slicing themselves off at the knees with a broadsword than this disaster of a movie". Major complaints have included: The condensation of the novel into a 90-minute film (Heaton: "characters have no time to breathe...doesn't sell the book's expansive scope"; Cornelius: "clumsy bouncing from scene to scene"; Stailey: [the adaptation] "puts the entire tale on fast forward"). Large portions of the book are entirely left out of this movie, which proceeds at breakneck pace. Tracy Hickman himself was adamantly opposed to trying to fit the entire novel into one movie, saying that "the film should portray essentially the first half of the book and finish with 'Solace is burning'". "Solace is burning" refers to the last line delivered in chapter 22 as spoken by the character Raistlin. Fifteen chapters, sectioned off as "Book 2", follow this statement. The animation, a combination of 2D footage and CGI (Heaton: "extremely inconsistent"; Cornelius: "the combo is a mess"; Stailey: "the overall look is reminiscent of the worst animation '80s and '90s television had to offer"). Co-author Tracy Hickman agrees with the above points, saying "the animation itself is less than I would have hoped it to be" and that "including the entire first book in the movie was a mistake". However, his overall reaction is positive, and he describes it as "the opening of a door and the beginning of a journey". The soundtrack, by Karl Preusser, was nominated for a Grammy. References External links Reviews of the picture including one by co-author Tracy Hickman 2000s American animated films 2000s English-language films 2008 animated films 2008 direct-to-video films 2008 films American direct-to-video films Direct-to-video animated films Direct-to-video fantasy films Dragonlance Dungeons & Dragons films Films based on American novels Films based on fantasy novels Films directed by Will Meugniot Paramount Pictures animated films Paramount Pictures direct-to-video films