Watch it here first:
The Gamers: Dorness Rising not only revived my love for gaming, but opened to me the enjoyment of independent films in this particular genre. Learning that Dead Gentlemen Productions followed up Dorkness Rising with the web series JourneyQuest, I subscribed to their YouTube channel and went on to enjoy it.
But I wanted more.
So when I chanced upon Brothers Barbarian by 5-Star Barbarians among the other works of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, I got excited. I especially got excited when I saw that Larry Elmore was in the cast. I loved his artwork in the old Dungeons and Dragons manuals and in the old Dragon magazines. And to be honest, he does look good as a Gandalf-type wizard in Brothers Barbarian. And his scene midway through the credits remind me of when Steven Spielberg appeared in Goldmember. Hilarious!
Brothers Barbarian is the story of Art and Russ, barbarians on a quest to find the evil witch who put a curse on them to have "old sexy bodies" and have her give them back their "younger, even more handsome selves." I was impressed by the production value of the first episode. I would even say that it is a couple of notches above JourneyQuest. The set is fairly detailed and the costumes, while it did look very pristine and lacking that "lived-in" look, are very good and look professionally made; not shabby, improvised or haphazard at all. I do wonder why would anyone want to travel with a jousting helmet on, instead of a visored helm. Maybe that's just me, having grown up with films like Excalibur. But I liked the way the drow looked.
The dialogue is funny, especially if you are a gamer (though I would say that non-gamers would also get the jokes). The lighthearted humorous approach keeps it from taking itself too seriously. Someone in "The Making of Dorkness Rising" featurette said that stories like these have to be made as comedies, and I agree. If a film like this took a predominantly more serious tone -- unless done really well -- it will make a fool of itself and turn into a comedy anyway, albeit unintentionally. Besides, geeks are notorious for nitpicking, so one could save himself a lot of grief (and maybe get a lot of love) if one's geek audience comes in expecting a silly film. Of course it will be ludicrous . . . it's a comedy! And personally, Brothers Barbarian did that for me. It was fantasy, it was funny, it was entertaining. And that is what I was looking for. If that, too, is what you're looking for -- light fantasy adventure-comedy, then check out Brothers Barbarian.
Oh, and did I mention that Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman also star in Brothers Barbarian? Okay, maybe they aren't in this episode yet, but I hope to see them in later episodes. Just awesome!
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