THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (2024) **

I’m a casual Lord of the Rings fan.  I read the books in middle school.  I dug the Peter Jackson movies.  I like the Hobbit trilogy more than most.  I haven’t seen a lick of the new TV show though.  One thing I could never stand was the old animated flick.  My dad sometimes would rent it for me back in the day (I think to prevent me from renting anything other than Tron), but I never really took to it.  Now, here we are with a Jackson produced animated Rings spin-off that takes place generations before The Hobbit.  I’m not sure why this exists or who asked for it (it was a huge flop), although I suspect that only the most die-hard Rings fans will enjoy it. 

Freca (the voice of Shaun Dooley) seeks an audience with King Helm (Brian Cox) because he wants his son Wulf (Luca Pasqualino) to marry the King’s headstrong daughter Hera (Gaia Wise).  The King will not hear of it, and so Freca challenges him to a fight.  When the King accidentally kills Freca during the brawl, Wulf vows revenge and spends months assembling an army.  His daring attack overcomes Helm’s soldiers, forcing his people to retreat to a stronghold.  After Helm’s demise, it then falls to Hera to end the war once and for all. 

I’m not much of an anime guy, but I have to admit the animation is very good.  Many of the backgrounds look photorealistic, while the humans all look like your traditional anime wizards and warriors deal.  That said, the animation alone isn’t enough to overcome the weak plotting.  The narrative is slight and the “girls can be warriors too, ya know” theme is obvious and thin.  The battle scenes are ho-hum too.  I did like the scene where an elephant was eaten by a swamp octopus though. 

It’s easy to see why this was not a hit.  While there are a couple of breadcrumbs that will eventually lead into Jackson’s movies (and at least one surprise cameo), for the most part, it’s a standalone adventure.  The problem is that none of the new characters are remotely as memorable or as endearing as the ones found in the live-action films.  The Lord of the Rings:  The War of the Rohirrim probably would’ve been a fine DTV deal like those animated DC movies.  It played okay enough at home I guess, but it might’ve been hard to justify paying $15 to see it on the big screen.