ok i saw this last night

[Falonthas]

who has seen the animated dragonlance chronicles and are they any good?

[lonnarin]

Haven't seen them yet, though I'm looking forward to renting it on Netflix.  I mean, Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin... Lucy Lawless finally getting work again, Micheal Rosembaum and Phil Lamar.  I'll say one thing, it'll be interesting to see (or hear rather) this cast together considering they all typically have projects totally alien from one another. (MadTV, Xena, Smallville, 24, etc)  Odd to see such famous names attached to D&D after that bomb of a movie with Wayans, so I guess they liked what they saw in the script and production quality/art direction.  All of these are big names with savvy, high-priced agents, so I'm betting this will be the first GOOD D&D media tackled by Hollywood... ever.

Of course, the Netflix reviewers are ranting about how bad it was... so alas.  I'll have to rent it and see for myself.

[Fatherchaos]

I've seen it and even as the Dragonlance fan that I am, I must say this is a watch once but have an aspirin-vodka chaser ready.

Overall I would consider the movie very sub-par. The animation maintains the same quality of the cartoon bible stories advertised late at night. My roommate had to deal with a few Moses jokes after I made the connection. Things quickly loose cohesion just to have the party suddenly pop up somewhere with the next part of the plot device.

As Ionnarin pointed out, the voice acting is by far the most redeeming quality of the show, and the characters are portrayed well. Monsters unfortunately follow the rarr rarr vocab for the most part.

If I had to describe this movie I would liken it to a beautiful songbird at the bottom of a sewer.

[lonnarin]

You know whose voice-overs I always loved?  That guy who did Sabertooth's voice in the X-Men cartoons, that over-the-top higher-pitch than you'd expect... "RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHRRRR!!!!" scream he always made before he attacked Wolverine.  That's the noise I make when Jehova's Witness try to corner me in the grocery store.

But the ultimate voice-over idol of mine is Tony Jay.  He plays bleak, deep voiced evil characters in cartoons and video games, like the Gate to Death in Kings Quest VI, the demon who trapped Azriel's soul in Legacy of Kain, Darkseid from Superman, Shir Kahn, etc.  That guy has the creepiest, most methodical villain voice in the business.  He also released an album of him reciting beat poetry over light classical music... it's just the sort of thing you'd imagine being piped into Baby Stewey's room as he sleeps, plotting of global conquest.