Looking For Serious Fantasy Animation

Just bought the Dungeons and Dragons TV series to watch with my boys as we gear up to start playing D&D together for the first time. The whole thing has really put me in the mood for more fantasy animation, although I'm not sure where to look. I'd love something with that classic "party on a quest" feel. Not much to choose from I imagine so I'm probably looking at some kind of anime. Although I'd prefer something completely serious with no "cute" or "funny" comic relief characters.

Any recommendations?

You could always do the Lord of the Rings animated movie…?
(it's been a very long time for me and I seem to remember it ends sort of "in the middle" - probably meant as a cliff hanger that never got a follow-up).
But it is some serious fantasy team questy stuff, might scratch your itch

ComiKate wrote:You could always do the Lord of the Rings animated movie…?
(it's been a very long time for me and I seem to remember it ends sort of "in the middle" - probably meant as a cliff hanger that never got a follow-up).
But it is some serious fantasy team questy stuff, might scratch your itch

I thought they went all the way and did Return Of The King, didn't they?

Paeter wrote:I thought they went all the way and did Return Of The King, didn't they?

Not exactly.

Ralph Bakshi's animated film ends very abruptly after Helm's Deep. In fairness to him, he wanted to market it as Part One, which the producers didn't like for some reason, and he also intended to make a sequel, but for some reason never did. Later on, Rankin and Bass got the rights to Return of the King but not anything before it.

I've seen most if not all of both films, and personally, i wouldn't recommend either as "serious" fantasy animation. The animation is awful-looking, the adaptions get more wrong than they do right, and the voice acting is unmemorable at best. But if you're looking for a laugh, there are some awesome one-star reviews on IMDb and Amazon for both.

Morfinwen wrote:

 The animation is awful-looking, the adaptions get more wrong than they do right, and the voice acting is unmemorable at best.

Sounds like my review of the Dragonlance animated movie. Oh that could have gone so well, but oh it went so wrong.

It's not super fantasy, but I recently watched "The Wind Rises", which is by Miyazaki. Beautiful and stunning. Probably one of my top 10 favorite animated films. This blows any American animation out of the water in my book (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/).

Also highly recommended is the Secret of Kells (2009) - again, very unique and beautiful animation. This has elements of fantasy, but also a very thoughtful message for the Christian. Highly recommended! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601/)