The decision not to release the sequel to the animated film “Moana” as a series on Disney+, but rather to bring it to the big screen as a film, is already considered one of the best in the second era of Disney CEO Bob Iger. In addition to setting numerous records, “Moana 2” achieved the most successful cinema release of 2024 in Germany. What all this entails? “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim” has to do? Quite simply: it might have been better the other way around.
The “Lord of the Rings” anime by director Kenji Kamiyama (“Blade Runner: Black Lotus”) was intended for the cinema from the start, but it doesn’t look convincing enough on the big screen: the characters’ animations are too stiff and choppy, Their faces appear too emotionless. That would have had less impact on home screens than in the cinema. Nevertheless, “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim” is, at least to some extent, a beautiful and successful return to the world of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth films.
Helm Hammerhand is the king of Rohan at the time of “The Battle of the Rohirrim”.
200 years before Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring of Sauron and ultimately triggers the events of the War of the Ring, the kingdom of Rohan is ruled by King Helm Hammerhand (voice in the original: Brian Cox). One day, when Freca (Shaun Dooley), the ruler of Westfold, which belongs to Rohan, appears at the king's court to marry his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) to Helm's daughter Héra (Gaia Wise), a tragedy occurs: After During an argument, Helm kills his opponent Freca with a single punch. Wulf swears bloody revenge.
Some time later it turns out that these were not just empty words: while out riding, Héra meets an elephant-like Mumak, who turns out to be a foretaste of Wulf's army. After a devastating defeat and the destruction of Rohan's capital Edoras, the seriously injured king and his daughter are forced to retreat to the Hornburg with the survivors. As winter sets in and Wulf and his men lay siege to the mighty fortress, Héra must rise above herself and lead her people…
A beginning like Peter Jackson
“The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim” begins in the best possible way like Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy: with the New Line Cinema logo, the majestic panoramas of Middle-earth and the two Oscar-winning score by Howard Shore. The composer Stephen Gallagher, who was already involved in “The Hobbit” trilogy, quotes it so skillfully that in the first goosebump-inducing minutes the illusion is almost perfect. But it's only a few minutes…
By the time Héra returns to Edoras after a ride and an encounter with two of the giant eagles from Middle-earth and the first quieter dialogue scenes begin, it can no longer be hidden that the animation style of “The Battle of the Rohirrim” is unsuitable for the big screen. The conversations are staged too statically, the faces repeatedly shown in close-ups are too emotionless, and the animation is too choppy, even outside of the fights.
Unfortunately, the main character Héra doesn't act as decisively in every scene as she does here.
This not only contributes to the fact that the somewhat inconsistent portrayal of the main character Héra, who was still nameless in JRR Tolkien, always stands out. As honorable as it is to focus on a female character for the first time after “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” films, the four-person script team apparently could never really decide whether Héra was a tough warrior princess or not is a helpless pawn in the conflict. So the figure fluctuates between these two extremes.
The animation style also ensures that there is no emotional spark in many moments: the first big action scene, the Battle of Edoras, lacks the epic dimension compared to “The Two Towers” or “The Return of the King”. The early deaths of two important supporting characters also lack any tragedy. But that's less due to the medium of anime than to how director Kenji Kamiyama and the others responsible deal with it.
Neither anime nor live action film
“The Battle of the Rohirrim” sits between the stools of a live-action film and an anime, so to speak, and ultimately doesn’t really do either of them justice. The possibilities that the anime medium offers, for example to show the subtleties of human facial expressions in close-ups, are not used – apparently in order to stay as close as possible to the real films in terms of style. A gigantic siege tower is almost the only element from “The Battle of the Rohirrim” that couldn’t also appear in one of Peter Jackson’s live-action films.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't some successful scenes in “The Battle of the Rohirrim”: Kamiyama stages the final fight of a central character as a truly heroic snow action scene. The encircling enemy's superior force becomes greater and greater and the snow flurries become increasingly dense, while the camera slowly withdraws from the sequence. In addition, the director can also make emotional capital out of the aftermath of this scene – even if this is largely thanks to the music, which is once again borrowed from the Peter Jackson films.
Conclusion: “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim” offers a welcome return to Middle-earth, especially thanks to the clever borrowings from the music and images of the Peter Jackson films. This even heats up the anticipation for what’s to come, with “The Hunt For Gollumnew live action films starting. However, the film weakens due to stiff animations, inadequately staged dialogues and an inconsistently developed main character. The animation style remains stuck between anime and live action, thus exploiting the potential of neither world.