Ronal le Barbare

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.

Pixar, Dreamworks animation etc have all done great stuff within the animation genre and especially with 3D animation. Outside of the USA things have been slightly different.

There have been some attempts by France, Spain etc but some have been very disappointing and others have been mediocre at best. Films like Renaissance (2006), Kaena: La prophétie (2003), have been entertaining but usually lacking both in story and technically.

When comes to the Scandinavian countries it is even more rare to see a full length animated feature that actually is just as good as their counterparts.

Ronal Barbaren (2011) seems to be just that movie. Film is about young Ronal who is a weak geek, among tough, hard barbarians (even the women have bigger biceps then him) but must go on dangerous journey in order to save his tribe from the evil Volcazar.

On his quest of course he meets lots of weird individuals, who joins him and in the process helps him to grow as person.

In the bottom of this funny film is a serious coming of age story, aimed mainly at teens who may or may not recognize themselves in young Ronal and his band of misfits.

The most refreshing about this film is the non Disney approach, meaning trying to only suit a massmarket, using bland stereotypes, musical scenes, and predictable story lines.

The directors is not breaking new ground, this film filled with crude adolescent humor, sex jokes and is basically a parody of Lord of the rings, Conan etc but delivers mainly because US productions is very family oriented while this film is mainly directed at teenagers and adults with a very crude sense of humor.

I urge anyone to see this film, you will probably not see anything like it in USA for a long time.

Unless of course Seth McFarlane decides to make a 3D film....

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).

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 animation is weird and hairy, but it is a fun film- A good watch for an evening eating chips in bed.