The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, in theaters Dec. 13, is a satisfying entry in the J.R.R. Tolkien saga that improves upon some of the oversights of his classics. Animated under the direction of Kenji Kamiyama, the film easily surpasses the live-action Hobbits.
Set 200 years before Bilbo Baggins gained possession of The One Ring, the film tells of the warring factions of Rohan. King Helm (voice of Brian Cox) has two warrior sons and a daughter, Hera (voice of Gaia Wise).
King Freca (Shaun Dooley) wants his son, Wulf (Luke Pasqalino), to marry Hera to unite the kingdoms. Helm and Hera refuse, angering Freca.
The king picks a fight with Helm, who kills Freca in self-defense and banishes Wulf. This makes Wulf vow revenge, and he leads the Hill Tribes against Helm.
Although she is already independent at the start, the film is Hera's journey into her own power -- at her father's side and ultimately on her own. Minimal female characters appeared in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, so this is a major contribution to the canon.
The Prime Video series did better with diversity, but there is much more room in the franchise for women's stories.
The film also benefits from being a single story, as opposed to stretching The Hobbit into three films. At 134 minutes, War of the Rohirrim also is the briefest of the last seven Lord of the Rings films.
That single story is still archetypical. Freca didn't take no for an answer and got himself killed.
Wulf wants revenge for that, and being vindictive is his goal above any land grab. That is a common premise, but so was the Joseph Campbell hero's journey that Tolkien's work explored, so it serves the film.
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War of the Rohirrim is action-packed. Kamiyama's team drew exciting sword fights, escapes from capture and horse pursuits by archers.
The battles capture the epic feel of the live-action films. When giant elephants topple, the damage they do is palpable, even when it's animated.
Unlike the live-action films, Rohirrim shows how one battle can drag on. Wulf spends the winter building a siege tower to breach Helm's wall, while the people of Helm spend a brutal winter anticipating the enemy's approach.
The artwork is beautiful. The mountains and rocks almost look real, while people and creatures look like those of Hayao Miyazaki or other anime artists.
The live-action films experienced a noticeable step down from 35mm Lord of the Rings to digital Hobbit films. A stylized animated aesthetic at least creates beauty in its own medium.
War of the Rohirrim concludes with some blatant connections to Lord of the Rings characters, which come late enough that they are not too distracting.
Though it cannot change the outcome of Tolkien's stories, War of the Rohirrim is largely a standalone film that captures the scope and magic of Peter Jackson's better adaptations.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
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