FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Abbigail Bush
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
davemfawcett
I gave this a high score if for no other reason than it was a decent job of giving the essence of the first book. However, you would need to do a three hour movie to actually tell the story well, (still leaving out about half, and that isn't going to happen. These dragon lance books are some of the most well written in the DnD world. However, these books would seam dated to the new fan of DnD, where you expect super strong characters with tons of magic. Many a dungeon master used ideas and themes from this series to create there own world, it is a shame there cannot be a Lord of the Rings big budget backing of the Dragon Lance Series. Having said that, I'll take what I can get from those nice people who are trying.
Angels_Review
To be clear, I have not read the Dragonlance series of books yet so my few is only on the movie.The movie starts out with using a old wizard to try and explain the story up till now but sadly, he doesn't explain enough and the story is lost for a person who had never read the books. And since the artwork is more like a child's show so much that there isn't much blood that you can see in most of the bloody fights, that I doubt anyone who would actually be watching this would of read the books in the first place. In my mind, this breaks the movie even before it barely started. We are introduced to the characters in this rather strange fashion of them saying each others names a bit and them talking a little of their travels including a very cryptic explanation about why Tanis Half-Elven (who I guess is the main leader of the group) left but its all left up in the air as they are interrupted by some smelly orcs and the sneezing of the Dwarf character who I can only guess is allergic to horses because of how he first figured out they were coming.May I just talk about how uneventful the ending was? It does not turn out how you think everything would turn out and yet I feel almost no satisfaction in how it ended. It's all I can say without telling you exactly how it ends.The CG effects are much to be desired. They try to make it look epic and yet cartoon-like but something just feels very off. Everything feels like it should have had more detail to the animation instead of the cartoony stuff. The artwork when they do go into the 2D animation looks very lack luster, as though they were trying to copy old shows for children. Sometimes they have just as much work in it as a flash animation and use looped pieces. There are times when characters are wearing something different then they should at that time. The backgrounds are stunning, don't get me wrong, but the characters lack that same love and affection. There is a very sad line between the CG, 2D animation, and background as though they were made by three different studios. They do not work well together. It should be at least one or the other.The voice acting in some areas are alright, giving a very epic feeling to the characters, but in other parts, there is something really off putting to it. Lip-sinking is one of the main problems with the voices but another thing is that the voices try to be more epic then the expressions that they show. They have it for the 3D pieces but it doesn't look like they have it for the 2D visuals. It's surprising because there are some really good actors like Joson Marsdan who did Max Goof from A Goofy Movie and and Haku from Spirited Away. The sad thing is, he gives the character he plays in here, Tasslehoof Burrfoot, such a high squeaky voice with a hint of rasp that he just becomes annoying. The music is actually alright for what it is, catches the 'mood' of the scene though the mood is lost with the artwork.The show was slightly entertaining but that's pretty much all it was. All its problems tog in the way of me enjoying it and it did not feel like it was made in the 21st century. It felt like something done in the 1980's or so.
Cat-Star4
I've been a die-hard Dragonlance fan since my fist year of High School(about 12 years now) when I discovered the books in my school library, and fell in love with the world it showed me. They quickly became some of my favorite books and are way up their for my top. I still remember when I found out this was going to be a movie, animated or not, my screams of happiness could be heard by the neighbors and I live in the country. I found it by browsing the acting list of Jason Marsden and saw him voicing Tasslehoff. I had loved these books for so long and now they were becoming a film. I waited anxiously for the movie and bought it not long after it came out. I was a disappointed for a lot of reasons. But let's start off with the pro's first. The voice acting and script was pretty good. The only real complaints I have with the voice acting was the children, but they don't show up very much. The animation that was not CGI was pretty good. A little awkward at times, but it reminded me of old cartoons like He-Man and She-Ra which I honestly think they were going for considering when the books came out. The parts where it keeps in tune with the book are pretty good and sometimes feels like what you are seeing scenes from the book, and the characters are as likable or as unlike-able as their books counterparts and don't seem too out of character (Except for Tanis, but I'll get to that later.)Now for the cons, and is their a lot to complain about. One the CGI and 2d animation DID NOT blend well. It was very distracting on how well they did not fit, and since they encounter a lot of Draconians and Dragons it's just plain distracting and takes you out of the story. I may understand why they did it, but it was still way too distracting every time something CGI would come up. Next is some of the story. I understand the about 2/3rd of the book was butchered out, and I understand why, but they left out a lot of crucial elements and changed things and sometimes even characters to suit the needs. Like Tanis is the major example. I guess they were trying to make him less cliché I suppose by changing his core motivation. In the book his issues were completely different from the movie. In the book his real deal was choosing, to be quite frank here, between his heart and his dick. not this stupid self war in himself between his human and elven half. At the beginning of the movie when he and flint fight the goblins he's upset because his "human half was too aggressive and got the better of him" in the book he was upset because the goblin he was fighting started acting stupid and got itself killed by him before he could get information. Except for maybe some self doubt and slight issues of exceptince his real problem was choosing between Kitiara (his dick) and Laurana( His heart). That was the core of it. Ya, he was searching for proof of the gods, but not for the reasons stated in the movie. On the plot railroad they cut out a very crucial character in the movie. A character crucial to the plot. Berem. He war critical in defeating the dark queen. And also on that note, Fizban is not revealed to be Paladine in the books till Dragons of Winter's Night which is book two. When I saw that I couldn't help but go "WHY?". The rest are little nitpicks. Like Shirak doesn't work the way they use it. It lights up ball on the staff like turning on a flashlight or light-bulb, NOT shine beams of light in convenient directions. When I saw that, I was like "it doesn't work that way!"All in all, it's OK. It's not terrible. It's not great either. there is a LOT for fans to complain about, no doubt about it, but it can also bring some enjoyment seeing the characters you love come to life (sort of)
Svperstar
A quick introduction. I am 28. I first read the Dragonlance books when I was 11 years old. At the time they were my favorite books. In fact when I first got on the net in like 1994 I looked up more info about the original 6 books by Weis and Hickman.Since then I have grown up and graduated college. I just found out about this movie recently; having not been a fan of fantasy books in years I had no idea this movie was even in development.On the positve, Keifer Sutherland doing the voice acting.The negative? Everything else.I must admit the geek in me smiled when this movie started, but soon I couldn't stand watching it and had to resist the urge to fast forward.Its understandable that they had to cut parts of the plot out but it was like watching the book in 3x fast-forward.Due to the poor animation the characters, the emotions of the characters are reduced to long looks and short nods. The animation in this movie is worse than most 80s cartoons.Like most Dragonlance fans Raistlin is my favorite character. In this movie he is elevated from not just a wizard but an all knowing seer-of-visions. In the books Raistlin is very very specific that he is NOT a seer, and doesn't trust their visions.Overall, if you are a fan of the series, I recommend watching it just for laughs, but if you expect a good film you will be very disappointed.