The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim Review - A Less Magical But Still Inspiring Return To Middle Earth

Since "The Animatrix" hit video store shelves in 2003, anime spinoffs of major Hollywood properties have become a common sight ... in video stores and on the streaming services that ran them out of business. Not so much in theaters. It's not surprising that Warner Bros. would produce a "Lord of the Rings" anime — what is surprising is that it's getting a full-blown theatrical release.

To get my biases out of the way: as a certified weeaboo who wants to see major studios taking chances on hand-drawn and adult-oriented animated films, I come to Kenji Kamiyama's "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" rooting for its success. But I also arrive with some skepticism about WB's attempts to milk everything they can out of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. Peter Jackson's original "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy might be the greatest achievement in blockbuster filmmaking history, but I never even finished his "Hobbit" trilogy after how much the first one dragged and how everything about the sequels sounded even worse. There's a reason the announcement of the upcoming "The Hunt for Gollum" movie was met with mockery.

"The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" is drawing from even slimmer source material than "The Hobbit," but feels less strain as an adaptation — instead of stretching one short book into a trilogy of roughly 3-hour movies, it's taking a few paragraphs from the appendices of "Return of the King" and using them as a jumping off point for a self-contained 2-hour movie. Turning such brief passages into a full feature might sound like an act of desperation from a studio upset about splitting its IP rights with Amazon and not being able to adapt "The Silmarillion," but it succeeds in large part for two reasons: its excitement as an action-packed war epic, and the smart move to flesh out an important character whom the source material didn't even give a name.

Taking place centuries before "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" deals with the reign of Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), the ninth King of Rohan from whom Helm's Deep gets its name. An over-the-top legendary figure befitting the first "LOTR" anime, one punch from Helm is so powerful that even Saitama from "One-Punch Man" would have second thoughts about fighting this guy. The Dunlending lord Freca (Shaun Dooly), trying to arrange a marriage between his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) and Helm's daughter Hèra (Gaia Wise), talks too much sh*t and gets hit — inspiring Wulf to swear revenge against Helm and bring war to Rohan.

This is a story about the men of Middle Earth. Elves, dwarves, and hobbits are completely absent. When two orcs (with some familiar voices) show up at one point, it mostly feels like a fan-service reminder that this is in fact in connected to the other "Lord of the Rings" movies; ditto the much-hyped (and mercifully AI-free) one-line cameo from the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee). While it does a solid job telling this smaller-scale human story, the film's general lack of fantasy elements means it is missing a lot of what people love about Tolkien's universe, and it probably won't be as widely beloved as a result.

The one exception to this more realistic approach, and the area where the film takes best advantage of the anime medium, is how it makes use of Middle Earth's giant creatures. The oliphaunts feel more intimidating and the eagles more majestic than they did as special effects creations. In "The Fellowship of the Ring," the Watcher in the Water was obscured in darkness; here, the tentacled sea monster attacks in broad daylight and becomes way more memorable.

Hèra, who went unnamed in appendices despite being part of the marriage proposal setting the war in motion, becomes our main viewpoint character and the heroine we're rooting for. She's a Nausicaä-esque free spirit whose bravery in the face of dangerous creatures is the first hint of the strength she'll need to get her people through the war. Future shieldmaiden Éowyn (Miranda Otto) narrates Hèra's story as one of a hero about whom "no songs were written" — an acknowledgement of women erased from history, but one that avoids becoming a diatribe. 

Animation studio Sola Digital Arts has mostly worked in 3D motion-capture animation, but its hand-drawn work on "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" looks far better than anything it has produced before. The film used mo-cap for reference footage while adding traditional animation on top of it — the same technique used in the first episode of "Uzumaki" before that production went wrong ("Rohirrim" producer Jason DeMarco executive-produced "Uzumaki"), and reminiscent of a much more polished version of what Ralph Bakshi attempted with rotoscoping his now-obscure "Lord of the Rings" cartoon.

The animation looks incredible in the film's many thrilling action scenes, particularly when showcasing Helm's great feats of strength, Hèra's skill with her sword and shield, and the creature attacks. It's not quite Ghibli-grade, but the high points are very high. The low points aren't too low, but they are noticeable: movement can get a bit stiff or unnatural in quieter scenes, but the main weakness to the animation is that the CGI backgrounds don't always blend convincingly with the hand-drawn work. Fire effects in particular feel substandard.

There was no chance of "The War of the Rohirrim" recapturing the magic of the Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But Hèra's defiance in the face of the despair her enemies want her to feel has something of the trilogy's inspirational quality. For the many people who've spent the past month sharing gifs of Sam's speech from "The Two Towers" in response to current events, this might just be the pick-me-up you need right now.

"The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" opens in theaters on December 13.