Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight - The Movie

So I got Dragons of Autumn Twilight from NetFlix this week. While I was aware that it was some, well, low end animation, I knew I had to give it a try. Low end doesn't even begin to describe it. The cell animation would have probably been right at home in a low end 80's after school cartoon. The CGI was choppy at best, and that's what the dragons and draconians were done with. Clumsy even. It just wasn't that good looking.

The story itself had a bit too much that was glossed over. While I knew that the bit with the Gully Dwarves was going to be dropped, which is too bad but if you need to drop something, well. However, there are some other bits that they didn't touch on that hurts the story overall. Like, the Green Gemstone man. Yeah, not hide nor hair of him. No hint from the Forestmaster in Darkenwoods that Strum was marked for a noble and heroic death. Then there was the stuff that didn't make it that I'd have liked to see. Like a little more with Pax Tharkas would have been really nice. Not needed, just nice. A bit more with the crazy old red dragon there, and her relationship with the children and mothers would have been cool too. You also didn't see Tanis get his sword (which, while cool, you can cut without much impact, sure). They skipped the conversation where Riverwind asks Tanis why he doesn't go by "Half-Man" and not "Half-Elf" (which I've always felt helped them become friends).

Then there was the stuff they didn't bother to hint at. Like, Kitiara being a Dragon High Lord. Revealed at the end. Fizbin being Paladine? Revealed at the end. And sure, that isn't too hard to guess after a bit, but still, the fun is guessing it as time goes on!

I will say that the voice work was pretty decent. They had a good cast put together after all. However, everytime Tas asked Ras about his magic, it came out as either a cruel or snide comment. Maybe I've just always read that wrong, but I always thought that was just Tas being curious, not mean. Poorly executed.

I was hoping it would be at least decent enough to think about picking up, but I'm thinking not. Too bad, I've been waiting for this sort of project for years, but this is a big fail.