Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Story: 8
Action: 7
Acting: 7
FX: 6
Durability: 7

As a kid, this was my favorite novel/series. People will probably think it's blasphemy when I say that the Dragonlance Chronicles are better than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since I put this story on such a high pedestal, I thought there was no way this animation could be good. The stills I saw looked like 2 different artistic styles. While this movie had no chance of being better than any of the Lord of the Rings movies, I was not disappointed. The finished product looked a lot better than expected.

The story was accurate but a bit rushed. It was very loyal to the book and even included some of the memorable details like Tas pickpocketing Flint's dagger. The book had so much content, so I can't really hold the pace of the movie against the creators. It could easily have been a full season TV series.

It was interesting to see the personalities of the characters take substance on the big screen. They acted just as I used to imagine them... a playful Tas, slightly grumpy Flint, a torn Tanis, etc. Voices were played by a talented cast that included Keifer Sutherland as Raistlin and Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon.

I didn't think the dual animation style was necessary though. They used 2-D for the human characters and 3-D for the dragons and draconians. They did a good job integrating the two, but it wasn't really seamless. The 3-D was sort of dumbed down, but still looked like 3-D.

As a fan of the novel, I will definitely watch this one over and over as it has also inspired me to reread the books again. I hope that Dragons of Winter Night and Dragons or Spring Dawning are in the works.