Troll Bridge

This was a project made by a lot of people, huge amount of supporters and most of it done online. I've been following it since the beginning and the quality of the images is AMAZING.

Don Bridges feels incredibly real, and well suited for it. The spectatular views, the horse.

I love all of it. But I have something to say... just one thing that made me bring down the rating a little bit. The animation is not convincing for the troll family. As other users say, the animation level is lower than the production of the movie, it looks like cartoony animation. I think it should have been more realistic. I thought it from the beginning. Let me explain: These creatures are made of rock, so their mouth should not stretch and squash the same way a 3d cartoony character would. It makes them look like videogame / bad rigged characters.

That's a pity, because the tone and look of it all goes down the same moment you see the troll climbing up the bridge. No weight at all, fixed movement curves... it destroyed the sequence, and it looked like an animatic insert on a videogame kind of thing. I'm really confused why so many great movies, products, videogames, fail to hire / find skilled animators that allow characters to look realistic, there are too many of them in the world looking for oportunities. I have no explanation for that, and it is a pity.

But the value of it all is worth it, and I congratulate the whole team for the great job they have done.

What can I say ? Troll Bridge is based on the short story of the same name by Terry Pratchett. It was made via a crowd funded, and crowd source talent pool who were scattered all over the world. The sweeping scenery is better than you'll see in a modern day blockbuster and the story is a solid action comedy. Don Bridges is the master here as Cohen the Barbarian and often the scene is stolen by that dammed talking horse - joking aside, this short film is worth every second you spend watching it. So much so you'll watch it again and again.

An Adventurous ageing Warrior considers how the world has changed and how he might survive. His heart has softened but his cunning remains sharp as ever. A stunning adaptation of Terry Pratchett's short story.

This is what a Discworld adaptation should be like. Too bad The Watch doesn't have a production team with these standards.

Full disclosure, I am a small backer of this effort and a huge Terry Pratchett fan. It is a clearly a labour of love and for the most part works. Moving even a short story to screen is not for the faint of heart, when you are dealing with Sir Terry's works, doubly so. So much of the joy of his books is in subtle observations and turns of phrase, almost impossible to translate to film. The makers of this possess the most important ingredient, they "get" Sir Terry. The characters were true to the source material, Cohen was exactly as I would have imagined and brilliantly played. The complete and utter lack of respect for the troll by his wife is a universal theme. The main characters both convey the attitude of "why do I keep getting out bed every morning when nobody seems to care anymore" perfectly. Yet they do, and at the end the "three names" gives Cohen a purpose again and left me thinking, I want to see that. Three people are about to have a very bad day.

There are some negatives, but in the context of budget they are not, the CGI is not a Hollywood big budget, but the budget wasn't Hollywood. If you had handed these guys the tools and team available to Peter Jackson would it have looked even better? Yes, but would the story have been better-no.

When it ended, I was disappointed, but only in that I wanted more. I sincerely hope this allows the team to access more funding and more projects.