When many people hear about J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in terms of cinema, they immediately go to Peter Jackson’s two trilogies that spanned between 2001 and 2003 (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) and 2012 to 2014 (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies). So, unless they saw the 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings feature film, there will probably be a disconnect when first watching Kenji Kamiyama’s (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus series) newly released The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
An original Anime feature film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, was officially announced by New Line Cinema in the Summer of 2024 before appearing at this past Fall’s New York Comic Con. With this in mind, it hit theaters everywhere on December 13th before arriving digitally for home viewing on December 27th through Warner Bros. Pictures. Exciting for fans of the series, the movie has a voice cast of Brian Cox (X2 2003, Succession series) and Luke Pasqualino (Skins series, Our Girl series). You also have Miranda Otto as Éowyn, A future shieldmaiden of Rohan who narrates the film, reprising her role from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Additional voice cast includes Lorraine Ashbourne (The Crown series, Bridgerton series) and Gaia Wise (Last Chance Harvey 2008, A Walk in the Woods 2015), among others. Furthermore, Christopher Lee, who died in 2015, posthumously voiced Saruman through an archival recording. One can imagine this was made easier with Peter Jackson being an executive producer of the film since he and Lee had a working relationship on the first trilogy from a legal standpoint. Also, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, who played Pippin Took and Merry Brandybuck in the original film trilogy, also make cameos portraying two orcs – Shank and Wrot.
This new tale is set one-hundred and eighty-three years before the events of the War of the Ring when a sudden attack by Wulf (Pasqualino), a clever and traitorous lord of Rohan seeking vengeance for the death of his father (Shaun Dooley: Eden Lake 2008, The Woman in Black 2012), forces Helm “Hammerhand,” the King of Rohan, and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is not based on a J. R. R. Tolkien book; however, the story draws heavily from details found in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, specifically the history of Rohan’s rulers, particularly Helm “Hammerhand.” Aside from these guidelines, the Writers Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, who worked on 2013’s The Sorrows, had free rein.
So, why go Anime? The answer is four-fold. First, New Line Cinema wanted to prevent losing the film adaptation rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels. Second, the film was an attempt to capitalize on the current popularity of Anime. Also, it was believed that the heightened, illogical nature of Anime is a good fit for J. R. R. Tolkien’s high fantasy and to expand the franchise specifically animated, which had been discussed years in advance.
Visually, the movie is beautiful; the details and the textures are insane. However, it is not traditional Anime. Explaining this, it is essentially a fully computer-animated film extensively using CG for nearly all its visuals, including landscapes, creatures, battles, and even some character elements.
This leads us to the cast, and voice-acting is all about inflection. This does not mean actors are not physically acting in the sound booth, but our voices automatically reflect our actions. Therefore, an actor or actress cannot do something stupid in the booth without it translating into their voice. All this to say, each cast member of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim makes their characters come alive 100%.
Although the critics’ responses were mixed, general audiences seemed to enjoy it, with some not as much. Some say they enjoyed the ‘cartoon.’ Considering this, referring to The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim as a cartoon seems like a bit of a backhanded compliment, but that is another story.
Next in The Lord of the Rings franchise will be The Hunt for Gollum, set for release in 2026. Scheduled to be directed by Andy Serkis, who did the motion capture for Gollum in the first trilogy, focusing on the character of Gollum, this one will be a live-action film. Hopefully, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’s less-than-stellar showing in theaters will not deride those plans. Either way, Cryptic Rock gives The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim 4 out of 5 stars.
){kind=link}
No comment