oh my god: dragonlance the movie

http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/

I couldn’t believe it when I heard of it. I used to be a big Dragonlance fan when I was young. The irony is that this movie dates from when I was young. I’m looking at the trailer and it reminds me of those cheesy 1980s/90s cartoons, not the dark LotR-like atmosphere it should have.

I never liked Dragonlance, probably because those were among the first Dungeons and Dragons novels made and I was expecting something fun, not dark. Seriously, Lord of the Rings at its darkest is a Sitcom compared to DL. And considering how every D&D movie so far has sucked, I don’t have high hopes for this one either.

This can never be a bad thing.

On upside, despite appearances, I looked at their FAQ page and the screenwriter actively wanted it to not be a kid’s movie (that’s a plus). Also, apparently, Weis and Hickman were heavily involved in the making of the movie, also a plus.

It looked similar to Fire and Ice, as well as the other classic fantasy animation/illustration from the 70’s and 80’s. That’s a good sign. Hence why “cheesy” can be good. LoTR was a little too hollywood.

Careful of those expectations. I didn’t think that a movie based on Earthsea with Kristin Kreuk in it could be anything but awesome, but it turned out to be awful.

Sorry about pissing in your porridge. Instead, tell me about Dragonlance, since I don’t know much about it.

I’m not too excited. I’m just surprised and a little disturbed.

Dragonlance is a series about D&D like stuff. It actually arose from D&D I believe. It has now become a rather detailed universe with all kinds of races (Dwarves, Humans, Elves, etc), magical and knightly orders with their own histories and Gods. The whole thing has become rather detailed over the past 20-25 years. The core of the series has to do with the Chronicles series followed by the Legends which spins back into the Chronicles and other stuff. Basically you have a group of people and their descendants in the later books. Think of it as if LotR had had a follow up with the kids of the original cast too.

The gist is that in the past, the evil queen goddess tried to take over the world and failed. Dragons fought dragons, man fought etc… Good prevailed by a shred. The goddess and her dragons disappeared. She comes back and a group of adventurers stumble their way along to find the dragonlances, the weapons that are supposed to kill dragons. So the party quests along and gets into all kinds of trouble and there’s drama and love triangles and hardship and all that as the heroes try to save the world.

Emphasis on try. The heroes usually manage to avoid the absolute worst from happening, but I think the reason Wil can call it dark is because there’s never a restoration or new era of hope you see in other series. There is at the individual level, for some specific characters, but the forces of good don’t swoop in to make everyone’s life better in the end, at least not that I’ve seen. That’s a definite trend in what Weiss and Hickman writing.

Looks like the incorporated a lot of 3d animation into it.

The trailer looks awful. There’s such a dumb discrepancy in style between the animation and the low-quality CG that they put in that it’s painful and hard to take the trailer seriously. I love Hickman and Weis’ books, but they’re writers, not directors.

I think I’ll avoid watching the movie, but I doubt watching it can override my imagination of the characters and settings since the moods are nothing alike.

That’s why I mentioned it looked like a cheesy 80s cartoon. Just hearing the narrator talk adds to the cheese exponentially. The story itself sounds a LOT tackier than it did when I read the books 15 years ago. The fact I read em 15 years ago probably helps.

I liked Dragonlance as a kid too.

And you all know that I have the best taste in everything.

I read them about ten years ago myself, back in sixth grade. Liekd them a lot. Never read past the first three books, though.

Watch it, what about your persona, Sil? :stuck_out_tongue: I didn’t like the “Dragons of…” books. They read too much like a D&D campaign (which they were), initially, and the characters were a bit 2D. The high point was Raistlin and the plant labyrinth part. But, I read them as an adult.