To call Lord of the Rings a franchise seems like an understatement. From the Hobbit to the Rings trilogy with films and of course the original books by Tolkien all set in the same connected world of Middle Earth, while it did not originate the fantasy genre it definitely defined it. Now with the new animated film The War of Rohirrim you have a new reason to return to the world of Wizards, Hobbits, Orcs and Giant Eagles.
While we might normally try to give you enough backstory to be up to speed to walk into a movie prepared, we are not going to try to recap the entire 19.5 hours of the Peter Jackson fantasy series or 1300-1800 pages of the books (depending on the edition) – But we don’t have to!
The new film returns to the fantasy world of Middle Earth, around 200 years before Frodo ever touched a ring. The film is actually is based on the world of Tolkien but is actually an original story and the first animated expansion to be connected to the Peter Jackson films. Set in the northern regions of Middle Earth the story centres around the kingdom of Rohan and more specifically the first generation of Kings taking inspiration from the House of Eorl mentioned by Tolkien in an appendix for Return of the King.
Set well before any rise to power by Sauron (but technically well after the Amazon series) there is no saving of the world here with magic rings and fellowships not being where this film lives. The film picks up with King Helm Hammerhand being challenged after a ‘nobleman’ of his realm pushed for his son to marry Hammerhand’s daughter, Héra, as a means to later claim the throne. This of course does not go well.
Running just over 2 hours long the War of Rohirrim is long for an animated feature but easily one of the shortest Lord of the Rings films as features the internal war for the throne that occurs across the film runtime. Basically if you enjoyed the battle parts of Return of the King and wanted more of that, this is for you. With a light pepper of name drops and other references to Middle Earth lore the battle grounds and sieges are what make up most of the film.
While falling under WB Animation, which you may sometimes forget has been around since 1930 with an animation legacy to rival Disney, the film is actually closer to an anime in style or early animated features than WB Animation’s more recent work like the Mortal Kombat or DC films. Using a lower framerate style with static backgrounds and limited motion of the characters most certainly does suit the story much more than something more dynamic – it also does not make any of the action sequences or battles suffer as you are drawn in.
The use of animation does not mean shorting in other areas also with a few familiar actors returning to voice their characters again and the original cast featuring some names you will be familiar with including Brian Cox and Miranda Otto.
So should you go see it? If you are a hardcore Tolkien fan then absolutely. This film represents potentially the start of an expansion to the LotR film franchises with new stories being fleshed out based on the notations and references by Tolkien. Told as a self contained story the number of easter eggs or name drops are limited but still there, but there is no risk of the main character being drafted into the Fellowship Initiative by Gandalf at the end of the credits. If you were looking for a reason to head back to Middle Earth, this is it.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim is in cinemas across Australia from today!
