Umbran said:
Actually, absent the Xena costume and kiai, the voice itself might do very nicely. "Warm and strong" are an accurate description of the voice, and fitting for Goldmoon.
I bet ya ten to one that the first time they do a fight scene they have her do that stupid high pitched Xena yell. While a warm and strong voice is fine, Xena is too well known to be attached to this project. It is like Mel Gibson when he made The Passion. He couldn't play Jesus. Why? Certainly not cause he couldn't handle the task. It was simply cause people would see him dieing on a cross and say, did he already to this in Braveheart, or why doesn't Griggs just shoot them all follow by a karate back flip. The best thing they can do is get a buunch of unknowns with no bagage behind them.
Umbran said:
YOu realize, of course, that if you say that enough, you'll think it blows even when it doesn't, right? fix your expectations like that a year ahead of time, and for you it will be self-fulfilling prophecy.
I like to keep an open mind, and if this was the project they were going to make back in 1995, I would have said awesome. However, LOTRs set a standard for fantasy films. Anything short of that will be dropped into the D&D moive Wraith of the Dragon God, simply made cause they could by a bunch of people who care less for the art and splendor of the world than the profit margin and the cause we can attituide.
I just checked out the animation company, they could surprise me, but most of their work is wacky toon animation. Hence the spelling of TOONZ in their name. They have some decent work, but unless the capture Larry Elmores near photorealistic imagery, and get people to handle voice over who care about the project rather than just look at it as a pay check, it will suck.
Suck might be a hard word, I should say that it might be a decent version of the story much like the animated version of the Fellowship of the Ring was back in the 70's, but I doubt it will meet the many expectations of most of the fans.
Unfortunately, too many people have become fans of Dragonlance as a second generation group of fans, meaning they were not around when the original came out. They grew up with bad tv animation and pokemon and other animie, so it will most likely please them. They will probly even cheer in schoolboy delight as Goldmoon wacks a Draconian over the head while doing a Xena battle cry, but the real fans of the work that catapulted it from visonary novel to the status of the epic it is today will cringe and cry foul.
You will get only one chance to make a good movie. If it sucks, or even if it is good but doesn't do well at the box office, it will be a long road to hoe to get another version made. most likely not until another 25 years have passed.
When I watch it, and I will be one of the first in line for it, I will be the first to come back to this forum and say I was wrong and that I loved it, but from what I have seen of the voice over cast, the animation talent and the style of the director, there is nothing yet to give me hope that it will be anything less than subpar.