Profile: Teala
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 Well I watched the movie based on the beloved books by Margeret Weiss and Tracy Hickman and I was a little disappointed.   ::sigh::  I was hoping it would have been done better.   I mean it was OK for the most part and did sorta stay true to the story (still kinda missed it in my opinion) but you cannot do the story justice in 90 minutes.   The voices actors like Kiefer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, and Michael Rosenbaum really saved this movie.   Some of the art was well done, but it should have been done better.   The whole thing should have been CGI instead of a mix between 2D and 3D.

For some of us MMORPG players this book, like Lord of the Rings, is one of the books that we read as children and fell in love with.   We grew up reading about Goldmoon, Tika, Tanis, Caramon, and Raistlin.  This in turn got us involved with the whole world of AD&D and gaming.   I remember my brothers buying the SSI Goldbox AD&D games and us playing them until the wee hours of the morning.   Remember Champions of Krynn?  

This book and many others like it influenced us greatly.  Enough so that we hungered for more.  Our appetites for gaming grew from AD&D, Rifts, G.U.R.P.S and other such titles.  So books like the DragonLance Chronicles, Lord of the Rings, and Wheel of Time mean a lot to us and have  special place in our hearts.   I remember the first time I picked up the book Dragons of Autumn Twilight.   
 

What a magical time that was for me.   I was really getting into pen and paper gaming then and this book helped feed my hunger for all things fantasy.   Following the tales of the characters within and seeing it play out in my minds eye.    It just so happened that  I read this first book in the fall and the area I lived in at the time was a blaze with all the fall colors.   ::sigh::  

I would get off the bus, race home and jump up on my bed and pull out the books.    Through the window, next to my bed, that overlooked the woods  the trees with their fall foliage really helped set the mood.   The magic that poured from the words on the pages took me away to Krynn and to the land filled with heroes, heroines and dragons.

I fell in love with reading and writing during that time in my life and of course...gaming.   I remember going online back then.  We had AOL at the time and I use to go to this chat room known as the Red Dragon Inn.   It was a chat room for free-form role playing.   Nothing but text was used to describe the actions of our characters.   I remember going on adventures based off this novel and my love for the stories and gaming grew.

It was here that we sometimes would take a break from gaming and just discuss the books, the characters, the stories and what the future might hold.   I use to say, "Someday, someday in the future, we'll see our characters in a virtual worlds and be able to control them.  Everything will be in 3D and it will allow us to really be a part of these fantastic worlds we read about in the books we love."   I was amazed at some of the responses I use to get.   "Sure...sure...keep dreaming...computers will never be so powerful to allow is to do that."   Of course the people that use to say that are eating their words now, because we do have those 3D virtual worlds and we can play in them and be a part of them and have our own wondrous adventures - just like the characters we loved in those novels.

So what am I rambling on about and how does this tie in with the movie based on one of the books I fell in love with?   It's about love.   Yes...love.   Love of words and art.   The books we read the art we see and how it molds us and makes us part of who we are.   When we see a book we love so much come to life in the form of a movie we expect it to be as we envisioned it.   Sometimes it doesn't always play out how we remember it.   So when we finally get to see the characters come to life on the screen and they are not as we thought they might be we get a little disappointed.   This movie had that effect on me.   It should have been given the love the authors gave the story.   Dragons of Autumn Twilight the movie version lacks real love.    It's as if the people who put it together never read the story or know what the story means to so many people.   It deserved to be done better so that the magic that we found in the books could be seen in the movie.   It is not there however.   It is missing love.

The picture to the left is from the movie.  It is of Goldmoon breaking her staff against the hand of Onyx.   A dragon sent to retrieve the blue crystal staff.  Though the characters pretty much look as they are described in the books.  They are missing something.   The film seems rushed and reminds me of some of the old style cartoons we saw back in the day.   This movie, as I have said earlier, does not do the book justice.  Yes it pretty much follows the storyline as told in the book, but it misses some key parts that should have been in it.  It is hard to get a feel for the characters due to this lack of character building we find in the novels.   The switching of scenes and following the heroes as they progress through the story is broken by the parts that are missing and the parts that were rewritten to fit within the 90 minutes.

Without the love that is given the characters, settings, and the world we found in the novels, the movie looses it's epicness...it looses its magic.   When we saw Lord of the Rings come to life on the big screen...wow...just wow.  I was like...that is Frodo!  That is Gandalf!  They look as they should!  The movies have magic....just as the novels did.  Peter Jackson put a lot of love into the making of the movies and it shows, because he loved the books.

So if by some of chance Tracy Hickman or Margeret Wiess ever read this, I hope they take my suggestion to heart.    Do not let people who do not love your story produce the next movies.  In fact...just start over and redo the first one all over again...but this time...this time...do it justice.    Bring the world of Krynn to life as it should have been done.   If you must hire Peter Jackson to do the movie I do not care.   Dragonlance is an epic story that deserves its place alongside such great novels as Lord of the Rings and should you decide to redo it into the movie it should have been - do it right. 

Suggestion.   Hire one of these game companies, like Blizzard, or NCSoft that know how to make CGI movies.    Have them make the movies full CGI and bring the world of Krynn to life as it should have been done.

An example of what I am talking about can be viewed here.

Lineage II - CGI Movie 2003

This maybe only a 3 minute movie...but there is more emotion, more story telling in that three minute clip than there is in almost the whole DragonLance movie I watched.    Dragonlance is a story that was written with love and if it must be made into a movie it should be made with the same kind of love that was put into it when the words were penned and the story was told.   Otherwise...leave it alone.  Let our minds eye continue to be the instrument in which the world of Krynn comes to life...because a poorly done movie spoils it and takes away the magic of the tale your words wove into a tapestry of images that only our minds can do justice.

Special Note Edit:  Here is a link to a Youtube clip of the movie if you are interested in seeing this poorly made movie.   Draqonlance on Youtube  <<< click here!