Here’s a recent release that seemed to sneak out of nowhere—an animated spinoff to Lord of the Rings, specifically Peter Jackson’s version, 20-odd years later. Tolkien’s seminal fantasy world, obsessed and appropriated by so many all over the place, seems to be in a rather odd spot right now—different companies jostling for rights, utterly bizarre products being coughed out…and this apparently may have been some attempt by New Line to keep cinematic dibs. But as we’ve discussed, Middle-Earth is no stranger to the world of animation between Bakshi and inexplicable Soviet adaptations—so this one might even be interesting. With that in mind, how does War of the Rohirrim turn out?
Directed by Kenji Kamiyama and animated in Japan, the film isn’t Studio Ghibli in terms of smoothness, but it passes the cut—there’s some atmospheric vistas and backdrops, with nothing massively jolting me out of it. Our setting is in fact the verdant steppes of Rohan, the horse-riders you might remember as being lead by Bernard Hill in the Jackson version—this being set two hundred years before, based on a few pages of appendices from Tolkien, and adding a whole lot more to get something out of that.
Our lead is Hera (Gaia Wise), daughter of king Helm Hammerhead (voiced by Brian Cox, who’s no stranger to bombastic monarchs). Hera here is almost akin to a nineties Disney princess, headstrong and unhappy over a forced marriage, and while some of this gets pretty on the nose, there’s enough struggle and loss that her own triumphs do feel earned as it goes on. Inevitably these days some people might grouse about a female protagonist, though given how much the original novels praise say Galadriel I’m sure that’d melt their brains.
The plot then concerns her royal family’s war with renegade noble son Wulf seeking vengeance for an accidentally slain father (Luke Pasqualino)—and as far as it goes, there is an attempt at a heavy atmosphere of egos bringing ruin, of starvation and fleeing homes…thankfully, things are taken seriously enough, and while it’s a smaller scope than the classic trilogy, the stakes feel no less real, which is a kudos.
There is an attempt to make a bond between Hera and Wulf going back to childhood…which doesn’t really pan out that much or even get referenced as much as it should have. Nevertheless, as far as Brian Cox goes, you certainly get your money’s worth for him, with his over the top face-obliterating honcho taken straight out of mythic-styled pages.
And for the most part, up until the last few seconds the wider references to the rest of the mythos feel appropriate enough—before it suddenly starts suggesting a random sequel to an otherwise decently well-contained story that concludes naturally enough. As that’s just the nature of things these days...
Overall, that leaves War of the Rohirrim a decent enough spinoff—it entertains, even if you’re not likely to remember that much of it in the long term. I will say that even so, compared to billion-dollar Amazon projects that feel like they’re spewed out by a tequila-abusing AI, or hideous videogames based around Gollum of all things that nobody asked for…they at least give us a coherent story that at least pays lip service to some sense of reality (which I know sounds odd talking about a fantasy story, but Tolkien’s own verisimilitude in many areas was what gave his tales such staying power). So while it won’t set your world on fire, it says something that its own brethren makes you appreciate this little flick just a bit more.
Comments
Post a Comment