I have been waiting for this since I first read the books when I was a freshman in high school. When the abyssmal Dungeons and Dragons movie was made in 2000, I thought they were doomed to never be. With the success of Lord of the Rings, my hopes renewed. And now, it’s official.
And it has some big names. Michael Rosembaum, Keifer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, all signed up to…do voices?
Yes, sadly, it will be animated. For some reason, I just don’t see it being as good as a nice live action with good FX. Maybe because there isn’t a lot of good animated fantasy to compare it to (at least with western style animation, which from what I understand is what they are going with.) But I suppose I will jsut have to wait and see. I’ll buy a ticket and see it no matter what. Even if I have the art, even if every trailer makes me gag, I’ll be there opening day, ticket in hand.
Michelle Trachtenberg as Tika? Mmmmk. I admit I like the rest of the vocal cast, if it’s not just IMDb rumor-mongering. Dragonlance is a pretty good source for a movie, as fantasy books go: good for kids and pretty short for its length, if you know what I mean.
The animation thing annoyed me at first, but it’s actually genius. To do all the effects in an appropriately awesome way in a live action movie, they’d need millions upon millions of dollars and there’s no way the box office returns will support that. This way, they can make the movie on the (relatively) cheap, making it easier to make money and, eventually, more Dragonlance movies. I was always more of a Time/War/Test of the Twins man (I didn’t read the Dragons books until years later), so if they can keep cranking these things out for year after year that’s fine by me.
'Bout fricking time. I’ve been calling for an animated film series for…oh, 15 years or so now? Just hope it goes over well enough commercially. I want full Chronicles/Legends, damnit!
It truly sucks that it’s animated. If they could do the Lord of the Rings live action, what the hell is keeping them from doing Dragonlance live action? What really sucks is that it’s probable that it will never be done as a live action movie now.
Budget probably, the studios don’t want to gamble on an property unknown outside of fantasy fans. Dragonlance novels aren’t as “classic” as Lord of the Rings, and look how long it took those movies to get made.
It’s hard to give a summary, there are so many books. This Wikipedia article Dragonlance - Wikipedia gives a lot of information.
The most compelling parts of the first Dragonlance novels to me were:
-Tanis the half-elf, fully accepted by neither humans or elves.
-The comic/serious relationship between dwarf Flint and kender (sort of like a halfling) Tasselhoff.
-The sickly mage Raistlin and his strong twin brother Camaron. Raistlin is capable of great power but his body is frail. He also has a dark side and a lust for power. His brother Camaron is a stereotypical strong fighter, is a good person, and looks after his brother.
The best advice is, if you like fantasy you should read Dragons of Autumn Twilight, that’s where it all started.
Standard fantasy setting: elves, dwarves, gnomes, so forth. Also, kender, which are basically extroverted hobbits. Some time previous to the first book, the God got pissy with humanity, blasted the largest human nation off the face of the planet, and took off in a huff. The first trilogy (there are about ninety bazillion of these books) is about the Gods coming back, and the appearance of a new race of evil beings called Draconians, the the giant war that inevitably follows. Pretty much the closest thing to an original idea in the whole series is having the company of heroes splinter so badly that they end up on opposite sides of the big war, and a couple of them turn into genuine villains. Other than, very much a (sub-)standard fantasy potboiler. I put it somewhere between Robert Jordan and David Eddings quality-wise. Loved it when I was in jr. high.
God, did I ever love these things when I was eleven!
I’m sort of half-tempted to go back and revisit the Legends trilogy… but man, what if it totally sucks? I had the world’s biggest doomed crush on Raistlin as a pre-teen - to think that was before I knew about the amazingly varied world of slash fanfic!
When the boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks under his bed for Raistlin.
If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Raistlin says it’s beef… then it’s fucking beef.
The only reason you’re conscious right now is because Raistlin doesn’t feel like telling Caramon to carry you.
“Give me the dragon orb, kender… or MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE!”
