ANI-MOVIES, *The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim

After several years passed since the last cinematic excursion to Middle Earth, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema go once more into the breach with an original story modified from the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien that he wrote after completing the original The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Set about two centuries before The Hobbit, this new animated take on the fantasy world is the first one since The Return Of The King animated TV movie done by Rankin/Bass Productions in the 80s. The War Of The Rohirrim is considered an anime even though a good portion of the headlining creators operate in the Western Hemisphere. It was directed by Kenji Kamiyama whose past work includes everything from the original Duck Tales to Blood: The Last Vampire and he had already adapted several English franchises into anime productions such as Blade Runner and Star Wars. This new anime movie is along the same lines as made-for-video animated films from the mid-2000s that tied into existing movie titles such as Highlander or The Matrix, although this time it is a prequel that is not totally canonical with the lore already established in Peter Jackson's prior two movie trilogies. The main anime studio behind this is Sola Entertainment which has also worked on hit titles like Ghost In The Shell and the Starship Toopers animated movies, so this is not uncharted waters for them when it comes to handling an American property. Despite the return of another Tolkien movie to theaters, the film only made a little over half its budget back at the box office.

The story is narrated by Eowyn post-The Return Of The King(the live-action one)as she goes over the early days of the kingdom of Rohan which most Rings fans will know from The Two Towers, in fact this whole movie is almost a remake of The Two Towers except without the orcs. The Rohirrim are the people of Rohan and under the rule of King Helm who earns the last name of Hammerhand after a fight with Freca of the Dunlending tribes lead to the lord being killed in a single blow. Freca's son Wulf sets out to get revenge against Helm and still wanting to marry his fetching daughter Hera who is not your average Disney Princess. Hera is a formidable rider and warrior straight out of Celtic legends that's not trying to live up to Hollywood's woke movement by just being a strong female character in her own right. Wulf forms a pact with Helm's ally Lord Thorne who betrays his king for a slice of Rohan, but Hera gets wind of this and manages to get most of the citizens away from the kingdom just before she burns it to the ground. The surviving Rohirrim go to the Hornburg which most Tolkien fans would know as Helm's Deep, a fortress that Wulf and his forces steadily wait outside for plotting to assault the last holdout for Hera and her people while her father recovers from the prior battle. Helm is so tough though that he rises from his coma and single-handedly begins to systematically take out Wulf's men one at a time sewing discord among the troops believing the king to be a wraith. Hera finds her father later on and Helm gives his life to protect his daughter while freezing to death guarding the fortress gates against the Dunlending soldiers. Hera then challenges Wulf to a duel which he falls for and resulting in the Dunlending's defeat thanks to her cousin Frealaf finally showing up with reinforcements as he becomes the new acting king of Rohan. Hera goes on to join forces with Gandalf and investigate some orcs who were seen near Hornburg looking for the rings of dead soldiers.

The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim is a fresh look at the never-ending lore of Middle Earth as there always seems to be an extra piece of paper Tolkien stuffed someplace for this family to find and make a quick fortune off of. The animation is peerless blending the Western character designs with traditional anime production. The story flows fairly well, even though the plot hits a few snags every now and then. One thing it the movie's insistence on reminding viewers that this all takes place in Middle Earth like having two random orcs voiced by Merry and Pippin's live-action actors, plus an awesome clash of the titans with a rampaging oliphaunt and the Lovecraftian Watcher in the Water. As this is part of the expanded universe like The Rings Of Power, this had little interaction from Peter Jackson and was largely left up to Sola Entertainment which was inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki, most specifically with the great eagles who actually play a part in this one story as opposed to them showing up at the last possible minute as a deus ex machina. Hopefully this feature will gain a larger audience on streaming and Blu-Ray as it seems plenty of fans waited for the film to be made available outside of theaters to finally check it out.