Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight [DVD]

I've been a Dragonlance fan since I was 15. I'm 24 now and I'm still hooked. So needless to say I was eagerly awaiting this, even if my expectations weren't high. I could so easily see how this could go wrong. So I snapped up the US DVD as soon as it was released and can confirm that it HAS gone all wrong, just not in the ways I expected.

The main problem is that the animation is awful. Really and truly awful. As has been said many times before the 2D animation would be passable for an 80's kids cartoon, but frankly is not acceptable by today's standards. The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon series had better animation and is over 20 years old now. The 3D animation is also lacking and really is quite pointless as it doesn't really fit well with the overall 2D style, though, bizarrely it does still have the same stuttering framerate. So this film is a dog to look at, but it's not all bad.

The soundtrack is pretty good. While it doesn't jump out at you fits well and really makes you wish they had the animation to match. The voice acting is variable. While Michelle Trachtenberg is unconvincing as Tika, Michael Rosenbaum is passable as Tanis, and Keifer Sutherland totally nails Raistlin (Raistlin is easily the best thing about this DVD).

The direction is amaturish though. Firstly the attempt to shorten it to 90 minutes was a mistake as many well loved scenes from the book had to be cut and those that are there are rushed through so quickly that it struggles and largely fails to build any drama. Plus they give away a big twist from later in the trilogy, proving they have no faith that they'll get a chance to complete the trilogy. I hope they do finish the trilogy though because it IS still salvagable at this point.

The other annoying thing is the way they hammer home the central massage of "faith" making it feel like I'm being preached to. I don't remember it being so dogmatic in the books but maybe that's my memory playing tricks on me.

So why did I give it 3 stars if it's so bad? Because I enjoyed it anyway. I came in with low expectations and so was not overly dissapointed. For someone who's read the books I think it can feel like a light jog down memory lane and so is fairly enjoyable. It's not the definitive movie we were hoping for but it's fairly entertaining none the less. If you haven't read the books, go read them first. If you have then you've probably already ordered this. Just don't go in with high expectations.

Let me give a little context to that. When I was about eleven years old, I was browsing through my local library, looking for my next read. I had devoured most of the books of interest to me - at the time mainly adventure stories or science - and whether to get rid of me, or out of genuine inspiration, the librarian recommended Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I had never read any fantasy before, though I had dabbled a little in sci-fi. DoAT was a heftier book than I was used to reading at the time, but I said I'd give it a whirl. That simple recommendation was to change my life. A whole new world opened up to me with that book, and it has been instrumental in forming my tastes and interests since.

I am now thirty years old, and while I can see the limitations of the book, I can still proudly say I love this story and world without feeling my affection is clouded by nostalgia. It is most definitely a story that would translate into a fun cinematic experience. For years I yearned to see a live-action version (at one point, in my late teens, I even tried to write an adaptation myself, but gave up as I didn't know what I was doing!) so when I saw that an animated feature was on it's way, my interest was understandably piqued. A mixture of 2D and 3D animation sounded interesting, initial concept art gave the impression that things were going in the right direction, and when casting decisions like Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin were announced, my heart started to pound; could it be that I was at long last going to get the visual experience I had dreamed of for twenty years? The answer is `Good God, NO!' Not even close.

This is one of the clumsiest and most blatantly cheap movies - adaptation or otherwise - I have ever had the misfortune of sitting through. Where to begin? The story is there, much as it is in the book, but rather than adapt it to the medium of film, they have just crammed as many elements onto the screen as possible without any effort put into actually telling a story. Scenes rush past in a blur as the filmmakers tick off events rather than create an immersive and engaging experience. Characters pop up to appease the fans, but bar a couple of the leads, none of them are given any space to grow and breathe. I could go on and on, but there is no way to explain how dazzlingly lazy this work is without showing you the movie, and I refuse to put anyone through that.

The pacing is truly appalling and shows up exactly how cheap a production this is. I am not using hyperbole when I say that the editing is the worst I have ever seen in a supposedly professional production. Rather than blend the scenes together with shots that flow from one scenario into the next, the filmmakers opt for fading to black after every other scene! Basically there were a bunch of different animators working on different scenes, which were then passed over to the laziest editor working in the business, who just faded to black between them rather than work out a narrative transition. The visuals are like something out of the eighties or early nineties, but don't expect that to mean classy animation in the vein of The Mysterious Cities of Gold; this is cheap and clunky. Some of it is just hideous, and wouldn't make a cut scene in a video game from that same era. The 2D and 3D elements mix like oil and water. At times the image is out of focus, and many shots appear to be nothing more than pan-and-scans across a still frame. The only person to come out of this mess unscathed is composer Karl Preusser, who actually does quite a good job at bringing a sound to the world of Krynn. It's just a shame that there are no visuals worthy of his score.

This film fails in practically every department. The action scenes lack action, the dramatic scenes lack drama, the comedy scenes lack comedy, the magic scenes lack magic, but most criminal of all, the characters lack character. One of the strongest and most enduring aspects of the whole Dragonlance franchise is the strength of their characterisation, but all this movie shows us are broad-stroke sketches. In fairness to some of the acting talent, they try their best, but they have been given nothing to work with here. With animation the actors can only do so much; it is up to the artists though subtle animation to reveal the internal struggles that motivate these people, but all we get here are cardboard cut-outs whose lips move as words are said.

There are many reviews on this page that give this DVD a favourable rating, and this is a delusion. I do not adhere to the mentality that you have to settle for whatever swill you are served because you're a fan. That's not being a fan; it's being a fanatic. It's being a fool. It is up to the so-called fans to step up and say this is not good enough, otherwise you are allowing yourself to be a piñata to cheap studios with no respect for the very things you claim to love.

Don't waste your time watching this. If you want to enjoy the story again, re-read the book. If however you feel you must see this movie for old time's sake, make like Tas and steal it.

I've been a fan of Dragonlance for years and so of course a film of the books really couldn't fail to be a good thing. Yes a big blockbuster like the lord of the rings series would have been better but you cant have everything.
This is a pretty good rendition of the first book for those of us who just want a nice enjoyable film to watch, although there are bits missing for the die hards out there but that is to be expected. There is nothing particularly amazing about the film but the animation isn't bad and it could have been a lot worse. All in all I enjoyed it especially as Keifer Sutherland is playing Raistlin and I hope they continue and do the whole series.