I agree with Darwin that we are allowed glimpses of the personalities of the group of companions, and their main character traits on are on display, but I did not feel that the movie delved enough into their characters and their relationships with one another. I always felt that books were character-driven – Tanis has to come to terms with the dualities of his personality and find inner peace, Caramon needs to come to terms with his brother and the dependent relationship that exists between them, Sturm has to overcome the sorrow of his upbringing and realize that strict adherence to the code of honor of the knights he idolizes is not always the best course in a world more in need of compassion and love than rules.
The lack of a deeper understanding of the characters is most felt with that of Raistlin. Kiefer Sutherland did a great job with what he was given to work with. I read that he recorded several tracks of dialogue with magic words to get the pronunciation and inflection just right. I was especially thrilled that the animators allowed us to see Raistlin’s sly grin, which played brilliantly on his face when circumstances led the group in the direction of his hidden agenda. We did see flashes of Raistlin’s brilliant use of magic when needed in battle, but we did not get enough of a deep sense of his sneering arrogance, his disdain for his brother’s ministrations, or his attitude of being above all others in terms of entitlement and power.
As a result of only skimming the surface of the mage’s personality, the segment when Raistlin befriends the gully dwarf, Bupu, seems more like a simple magic trick to get what he wants, instead of a touching and puzzling relationship between a powerful wizard and someone who, in that world, is the least of all creatures and beyond consideration. In the book, Raistlin’s tender relationship with Bupu was more of a revelation of some deep redeeming value within him. I missed that in the movie.
The fact that the movie leaned more toward action than character development was clearly displayed in the style of animation. The overall look of the film is old-school. It reminded me of watching old episodes of Johnny Quest. Darwin and Zak agreed with me that the animation style was too simple and not worthy of the epic proportions of the story they were trying to tell. What was most puzzling to me was the fact that while the main characters appeared flat and two-dimensional, the villains, especially the draconians and dragons, had some CGI effects that made them appear larger than life and three dimensional. The meshing of the old style animation and the CGI effects was not seamless and in my opinion the animators had a cool idea, but they had it backwards. The main characters should have been the ones who were fleshed out, not the nameless, disposable villains.
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