Dragonlance Cartoon Movie Trailer Released
A long-awaited trailer for the long-awaited Dragonlance movie has finally been released and is available right here. Initial opinions of the animation style, which is a mix of traditional cel animation and 3D CGI, has been mixed. What do you think? Take a look and let us know.
Paramount provided this statement to accompany the release:
"Dragonlance fans -- We're sorry that it has taken this long to get a trailer out. We had been waiting in hopes that we could show you the final trailer but unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. key talent issues etc) we have not been able to cut the final trailer together and get 100% approval. Ever since we showed this piece at GenCon and DragonCon there has been a huge demand to see the trailer so we figured it'd be best to show you the rough version instead of having everyone wait even longer. We appreciate your patience. Enjoy!"
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Ugh. The cel animation looks like it came from the early 80's (and I know a lot of us have fondness for those 80's shows, but - face it - a lot of progress has been made since then). I sure as hell hope they think it's an homage and not that it actually looks good.
And the CG a) is not very good at all, and b) does not mesh well. Remember the early 90's, when CG was relatively new and all the rage, so Nickelodeon and it's ilk cranked out a bunch of badly-thought-out shows thinking the the CG would make it cool? That's what this trailer reminded me of.
Wow... There are no words.
I'm not prfessing to be an expert, but I think that I could have gotten better transitions and overall effect just using flash.
Still... It might be alright. I know that I'll still see it just because I'm a nerd and I read all the books, but at least I won't be disappointed because my expectations aren't even in existance at the moment.
Hmm... It does have a vaguely Thundarr / He-Man / GI Joe animation quality.
Perhaps that's why they're going straight to DVD. Animation is expensive after all, and it can look more "tv-esque" with a DVD release. If they were doing a theatrical release, we'd all probably expect the animation to look like an Elmore or Parkinson painting come to life and would be disappointed with anything less. As it is, fan expectation will probably already be higher than what they can achieve given the budget. It's not like Dragonlance is going to gain a Tolkien-esque audience so they have to work with what money they have.
I'm not going to come down too hard on the animation until there is a finished product to review, but it does look like the filmakers were going for a particular style that would be reminiscent of the cartoons we grew up with. Whether this backfires or not remains to be seen.
I bought this movie for my son, who recently turned four. He LOVES it!
"I wanna watch the movie with dragons, and bag guys, and swords, and magic, and dragons in it!"
I thought that the story was good enough to go out and buy the book version, which I haven't read since high school. The book is pretty good and I'm planning on buying the other five (including the test of the Twins).
As for the movie itself... The animation sucks. The people who made the movie should be slapped. The whole thing is choppy, as if they couldn't decide what kind or style of animation they wanted to use.
There is a fight scene in the very beginning of the movie where Tanis, Flint, and Tasslehoff kill a bunch of goblins. The director carefully cut away anything that could be offensive, including blood and killing blows, leaving only dead goblins on the ground that may be sleeping.
Later, Tanis get in another fight and has a draconian sitting on his back pounding a scaly fist into his face. In this same fight, Sturm gets beaten down and is left lying in a pool of blood.
And still later in the movie, you see burning corpses and people who have been hung.
Where they trying to desensitize us as the movie progressed or couldn't they make up their mind how graphic a movie they wanted to release?
Personally, I'd vote to add in the blood and death. The movie and books deal with a war where thousands of people, including some main characters, die. Why sugarcoat that?
The animation in this film is bad enough that it actually DETRACTS from the story. Amazing...
But it's a great story and worth getting just so that they'll make the next two.
But that's just my opinion...
I'm reluctant to watch it, as I fear it will taint my mental image from the books
Oh wow, Direct to Dvd, suprise, suprise.
So, I bought this awhile ago. Has anyone else seen it yet?