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The film's poor performance at the box office is probably due to it being a direct-to-direct product to secure franchise rights.
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Director Kamiyama faced challenges in combining 2D animation and motion capture for the film as some parts were traditionally animated.
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The film explores an untold story from the LotR books, focusing on King Helm the Hand and Lord Wolf 183 years before the original trilogy.
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War of the Rohirrim combines 2D and 3D animation
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An untold story in the LotR books
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Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim It had a mixed reception, but the director really worked hard to bring this film to life. The film opened in theaters worldwide in December, but did not perform as well as expected at the box office. lord of the rings The film ran for 2-3 weeks (depending on where you live) and is now available on digital platforms, at least in the US (and maybe a few other territories).
While this may sound bad, there is evidence that the film was actually a direct-to-stream production that was released in theaters, so Warners could secure the rights to produce more content for the franchise. So in that sense, with only $15 million at the box office (the film's budget is estimated at $30 million), perhaps theatrical releases weren't Warner's priority (although we don't know how much the company makes from streaming). transactions).
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Review of The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim
From the director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex comes a beautiful, nostalgic and exciting return to Middle-earth.
But just because this movie was made mostly to protect rights doesn't mean the people working on it didn't take their jobs seriously. IndieWire Recently, an interview with director Kenji Kamiyama and producer Joseph Chu has been published. In this interview, Kamiyama stated that he had a shorter time frame to present the film compared to the deadlines that usually work on anime films. Cho added this Kamiawa basically oversaw the entire production process and “came close to killing himself” doing so.:
From the motion capture data to the CG movement to the camera review, to every single shot that appears in terms of design, Kamiyama had to go through each and every one of them. It's kind of unprecedented, and he almost killed himself doing it, but he did it.
War of the Rohirrim combines 2D and 3D animation
Despite the 2D animation, the production relied on motion capture, which was later converted to 2D, and this was a challenge for Kamiyama. According to him, animators exaggerate when translating motion capture into 2D and the movements don't look natural. So there was a lot of “trial and error” during production.
The decision was made because, according to Chu, there is a shortage of animators now that demand is higher than ever, so to meet the deadline, they relied on motion capture to save more time. However, they had to ask for help from other studios, including well-known names in the industry, such as MAPPA and Production IG.
An untold story in the LotR books
This movie tells the story that has been mentioned lord of the rings book, but has never been fully discovered. This war takes place 183 years before the events The original trilogy, focusing on King Helm Hammarhand and Lord Wolf. Wolf's father Ferka tries to arrange a marriage between his son and King Helm's daughter Hera (unnamed in the books), but Helm thinks that Ferka is actually after his throne and not any friendly alliance. This leads to a conflict between Helm and Wolf after he kills King Ferka in a fit of rage.
Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim Available on digital platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home) in the US.
Source: IndieWire
