On DVD: Dragonlance: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight

 

 

Directed By: Will Meugniot

Starring: Kieffer Sutherland, Michael Rosenbaum, Lucy Lawless

 

I love that studios such as Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Marvel Entertainment are putting out more animated films geared toward an older crowd.  The only issue, and it's a big one, is that these films need to be good.  Not all of them are terrible but most of them thus far have been mediocre.  When this Dragonlance film arrived in our office I was excited because we haven't seen a great fantasy animated film in a long time.

 

The Movie

 

After a few minutes of this film, which was based on the first book in the long running series I knew pretty much everything I needed to know about the film.  As I thought it was predictable to the end.  If you're unfamiliar with the Dragonlance books they are based on Dungeons &  Dragons adventures.  This film is based on the first book in the long running series.  Unfortunately the film plays out like a bad D&D game with poorly drawn characters that don't have the depth required to make up for an extremely formulaic and predictable story.

 

So the world in which this story takes placed has been deep in darkness for 300 years because the Gods have left the world.  One day, one of the Gods, an evil one, returns to find a magical staff.  As it turns out a princess ahs the staff and has a group of warriors ready to defend her.  The group reads and looks like they came right off a set of character sheets from D&D and they all have horrible names to match such as Flint Fireforge.  There's questing and sword fighting but due to the lack of an engaging story or interesting characters it all falls really flat.

 

The animation is atrocious in this film and there's a heavy handed mix of 3-D CGI and 2-D traditional art that is off-putting due to its implementation and also it's blandness.  This whole film feels like it was done for a quick paycheck and that includes the performances from some really good actors including Kieffer Sutherland and Michael Rosenbaum.  There was potential for the standard religious metaphor so common to fantasy writing but instead of doing something deep and interesting with the metaphor it's just used as a plot device.

 

This movie might appeal to hardcore fans of the first book in the series or maybe to cartoon crazy little kids but overall I can't really say much good about it.

 

3/10

 

The Video

 

The anamorphic widescreen transfer looks quite good, making the 3-D stuff really stand out, and that's actually a bad thing.  Colors are crisp and I didn't notice any issues with aliasing or jaggies a common problem with animated films on DVD.

 

8/10

 

The Audio

 

I was impressed with the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack on this disc.  It has great dynamic range and the surrounds make many scenes, especially music heavy ones, feel quite immersive.  Dialogue, score, and effects are well mixed and balanced with not artifacts or distortion to speak of.

 

8/10

 

The Packaging and Bonus Features

 

The single disc comes in a standard amaray case with cover artwork that should sell to fans of the books.  The only extras are some brief presentations of early character designs and animations, nothing that enhances the movie viewing experience.

 

2/10

 

When I realized that this film was directed by the same man responsible for the Ultimate Avengers II animated film the whole thing started making sense because that movie was pretty terrible too.

  

Overall (Not an Average) 4/10

The Review

The Movie 3/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 2/10

Overall (Not an Average) 4/10

 

-Stephen Lackey