Review of Beowulf (1976) by Phil H — 09 Feb 2012

Strange one, I have never heard of the Beowulf legend and at first found this weird. If you dont know the legend it will seem dumb really. It starts out kinda confusing and not really interesting, too dark, has a kinda 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' feel to it haha the animation looks alittle off and you feel slightly uneasy with the whole look, there's still a very plastic look to the human characters which is strange and the creature which is the main foe during the beginning of the film looks dreadful basically.

Beowulf gets better with age as do most of the characters, yet they seem alittle 'He-manish', there voices are provided well from a good epic cast but it just doesn't quite fit the animated style. A main problem is your not sure if this is aimed at kids until the battles start, then you realise there's a very strong adult presence to the film, this gets more brutal and bloody as the film progresses and actually makes it alot better.

The film looks better during the day sequences and seems to improve as the story goes on, the dragon battle near the end is the high point and very good, excellent effects and the best looking sequence, its actually better than other dragon related live action films. The ending is alittle sad but also alittle cliched and rather similar to other films but still works nicely. Its hard to judge, it starts slow and ropey yet does get better, the dragon battle being very good but thats all really. Nice to see legends from a real fable of a different country which hasn't been explored too much.