Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008) (V)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Will Meugniot

Writers:

Tracy Hickman (novel)
George Strayton (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

The heroes of Krynn take a stand against evil!

Plot:

A barbarian woman with a miraculous healing staff gains the help of a group of to-be heroes as an army of dragons invades the land.

Plot Keywords:

Dragon | Knight | Sword And Sorcery | Goblin | Unicorn

Cast

Michael Rosenbaum	...	Tanthalas 'Tanis' Half-Elven (voice)
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Raistlin Majere (voice)
Lucy Lawless	...	Goldmoon (voice)
Fred Tatasciore	...	Flint Fireforge / Fewmaster Toede (voice)
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Tika (voice)
Rino Romano	...	Caramon Majere (voice)
Jason Marsden	...	Tasslehoff Burrfoot (voice)
Neil Ross	...	Fizban The Fabulous (voice)
Marc Worden	...	Sturm Brightblade (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Riverwind / Gilthanas (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dee Bradley Baker	...	Pyros (voice)
Juliette Clair	...	Onyx (voice)
Nika Futterman	...	Takhisis (voice)
Caroline Gelabert	...	Laurana (voice)
Ben L. McCain	...	Elistan (voice)
Jentle Phoenix	...	Bupu (voice)
Susan Silo	...	Flamestrike (voice)
David Sobolov	...	Verminaard
Mari Weiss	...	The Forestmaster (voice)

Also Known As:

A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Tale (USA) (subtitle)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence.

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Finland:K-11 | Australia:PG

Company:

Commotion Pictures

Trivia:

Due to the small budget, getting Kiefer Sutherland to play the voice of Raistlin was a long shot and not really expected to the production crew until the day he said he would do it.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: At the scene where Verminaard is about to kill Tanis (min: 81), he is wielding his weapon through his body.

Quotes:

Tasslehoff Burrfoot: Hey! She cast that spell without using those funny words! Why can't you do that, all powerful mage?
Raistlin Majere: She's channeling the power of a god, you dolt. I'm wresting arcane energies from the very fabric of the universe - it's completely different.

Convoluted, lacking characterisation, but contains some charm for fans of the books.

I remembered these books fondly from reading them as a child several years ago, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the film version, and it was for me a mixed bag. Whilst the film does remain very faithful to the story and the events within, its severely limited by its 90 minute run-time, the characterisation other than Tanis is lacking, the story simplified and compressed to the degree where the characters hurtle from one event to another, without the breathing space and reflection of the book it becomes very convoluted.

Furthermore the film makers decided to use a mixture of 2d and 3d animation , with the dragons and draconians represented by a dated 3d animation, that makes the fighting sequences look very poor and overall the 3d sections look very plastic. The 2d animation is not much better, moving often jerkily, though some of the characters are drawn quite nicely.

Overall i wasn't very impressed, but since its only 90 minutes its hardly as though its a massive chunk of my life has been lost to it. Id recommend to fans of the books, for a little nostalgia trip and for Kiefer Sutherlands (underused) performance as Raistlin.