Izzard and Liam Neeson.

Director: Andrew Adamson.

Screenwriters: Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeeley. Based on the novel by C. S. Lewis.

Producers: Mark Johnson, Andrew Adamson, Philip Steuer.

A Walt Disney Pictures release. Running time: 137 minutes. Brief violence. Playing at area theaters.

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