The Lord of the Rings ~ The War of the Rohirrim [Anime Film]

corkie

{collider.com} 'Lord of the Rings' Gets Anime Film With 'The War of the Rohirrim' About Origin of Helm's Deep By Rafael Motamayor
Arise, Riders of Théoden!



"The standalone anime feature is said to focus on one of the most legendary figures in Middle-earth history, the ninth King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand. The film will expand on the story of the fortress that bears King Hammerhand's name, Helm's Deep. "

{slashfilm.com} ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ Anime Film Will Be a Companion Piece to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy

NIMAN

No mention of a release date?

pixelburp

Anime? That's a left field choice all round. Obviously there's the mega budget Amazon show on the way but I'd never have thought the next film might be animated.

fitz

pixelburp wrote: »

Anime? That's a left field choice all round. Obviously there's the mega budget Amazon show on the way but I'd never have thought the next film might be animated.

Next thing you know they'll be rotoscoping...

pixelburp

fitz wrote: »

Next thing you know they'll be rotoscoping...

Haha, touché; though I'd have thought after that failure they wouldn't touch animated LOTR for a while!

Definitely interesting to see a Western studio aiming to make an "anime" film and release it to the cinema. That's relatively unprecedented I think?

corkie

Was wondering if the was any more news about this film.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures on April 12, 2024.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings%3A_The_War_of_the_Rohirrim

War Of The Rohirrim First Look - Lore, Breakdown, & Theories | The Lord of the Rings Anime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NaXg6um5B0

corkie

https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-war-rohirrim-release-date-delayed-december/

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Kamiyama’s animated Lord of the Rings entry has now been moved from its original April 12, 2024 release date to December 13, 2024. .....

..... pushed back because of the ongoing actors strikes, it does have the benefit of aligning this new film with the release windows of the previous Lord of the Rings films, which all shared December openings.

TheIrishGrover

Not a peep about this yet. Dec 2024 isn't very far away from an animated movie's POV. Would have expected to have seen at least some concept are by now if it was originally scheduled for less than 9 months away. True, anime studios normally play their cards close to their chests (Miyazaki's last film didn't have a trailer at all and only release about 3 images after release). Small studio. some Starship Troopers stuff. Some work on Ghost in The Shell SAC

Not really holding out for this. Ain't exactly gonna be Spiderverse, I'm just sayin'

McDermotX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCUg6Td5fgQ

Trailer

Conall Cernach

Looks dreadful to me as a long time fan of the books.

NIMAN

Was never a fan of that style of animation.

Won't be watching this.

xper

When this trailer first popped up in my YT recommended list, I stopped watching after the first few badly edited shots of old footage thinking it was some fake fan effort.
Only later when I realised it was on the official WB channel did I go back and actually get to the anime shots.
I remain unimpressed. I’m not a huge fan of the anime genre but I have watched and enjoyed some examples. Some scenes in this look very odd. Weird colour palettes and hard to make out compositions with emphasised jerky animation. Would have thought a Hollywood studio backed release like this would have inevitably gone for a bit of compromise in style but I can’t see mainstream audiences lapping this up.

Maybe it’s just the trailer. Looks like it was thrown together at 4:45 on a Friday

TheIrishGrover

Now, speaking as someone who IS a fan of anime and LoTR… That still did little for me.

Indeed, as xper stated above, I initially thought it was a fan trailer. A 2:26 trailer that uses the first 20 secs showing clips from the movies (And dialogue even further in).

While the director has quite a bit of TV work under his belt, he's hardly "Legendary Director". He's hardly Satoshi Kon or Otomo.

There definitely would be scope for an anime series (Maybe Demon Slayer studio Ufotable) but this does not float my boat at all

Stephen_Maturin

Huh looks like I’m in the minority here but I think it looks pretty cool

And I say that as someone who is not an anime fan aside from Akira

AMKC

I don't think that looks bad at all. Just a pity its not live action. I will not be going to see if in the Cinema do. I will stream it. I have never gone to see a cartoon in a cinema. Although "Transformers One" might change that.

corkie

Anyone planning on going to this Friday week? Can't remember what the last film I saw in a cinema!

https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=IE&ref_=ttrel_28

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122926826#Comment_122926826

Will it be in cinemas here do reckon?

I’d go see it alright

corkie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122926996#Comment_122926996

https://blackpool.thereelpicture.com/

Check your own cinema!

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122927044#Comment_122927044

Just checked and indeed it is! Good stuff

corkie

Booked my Ticket this morning, so I can pick a ideal viewing seat for myself.

I waited till this morning, to hear from a friend if they where interest in going.

Type of film, not of interest to them.

^^ On purpose didn't share QR code part.

Choosed Mahon Point Instead of Blackpool.

Hope I'm not surrounded by children, isle seating anyway.

I'm expecting that this film will attract a good audience?

https://www.cbr.com/lord-of-the-rings-peter-jackson-war-of-the-rohirrim-praise/

corkie

https://bsky.app/profile/corkiejp.bsky.social/post/3ld7d3yip2s2i

📌🤔

corkie

Just home awhile after seeing the film!

I enjoyed the film, the story unfolded in ways I was not expecting. The lack of emotion, expressions and charastics on the animated characters was off-putting! Tha animation on the 'oliphaunt' and another creature featured was good.

Didn't like the main female character was a small bit of a 'Mary Sue'!

I know it was based in middle earth and story based on legendary events of that but only small references to the rings films: -

Spoiler Warning

orcs looking for rings in one clip

Saruman making an appearance at the end.

And lead character going of to talk to Gandalf about the orc's

Surprised at the poor attentandence in the screening i was at, maybe the later screen faired better. And plenty more options to get to see it!

Ronanc1

Seen this today in the Lighthouse at 15.00 and was surprised there were only 5 other patrons - not complaining though it definitely tracks with it's lack lustre advertising and coverage. I definitely thought there'd be more LOTR fans going though maybe it was the time/day/Xmas period that had people occupied elsewhere. It's a hard one to critique without bias what with my love of all things LOTR, the Peter Jackson films coming out in my formative years etc and also my love of anime and animated movies.

Certainly it's DNA is very apparent and on show, I know PJ was down as executive producer or some such but we all know that can mean anything from either highly involved to effectively signing their name only and receiving a pay check. On casual viewing it could definitely be thought to be included in the PJ LOTR franchise pantheon/canon. Sets and settings are all lovingly recreated to a tee to match the movies. Details are very fine which does go aways to enhancing the overall experience and make you think it "Belongs" with those films or that your dropping into the same universe again.

Some may level a criticism here, that it's too samey or cribs too much. The Rohan leitmotif is in full effect throughout the soundtrack but not so much as to be heavy handed. It goes along way to grounding it in the PJ mythos and I definitely didn't think that a bad thing considering the Howard Shore score IS exceptional at times. The remainder of the OST is again fitting with previous instalments but isn't enough to sound like they just reused the Two Towers OST. Though again my bias from listening to it so much as a teenager might just mean I can detect where it's different and others wouldn't see the same.

I suppose the crux of what people (Having read no reviews that is) may level at it as a criticism that being the "Known Quantity" PJ DNA, they might label it reductive etc. I think it walks a very fine balance of referencing and feeling part of the filmic canon without falling either side as rote rehash or tonally jarringly different. I know Philippa Boyens et al were all involved so there is probably a lot of their influence at play regardless in terms of the styling etc. But I do think it a credit that it walks that fine line so well. Like there are few throwaway lines which are wink/blink copy pasta from the triology but it's not egregious or trying to hammer you over the head with them, they're subtly enough placed as to blend in but provide a bit of smerk too.

The anime-esque aesthetic works well here. The animation is by and large very pretty and does something that I didn't expect which was to lull you into the feeling that you ARE watching a filmic experience or installyment (It could have been the runtime too though which is a generous one for an animated movie). Many animated features at times and some Japanese anime films (while amazing) can have such a distinct or disjointed story telling style or plot that can make them excellent experiences but don't necessarily leave you feeling like you've watched a FILM (If I'm conveying that correctly). Maybe due to the nature of the story and the PJ DNA on show it works at absorbing you that bit more. I certainly felt the plot and pacing and such emulated that movie filmic three act style.

There were a few negatives to the animation in that I felt they could have done with some almost like "interpolation" for lack of a better word. There's times where there's dialogue heavy scenes which should be adding a sense of gravitas or have some more feeling of import etc. At times the animation of the characters here seemed a bit jerky and stilted because they only animated the characters waving their arms/gesticulating. But whether it was a frame rate thing or just that the dialogue for those moments didn't match, I don't know but it became apparent to me at a few points.

Voice acting overall is pretty good with Brian Cox as Helm Hammerhand stealing the show I'm afraid. Thought the rest were pretty serviceable so no great negatives there. I'll have to look up and see the whose who behind the actors, I've a good ear for voices normally but none immediately jumped out as anyone I'd know. Storywise I thought it was pretty good too, I'm familiar with a lot of the extended lore/appendices from LOTR so knew there were certain ways things would play out and appreciated how they stuck with the canon in ways (as much as you feasibly can when adapting something). There were a few nice moments where the rising score and bit of Howard Shore styled theming flourish to provide some tingles reminiscent of watching the OG trilogy in the cinema for the first time. A couple of points in the story telling could have done with being lengthened to provide a bit more time for the drama to fully gestate but overall they reached necessary high points to pay off.

I thinks this was very good, I came away pretty happy with what I saw and the more I think or look back on it and think it over the more I feel it like it would be or should be the worthy successor of the PJ trilogy and would be happy if more in the same vein were to come. I could see myself watching this again and enjoying it just as much or picking up a bit more from it - whereas with the Hobbit films etc not so much. I've no real interest in revisiting those movies. Maybe it benefited most from not having Peter Jackson heavily involved in the drivers seat, I don't know! So I think overall that's probably one way of concluding that, in the grand scheme, Yes this is pretty great actually and worth the time to go and see.

santana75

Saw it earlier this afternoon and I loved it. The reviews I've read have been luke warm(3 out 5 for the most part) so my expectations were not high. But I just thought it was great, never for one moment did my attention begin to drift those 2+ hours flew by. It definitely has that Lord of the rings "feel" to it and at Christmas you could do a lot worse in terms of movies. Definitely worth a punt, a perfect film to slip into while your meant to be doing the Christmas shopping.

corkie

https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/wild-reason-warner-bros-reportedly-made-anime-lord-of-the-rings-film-war-rohirrim

Short version: - Made to protect the rights?

https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/philippa-boyens-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-war-of-the-rohirrim-posthumous-christopher-lee-cameo

Glad I didn't know about the cameo in advance and sorry if I'm spoiling it for people yet to watch!