This week, I wanted to give a shout out to an interesting recent animated comedic Swords & Sorcery flick, "Ronal the Barbarian":
In "Ronal the Barbarian," our titular character is from the Barbarian tribe (yes, in this film, "Barbarian" is an ethnic identifier rather than a class), except, unlike all the other Barbarians, Ronal is weak, cowardly... and clever. However, being an outlier proves to be a benefit when the evil Lord Volcazar, comes to kidnap the Barbarian tribe for a sorcerous ritual and mistakes Ronal for an average person rather than a Barbarian.
After Volcazar's men murder his uncle and raze his village, it's up to Ronal to save the surviving Barbarians with his new sidekick, the... amorous... Alibert the Bard. Next, there's a putting the band together segment as Ronal "recruits" the rest of his adventuring party, Zandra the Shieldmaiden (which again is an ethnic identifier) and Elric the Elf.
Then, the party has to find the Sword of Kron (the only weapon able to defeat Volcazar) before time runs out. Things end up pretty much as you might expect on this "definitely not a quest," although some tropes are inverted for comic purposes.
First off, I want to say that, while "Ronal the Barbarian" is animated in the style of a children's film (e.g., style, character design, etc.), this is an adult film. Not pornographic, but definitely not for children, with copious amounts of foul language, T&A and sexual innuendo. For example:
Elric: "My senses say that Ronal is in great dan-"
Alibert: "We're fucked."
If they make a TV broadcast version, there will certainly be a lot of edits and/or bleeping!
This film is clearly influenced by Conan the Barbarian (1982) and is a parody or an homage of many other fantasy works and tropes. It is also purportedly influenced by Heavy Metal, but evidence is scant (other than the movie being set in the world of Metalonia) and it lacks the awesome rock soundtrack of Korgoth of Barbarian.
Overall, "Ronal the Barbarian" is a solid but not spectacular movie. Assuming one is the appropriate audience, this is a fun film, with plenty of slapstick, juvenile and sexually-based humor. The animation is okay but not great, and the story is reasonably entertaining (there's an interesting face-heel turn that's unfortunately telegraphed from a mile away).
So, if you want to see an earnestly made animated Swords & Sorcery yarn that's heavy on comedy and fan service, check out this film!
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