Dragonlance (DVD, 2008)

As a Dragonlance fan for many years, I was very excited about this release. Its nice to see all your favourite characters brought to life in animation, but this could have been done SO much better :(

There are quite a few problems with the production itself, including 2D and 3D animated characters interacting and looking wholly unprofessional, problems with voice syncing and problems with the gaudy colours and lighting used. This makes for quite a mismatched cartoon at times and it can look quite ugly in places, particularly when 2D characters fight 3D CGI enemies etc.

The animation style overall is very reminiscent of Filmation early work. This isnt such a bad thing as many of us are fans of those cartoons, but it doesnt look very professional, being released post 1985 !!!

This is one of the best books in the series, and with such great source material - Raistlin the troubled wizard, Takhisis the evil dragon queen, Goldmoon the priestess, Tanis the half-elf, their varied other interesting companions and generally the magical land of Krynn and all its fantastic inhabitants. Hate to say it but I preferred the Dragonlance books to Lord of the Rings :O !! :P

However, this film doesnt make as much use of this epic history as it could have. It does stick VERY faithfully to the story (which is great and rare these days !) and covers everything a fan would hope to see, but some of the drama isnt very effective and they could have explored some of the darker themes much more thoroughly. I also dont understand why this has a PG rating when its utterly non-bloody etc ?!

The voice talent are all excellent, the story is fast-paced and frenetic in a good way and the music is very nice also, but sadly these dont make up for the problems with the animation itself. They should have blatantly stuck to either all 2D or all CGI 3D :( A confusing mix of the two didnt work :(

There couldve been SO many more extras on the DVD also :( a pitiful selection of trailers and test animation + character designs is all we get ! SO much content that they couldve treated us to from the Dragonlance universe, you kind of feel cheated !

Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and subsequent releases from the series will be improved :) Unsurprising this went straight to DVD !

In all, a great story, told well with good voicing and music, badly let down by problems with animation and confusing visuals. Get if youre a true fan or want to see some interesting fantasy animation. Dont get it if youre expecting miracles, you'll be sorely disappointed :( !

where, I read the original book titled dragonlance: dragons of autumn twilight and loved it as a child, the video was something that I had longed to see on video. The voice acting was solid, led by keifer sutherland and also starring lucy lawless, the acting of sutherland as raistlin was spot on. The best thing about the video was that the writers remained true to the story which was most imperative, however the animation was not the best. The korean's really did a number on this one. For anyone who had read the book i would recommend the video for seeing it all on the screen.

I am a huge fan of the original Dragonlance book series, so I was looking forward to this video.

The story follows the first book in the series, Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Outside of a few minor changes, it does a good job of following the story. The production quality, however, leaves a little to be desired. A strange mix of traditional and computer generated animation distracted from the flow of the story, and there are animation inconsistancies throughout.

Overall, the voice acting was great, with a fantastic job by Keifer Sutherland as Rastlin.

Check this out if you're a fan of the books.

It's pretty simple: I bought this movie because as a die-hard Dragonlance fan I HAD to have it. When I heard it would be animated I was disappointed, but I guess no one has yet been willing to put up the money to do a live-action production.

Let's get right into the movie:

the good: With all my fears about this movie it was actually better than I feared it might be. This is certainly a MUST see and a MUST own for any Dragonlance fan or collector.

the bad: There are some spoilers if you have only ready Dragons of Autumn Twilight, so I would read Winter and Spring first.

the ugly: The choice to use 3d animation for some characters was a mistake, it just looked bad. All 2d would have obviously looked better, I don't know what they were thinking.

So my recommendation? Well, you probably aren't reading this review unless you're already a fan of Dragonlance and in that case you should see the movie. If you've never read Dragons of Autumn Twilight then not doing so BEFORE you see it would be doing yourself a great injustice. I'm sure you can find a copy somewhere around...

For those of you who aren't aware, this movie is based on a novel that many would consider a staple of its genre. Characters are torn between worlds and love, searching for lost legacies, driven by friendship, or quests for power. They must wrestle with their flaws while seeking a way to save everyone from the coming evil.
When the movie was first coming out, I was excited. It was an awesome book and they were coming in with some great voice talents. In watching the movie, though, I guess they had to have good names. The animation was that of the '80s. Even when the used computerized images, it was shoddy. I expected more and better.
The story itself remained true to the original for the most part. However, it was only the bare bones. All the meat of the characters' internal thoughts and struggles were missing, perhaps eaten by an Abyssal Editorial Staff (or perhaps not). What I saw were the bones of a magnificient beast, though I would have never known it if I hadn't had the 'before' picture.
Anyway, if you can't read the book, the movie will give you a basic idea of what happened. If you want more that just the basics, you'll have to look elsewhere.