ACED Magazine

The much anticipated release of the animated DVD Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight is finally at hand. With a number of renowned actors playing the voices of the characters, Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon, and Michael Rosenbaum as Tanis, it was bound to be a fantastic rendition of the original book by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

As a long-time fan of the Dragonlance saga, which started with the release of the Chronicles trilogy of books, with Dragons of Autumn Twilight being the first of the set, I have to say I found myself quite disappointed with this rendition of the story.

The movie did a decent job at giving each of the characters an equal amount of time on screen instead of focusing on just one or two of the characters. It also did a good job capturing many of the quirks for these characters that made them so interesting and unique, such as Tasslehoff’s kleptomania, Fizban’s misconstrued memory and spell casting, and Flint’s aversion to horses and water. This animated production actually managed to keep to the original storyline of the book, only veering off of it on a few occasions.

Unfortunately, the animation of the movie itself is rather disappointing. The characters are drawn with good integrity, but the animation is done rather (unintentionally) comically, and at points, choppy. In a few segments of the film, the characters are supposed to be traveling, but instead you see them standing in place, in walking positions, and the background flowing behind them.

Throughout the movie, characters make a lot of odd, dramatic movements before speaking, which takes away from the seriousness of the characters and the story. The most abhorrent act in the movie is the absolutely seam-filled teamwork that is created by the mix of traditional 2-D art, and 3-D computer graphic images. The animation of the traditional art is done at a decent level, but then 3-D creatures step into the movie, and they look absolutely out of place.

The voice acting is done rather well. About a third of the dialogue is a bit cheesy and out of place for the normally serious characters, but throughout most of the DVD, the characters are portrayed adequately when compared to the book's depictions.

The DVD also features a small art gallery of the original sketch ideas of some of the characters.

This Reviewer's Rating: 2 / 5

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