Dragonlance - Dragons of Autumn Twilight: Is The Book Any Better?
Many deals for a Dragonlance movie had reportedly come and gone over the years. At one point a Canadian animation company, Nelvana Studios, were slated to produce a made-for-TV animated feature set somewhere between the events of the "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" and "Dragons of Winter Night" novels, but the deal ultimately fell through because Nelvana wanted to go in a direction that was "very un-Dragonlance". The Jim Henson company was also supposedly in talks with TSR, Inc. about a movie set in the Dragonlance setting before Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR. To this day the 2008 "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" is the only Dragonlance movie to have been produced.
Apologies in advance for the ultra-poor image quality, but that is how it appeared on the DVD. A web search revealed that this is just the quality the manufacturer found acceptable to release the film in; as hard to believe as that is.
Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis and my opinions at the very end.
The film opens with a basic explanation of the Dragonlance setting,
namely, that special lances are used to kill dragons and healing magic
hasn't existed since the Gods abandoned the world of Krynn 300 years
ago. One God, however, has returned - Takhisis (aka Tiamat), the Goddess of evil and corrupter of dragons.
A
group of friends is then shown gathering in a tavern - Last Home, as
part of a five year reunion. The group consists of: Flint Fireforge (hill dwarf fighter), Tasslehoff Burrfoot (kender - aka halfling, rogue), Tanthalas "Tanis" Half-Elven (human / qualinesti elf
fighter), Sturm Brightblade (human fighter), Caramon Majere (human
fighter) and his brother Raistlin Majere (human wizard). They receive a
letter from Kitiara Uth Matar (human fighter), the half-sister of the
twins Caramon and Raistlin, informing the group that her duties with a
new lord are keeping her from attending the reunion.
A kerfuffle between an old storyteller and Hederick the High Theocrat of Seekers (a religious order), breaks out over whether or not the Gods ever existed, leading to two patrons, Riverwind (human ranger) and Goldmoon (human cleric), rushing to the old man's defense. The high theocrat is pushed into a fireplace during the altercation and then smacked repeatedly by Tasslehoff using Goldmoon's staff in an attempt to put out the flames; an act that accidentally heals the burned theocrat with magic.
A band of hobgoblin soldiers searching for a special staff - the "Blue
Crystal Staff", had threatened to destroy the village of Solace should
they find anyone harboring it. Concerned that Goldmoon's staff may be
the one the Goblin's are after, the party flees the village, traveling
across the nearby lake via boat. Raistlin notes how the constellations
for "The Valiant Warrior" (the God Paladine, aka Bahamut) and "The Queen of Darkness" (Takhisis) are absent from the sky, signalling their return to Krynn.
Later
that night, Goldmoon explains how she found the staff while questing
and believes it to be a holy artifact of Mishakal, the Goddess of
healing (both body and spirit). Her village disagreed and condemned her
to death as a heretic, but the staff transported her to safety.
Riverwind makes it clear he "doesn't trust anyone who isn't human", but seems to pick fights exclusively with Tanis. Flint and Tasslehoff might as well not be there.
The next day, a group of hooded monks requests healing from the "one who bears the staff",
and without questioning how the monks know about the healing staff,
Goldmoon obliges. At which point the monks reveal themselves to be
draconian's (aka dragonborn) in disguise.
Outnumbered by the Dark Queen's draconian army, the party flees into the Darken Wood, where they encounter undead warriors who, upon seeing the staff, leads them to the Forestmaster (unicorn). The Forestmaster tasks the group with retrieving the "Disks of Mishakal" from the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth because the Disks contain the teachings of the True Gods and will help to restore faith in them.
The party travels on the backs of pegasi, provided to them by the Forestmaster, to Riverwind and Goldmoon's old village. Upon arriving they find the village in ruins and draconian tracks heading towards Xak Tsaroth. A gully dwarf named Bupu, leads the group to the lair of a black dragon called Onyx/Khisanth, inside the Xak Tsaroth ruins, whose treasure horde contains the Disks of Mishakal. Goldmoon electrocutes the dragon with the Blue Crystal Staff, vaporizing herself in the process. Riverwind then blames the "half-elf" Tanis for Goldmoon's death, and filled with despair, Tanis curses the gods. Only to reverse course seconds later when Goldmoon appears alive and well.
The group leaves with the Disks of Mishakal, and Bupu gifts an ancient spellbook (formerly belonging to the archmage, Fistandantilus) to Raistlin. They try to return to the village of Solace to find someone who might be able to read the Disks, but are captured by the draconian army and added to a slave caravan, along with an elf named Gilthanas (Tanis' cousin). En route to the fortress and mining site of Pax Tharkas, Goldmoon heals a man who had his arm lopped off, but is "too weak" to heal a slightly dirty child. Gilthanas's brother, Porthios, attacks the slavers and then takes the group to the elven nation of Qualinesti, where they decide to incite a rebellion in Pax Tharkas to free the slaves from the control of Verminaard - a Takhisis worshiper.
The party sneaks into Pax Tharkas without much trouble and heals the leader of the slaves, Elistan, who informs them that the children of Solace are kept separate from the adults - watched over by a half-blind and insane red dragon called Matafleur. They disguise themselves as women to sneak the children away, telling Matafleur that they are heading out to gaze at the mountains. The party tries to leave with the escaped slaves through the main gates, but are caught as they attempt to sneak past the entire draconian army. Dragonlord Verminaard rides in upon his red dragon Ember (also called Flamestrike or Pyros) and indiscriminately sets the slaves, parts of his army, and the main gates ablaze. When Matafleur comes out to investigate the commotion, the party convinces her that Verminaard is "trying to kill her children".
The old storyteller from the Solace tavern then reveals himself and his true identity to be that of Fizban the Fabulous (aka Paladine) and engages in battle with the recently summoned Takhisis. Without his God's power, Verminaard is slain and the battle is won. Elistan is able to read the Disks. Goldmoon and Riverwind are wed. Kitiara is revealed to have been working for Takhisis, and Raistlin insists they must find the dragonlances if they are to have any chance of winning the coming war.
Final Thoughts
The movie moves really fast, like it is on fast-forward at all times,
jumping from one scene to the next without fully explaining who these
people are and what is going on. I have not read any of the Dragonlance
novels but reportedly two-thirds of the first book had to be gutted to
meet the 90-minute runtime, and the results are mixed to bad. For some
reason they chose to keep characters and scenes that are completely
irrelevant to the movie's narrative. For example, I never knew Tanis had
a fiance - Laurana, until she abruptly popped up about halfway into the
movie. During the minute of screen-time she was given, Laurana
genuinely seemed to love Tanis as far as I could tell. So it was a
complete shock when Tanis, seemingly for no reason, breaks up with her
in the nastiest, most spiteful way possible because... elves are mean?
He is in love with some human lady? What? I assume there is more to
this, but without knowing the full history between these two and the
events that (presumably) preceded the breakup in the books, Tanis just
comes off as an unlikable jerk. And this is just one of many scenes in
the movie that is confusing, unnecessary, and should have been left out.
Character development is likewise non-existent with the cast consisting
entirely of basic tropes: the valiant knight, the stubborn dwarf, the
thief, the self-doubting leader, and the one token woman (a healer) in
an otherwise all-male band, although, this may actually be faithful to
the books which have been criticized for being cliché and derivative of
other works. So little of the runtime is dedicated to the cast that I
completely forgot two party members even existed - Sturm and Caramon. I
think one of them really liked to eat but I honestly couldn't tell you
anything more about them.
The entire video is also weirdly foggy. At
first I thought there was something wrong with my DVD or player, but
other movies played fine and discussions online confirmed that this is
indeed the quality they released the movie in, which is worse than your
average Saturday morning cartoon. Inconsistencies in the animation, such
as a draconian being stabbed, only for his attacker to be shown holding
a log in the next scene are commonplace. Mouth movements do not match
the dialogue, fight scenes are "floaty", and the frame-rate plummets in
places. Bad CGI animation, especially for its time, is juxtaposed next
to 2D animation without even attempting to properly blend the two. Real
fire is inserted over hand-drawn environments and there is no sound where
you would expect it to be, or the sound effects are off, such as the pig
squeals used for the dragons. It's bad. Really bad, and painful to
watch on so many levels.
Have you seen the Dragons of Autumn Twilight animated feature film? What were your thoughts on the movie? If you haven't seen it, do you plan to? Have you read the books and how do they compare to the movie adaptation?
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