Ronal Barbaren had been on my radar for some time waiting for what I hoped was a serviceable English dub (did I mention that it’s Danish? No? It’s Danish). The trailer painted it as a comedy full of visual and slapstick gags and I didn’t want to be flicking eyes up and down to the bottom of the screen reading and missing punch lines. I saw the trailer again a couple of weeks ago and just couldn’t wait any longer. Ok, here we go...
Ronal Barbaren (Ronal the Barbarian) is a 3D animated film from the people that brought you things you’ve probably never heard of nor seen (unless you’re Danish in which case, touché).
Ronal is a Barbarian, he’s just not a very good one. Missing out on but a drop of the life blood that gave The Barbarians their strength and prowess (“Boobs, Balls and Muscles” as the tag line proclaims), he is weak and puny and the others find him rather tiresome. Left on watch, catastrophe strikes and Ronal must test his mettle and save his tribe from the evil Lord Volcazar.
The story treads the well worn trail of an unlikely hero who finds his inner strength to save the day, but does so with bawdy humor bringing genuine laugh out loud moments. To aid him on his “It’s not a quest” Ronal has help from Alibert, an apprentice bard with a penchant for metal and babes, Zandra a busty shield maiden and Elric, an overly melodramatic elf. The characters all have their moments and all get laughs.
The film doffs its hat at the swords and sandals of the 80’s like Conan and Red Sonia (Brigitte Neilson voices an Amazon Queen in this film), but also has many more obscure references I also enjoyed.
I was going to try and make some comparison to Hollywood animated films, but have decided against it. There is no point comparing because they would never make this film in Hollywood, it doesn’t sit with their perceived demographic for animated features which is a shame because I think it would be quite liberating for them. Don’t go in expecting Pixar, these guys could never hope for that kind of budget; the film was made for about US$3 million which could make many dismiss it, but it would be their loss. If you aren’t convinced check out the International trailer (actually there are a couple), it’s a pretty good indication of what you are going to get. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM-MnDGu7Dc
Ronal Barbaren is a genuinely funny and light hearted romp full of the aforementioned “Boobs, Balls and Muscles” but the rest of the tagline “Fun for the whole family!” should probably be taken under advisement; teens and up. Should you wait for the eventual English dub? The subtitles often come thick and fast, particularly at the beginning, and there were a few times I was sitting with my finger on the remote to jump back and take in the full hilarity of a scene. The dub has apparently already been recorded but it has no release date as of yet while they look for an international distributor. Your call.
Ronal is Totally Barbaric!!
UPDATE: I've now watched the English dub and have to say I was sadly disappointed. Initially Ronal sounded a little too young but I got used to it. Elric could have sounded a little more melodramatic. Zandra is ok. The voice for Alibert however is horribly wrong; his instrument has skulls on it, we get the metal sign 2 minutes in, the land is called Metalonia... and they made him sound country. I can't recommend it based on him alone, he grated me from start to finish. Overall it just didn't have the energy of its native tongue and the film suffered for it. Weak dub.
Review by MajorMercyFlushVIP OG 14BlockedParent2012-07-24T05:50:40Z
Ronal Barbaren had been on my radar for some time waiting for what I hoped was a serviceable English dub (did I mention that it’s Danish? No? It’s Danish). The trailer painted it as a comedy full of visual and slapstick gags and I didn’t want to be flicking eyes up and down to the bottom of the screen reading and missing punch lines. I saw the trailer again a couple of weeks ago and just couldn’t wait any longer. Ok, here we go...
Ronal Barbaren (Ronal the Barbarian) is a 3D animated film from the people that brought you things you’ve probably never heard of nor seen (unless you’re Danish in which case, touché).
Ronal is a Barbarian, he’s just not a very good one. Missing out on but a drop of the life blood that gave The Barbarians their strength and prowess (“Boobs, Balls and Muscles” as the tag line proclaims), he is weak and puny and the others find him rather tiresome. Left on watch, catastrophe strikes and Ronal must test his mettle and save his tribe from the evil Lord Volcazar.
The story treads the well worn trail of an unlikely hero who finds his inner strength to save the day, but does so with bawdy humor bringing genuine laugh out loud moments. To aid him on his “It’s not a quest” Ronal has help from Alibert, an apprentice bard with a penchant for metal and babes, Zandra a busty shield maiden and Elric, an overly melodramatic elf. The characters all have their moments and all get laughs.
The film doffs its hat at the swords and sandals of the 80’s like Conan and Red Sonia (Brigitte Neilson voices an Amazon Queen in this film), but also has many more obscure references I also enjoyed.
I was going to try and make some comparison to Hollywood animated films, but have decided against it. There is no point comparing because they would never make this film in Hollywood, it doesn’t sit with their perceived demographic for animated features which is a shame because I think it would be quite liberating for them. Don’t go in expecting Pixar, these guys could never hope for that kind of budget; the film was made for about US$3 million which could make many dismiss it, but it would be their loss. If you aren’t convinced check out the International trailer (actually there are a couple), it’s a pretty good indication of what you are going to get. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM-MnDGu7Dc
Ronal Barbaren is a genuinely funny and light hearted romp full of the aforementioned “Boobs, Balls and Muscles” but the rest of the tagline “Fun for the whole family!” should probably be taken under advisement; teens and up. Should you wait for the eventual English dub? The subtitles often come thick and fast, particularly at the beginning, and there were a few times I was sitting with my finger on the remote to jump back and take in the full hilarity of a scene. The dub has apparently already been recorded but it has no release date as of yet while they look for an international distributor. Your call.
Ronal is Totally Barbaric!!
UPDATE: I've now watched the English dub and have to say I was sadly disappointed. Initially Ronal sounded a little too young but I got used to it. Elric could have sounded a little more melodramatic. Zandra is ok. The voice for Alibert however is horribly wrong; his instrument has skulls on it, we get the metal sign 2 minutes in, the land is called Metalonia... and they made him sound country. I can't recommend it based on him alone, he grated me from start to finish. Overall it just didn't have the energy of its native tongue and the film suffered for it. Weak dub.