Ronal der Barbar

....maybe it is more funny when you are Danish!

A simply completely funny movie, have seen it several times.

This is a fun little outing and they did a great job on the English dub. This has some elements of Conan Barbarian type fantasy but it is much more in the vein of Lord Of The Rings.

The main bad guy looks like Sauron, there are elves like in Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) and they even speak like the elves in the LOTR movies. There is an awesome parody character of Legolas who is hilarious. There is even Runic script and Elvish script (Tengwar) depicted in one scene. There are bad guys called Black Riders who also fly on creatures like the Nazgul.

So, if you are into a High Fantasy parody that does not take itself too seriously, would like a few laughs, and can appreciate more than a few nods to Lord Of The Rings long the way, then I recommend this animated comedy. The violence is depicted in a non-gory or fun way, so if you don't like graphic depictions of violence then you should be fine to watch this movie without being freaked out.

I had a very good laugh all the way through the film and so did the rest of the cinema. It nice that the animation industry has started to make films for not just the young audience. And this is one of the film that would entertain the grown ups, but might not be good for taking the kids along. Its actually funny but its gory and the language is probably not regarded as suitable for kids. The film is a spin-off joke on the classic Conan the Babarian with a bit of Lord of the Rings added to it. And that might call for one-liners and jokes about about stereotypes of that universe, narcissism, gore violence, mysticism etc. And that works really well. But there is more to the quality of the film than just that. I think the film was generally really well made. Very nice camera work, lay out, cutting and the pace of the film worked well. It is good craftsmanship. Taking a spin on the classic story we have a hero who seems nothing like a hero. And an odd gang. Obviously they have to go on a quest, just like Conan had to. The story is in that sense classic, but at the same time it has lots of clever and dumb comments to the genre. And it really worked for me. I laughed a lot.

The other reviewer apparently wasn't watching the same picture that I was. Ronal the Barbarian is a weakling who must rise to the occasion when all of his clanmates are captured for evil purposes, and seeks to liberate them by finding and wielding the Sword of Crane in a fully tongue-in-cheek sendup of sword-and-sorcery pictures, spoofing Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and loads of imitators in addition to riffing wickedly upon the goofy relationship between classic heavy metal and the fantasy genre. The gags translate very well and if you're a fan of Robert E. Howard like I am you'll have more than a few hearty laughs out of this, especially a scene where Ronal uses an invisibility potion to perform a heist - man, that was funny! I can't understand why the other reviewer dumped on this picture (In Danish with English subtitles - I preferred this; English dubbed version available in some markets).

Ronal is a skinny, weak, good for nothing member of the barbarian clan who happens to be the only one who hasn't been captured by the evil Lord Volcazar (who plans to sacrifice all barbarians to god Zaal for his immortality). Advised by a shaman that only a sacred sword can defeat Volcazar, he must find it before it's too late together with a couple of friends found along the way.

This movie is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and King Arthur's Excalibur. All sequences are treated in a very funny and entertaining manner, which makes it a great comedy. Although I had some problems understanding it (it's Danish so I had to follow all the subtitles), it will make you laugh or at least put a smile on your face very often. Although it's not a big title, it has good action and quite a good story but it's a bit too predictable and superficial and it leaves you with a feeling that it was a low budget movie (although its producers could have avoided this problem). I think this is a good movie, especially for the animation and comedy fans!