TVPast Forums - "Dragonlance" Is Just a Drag of a DVD

My name is Ed, and I am a Dungeons and Dragons geek. I've played four different versions of the pencil-and-paper game, and may have played every computer RPG version since the famous "Gold Box" games. However, despite the enduring popularity of the game, the franchise has never had much success in media other than novels (some of which were so bad you could hear the author rolling the dice to make his storytelling decisions). Some of the best written and most popular of the D&D novels, though, come as part of the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and the first novel of the series, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, has just been adapted into a feature-length animated direct-to-DVD movie. Unfortunately, the movie is a bitter disappointment in nearly every way, from its poor adaptation of good material to its crude and unimpressive animation.

Six of eight main cast members of Dragons of Autumn Twilight
(L to R) Riverwind, Sturm, Tanis, Goldmoon, Flint, Raistlin, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
When Dragons of Autumn Twilight begins, Tanis the half-elven warrior is returning to his home town of Solace to reunite with his old adventuring band: the dwarf warrior Flint, the mischevious Tasslehoff, the noble knight Sturm Brightblade, the mysterious mage Raistlin, and his brawny brother Caramon. Trouble begins almost right away as Tanis and Flint are accosted by goblins searching for a blue crystal staff. The friends are reunited for only the briefest time when the staff turns up in the hands of the barbarian woman Goldmoon, who is accompanied by her bodyguard and paramour Riverwind.

Before long, all eight are fleeing for their lives, searching for the truth behind the blue crystal staff Goldmoon bears and how it ties to the disappearance of the gods several centuries earlier. Unfortunately, the belligerent goblins have powerful friends. The humanoid draconians are smarter and stronger than their goblin allies, and the great evil dragons themselves have returned to Krynn as well. Behind it all is the evil goddess Takhisis, whose human high priest Verminaard quickly fans the fires of war across the land.

I'll DESTROY you...as soon as I take off this helmet so I can see you.
"You have no idea how hard it was to build up these abs while wearing this armor."
If the story sounds like a Tolkien pastiche, it's more of an indicator of the long shadow he throws over fantasy fiction and Dungeons & Dragons than a negative reflection on the story. Unfortunately, many of the strengths of the original novel have been diluted or eliminated in the adaptation for the screen. Dragons of Autumn Twilight suffers badly by compressing the 400+ page novel into a 90-minute movie and the subtler elements that survived are handled with the finesse of a sledgehammer, making the story feel incredibly derivative. Some other elements were kept in the story even after their reason for existing was cut down to nearly nothing, making them needless distractions from a main cast that's already a bit too large. The first half of the movie manages to hew closely to the original story, but the second half has many radical changes that simply make no sense, including what may be one of the worst escape plans ever devised.

The poor adaptation might have been forgivable if the animation were good, but unfortunately Dragons of Autumn Twilight disappoints there as well. Like many cartoons today, it mixes hand-drawn and computer-generated animation, but they go together here like oil and water. The character designs are solid, but the animation itself is stiff and jerky. There are moments when the whole thing seems to skip frames, like a first-person shooter game having trouble keeping up with all the on-screen action. There are also occasional glaring problems where characters suddenly appear with different costume or gear between shots or suddenly become larger or smaller relative to other characters. The animation might have been impressive if it were coming out in the late 80's or early 90's, but it's sadly disappointing in the wake of far