D&D General Benedict Cumberbatch Narrates A Drizzt Short [Updated]

On WotC’s YouTube channel, this animated short has just appeared.

“Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and written by R.A. Salvatore, Sleep Sound reintroduces the origin story of the iconic Dungeons & Dragons hero, Drizzt Do’Urden.”

UPDATE! A summer of Drizzt has been announced (Scroll down to post #5).

The video appears to have been since set to Private.

Update again — There’s a different working link floating round Twitter. It's a poem narrated by Cumberbatch along with animated images of Drizzt as a baby, Menzoberranzan (and spiders!), and also Drizzt as he first emerged from the Underdark into Icewind Dale, with glimpses of his later companions.


There’s also a link to a page called “Legend of Drizzt” which currently leads to the main D&D page.

Also on WotC’s channel a video called “All Things Drizzt” has appeared. It has no description but it appears to be some kind of live event starting tomorrow.

 

[Jaeger]

That video/poem/narrator combo just cost me 2d6 SAN, thanks WotC, thanks a bunch.

Also man they gonna need to change Drizzt's backstory a bit because he is he is going to get mega-cancelled for dating a girl he'd known when he was an adult and she was 11... Not great.

I guess maybe they'll just go with modern elf-aging and have him be 11-ish too.

If they are doing an adaptation of the Dark Elf Trilogy a few changes would have to be made anyway.

So yeah, an 18+ Brie here we come...

 

[Oofta]

Are you angry at yourself and feel like you deserve to suffer?

The original trilogy was ... okay. It's been so long I don't remember much. After that? Let's just say the quality varied, especially the books published during the 4E era.

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

I could make a long comment about all the feelings I have about this, and why I have them, but I don't want to make it seem like I am constantly ranting, so...I shall refain.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Though I can't vouch for all the content (I'm leery of certain overly violent aspects in the Drizzt stories, which is I why I stopped reading them), the voice actor is quite skilled. And the poetic rhyming is surprisingly effective. Moving. Made my eyes water.

Honestly, I do love Drizzt and the Companions - I just wish that I could order a PG version of the entire story cycle. The "R"-violent scenes are really not healthy for my psyche.

 

[Ace]

I can't bring myself to care much about Drizzt, not for lack of quality just personal preference but this was darn good.

 

[hopeless]

Its a good series, but no matter what they do any attempt to reproduce this on the screen whether big or small is going to have complaints regardless.
Thought the short was great, but then I'm not that fussy and just appreciated it for what it is good entertainment.

 

[Bercilak]

The rhythm of the voiceover reminded me a lot of Dr. Seuss. Lolth as the Grinch who stole Drizztmas?

 

[Seramus]

If they are doing an adaptation of the Dark Elf Trilogy a few changes would have to be made anyway.
So yeah, an 18+ Brie here we come...

That whole thing creeped me out. I can understand her side of things, crushing on some moody older guy who is exceptionally good at murderating people, and has a cute magical cat. But him? He practically help raise her! And he's over 200 years old. That is some straight Edward Cullen stuff right there.

 

[Jaeger]

Its a good series, but no matter what they do any attempt to reproduce this on the screen whether big or small is going to have complaints regardless.
...

Oh for sure.

Just for budgetary reasons a lot of the really fantastical stuff in the books would have to be toned down, if not outright cut out and written around.

I can hear the wails of how they "butchered D&D" already.

That whole thing creeped me out. I can understand her side of things, crushing on some moody older guy who is exceptionally good at murderating people, and has a cute magical cat. But him? He practically help raise her! And he's over 200 years old. That is some straight Edward Cullen stuff right there.

Evidently if the guy is "supernatural" in some way, a lot of people don't seem to have a big problem with it!

You have the whole Twilight trilogy thing... Tens of Millions of copies sold! Then the Angel and Buffy thing... Millions have watched and the series continued to be held in high regard. Then you have the whole underage girl with older guy in the Vampire Academy young adult novels... Millions of copies sold.

Honestly I don't know how the F- they get away with it.

It's flat-out creepy.

edit
What makes this phenomenon real interesting is when I realized that out of the four examples I thought of off of the top of my head, half were written by women.