Animated The Lord of the Rings movies are better than the live action versions.  There have been those who have railed against me for having such opinions, but I liked neither of Peter Jackson’s cinematic journeys to the fictional land of Middle Earth, especially the inexplicable trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), released on screen from 2012 to 2014.  What I have enjoyed are the cartoon iterations of these works, though it has been nigh on forty years since I saw the 1977 installment of The Hobbit.  If YouTube’s wonderful channel Honest Trailers is any indication, their assertion that it hits the highlights of Tolkien’s original book is probably why I took to it as a child.  It was that excitement that got me into the seat for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), and kept me coming back despite wanting to do anything else other than put myself through what I increasingly expected to be nothing more than three hours of boredom.  I may be alone on this stance because the franchise has done well, so well that in addition to the several films, there have been television shows and other outlets for Middle Earth material.  I brought my trepidation with me as I went to see The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.  I figured, like its more immediate predecessors, that it was going to be as difficult to get through as pronouncing “Rohirrim.”  It turns out that it shares more in common with its 1977 cousin.

We watch as giant birds of prey sweep over Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise) at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.  She is riding out to meet these larger-than-normal, semi-sentient eagles, which is part of the daring character of this daughter of Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), king of Rohan.  By the way, do not bother trying to make sense of these words.  They are regions of the land of Middle Earth occupied by all these peoples, and they were made up by Tolkien anyway.  Héra might see herself as daring, but Helm thinks his female offspring is foolhardy and reckless.  As we shall see, she might have inherited that trait from her father.  Coming to visit the king this day is Lord Freca (voiced by Shaun Dooley) of Dunlending, along with his son Wulf (voiced by Luke Pasqualino).  Things had been difficult for some time between Rohan and Dunlending, and Lord Freca has come to promote an alliance through the marriage of Héra and Wulf.  This is not far-fetched as they had been childhood friends.  Yet, not only is Helm not having it, but neither is Héra.  Before she can voice her opinion, though, Helm accuses Lord Freca of trying to usurp the throne, and essentially says, “let’s take this outside.”  With one blow from his mighty Santa Claus fists (Helm look like a more muscular Santa Claus), Helm kills Lord Freca.  A distraught Wulf cradles his father in his arms and vows vengeance before departing.  Time passes and Héra’s search for the rogue Wulf is fruitless.  One day while out riding, she encounters a massive, berserk war elephant.  There is a special Middle Earth name for these creatures that I cannot remember.  Seeing her friends struggle with it, Héra leads the beast away to be eaten by another, larger beast.  Remember, kids, there is always a bigger monster.  In the aftermath of that struggle, she is kidnapped by General Targg (voiced by Michael Wildman), Wulf’s chief lieutenant.  She is brought to Wulf’s lair (sorry, I could not resist) where her attempts at reasoning with him go unheeded.  She is rescued by Olwyn (voiced by Lorraine Ashbourne), her lady-in-waiting (I guess), and her cousin, Fréaláf Hildeson (voiced by Laurence Ubong Williams).  Before Héra escapes, though, she notices a strange seal among the letters on Wulf’s desk.  Upon return to the Rohan capital of Edoras, she tries to convince Helm and others to seek assistance from other kingdoms to deal with the threat posed by Wulf.  Not only does Helm ignore this, but he banishes his nephew, Fréaláf, and tells Héra to stay behind while the rest of the army marches out to battle Wulf’s forces.  As the struggle begins, Héra notices a letter from Lord Thorne (voiced by Jude Akuwudike) has the same seal as one she had seen with Wulf.  This means that Lord Thorne, who was a part of Rohan’s forces, plans to switch sides.  In the ensuing chaos, Héra is able to evacuate the city’s inhabitants, but both of Helm’s sons die, with the king being severely wounded.  The people of Edoras flee to a familiar sight for fans of the other parts of the franchise, the fortress that will eventually become Helm’s Deep.  It is called that because, upon waking up, Helm sneaks out of the keep and begins killing soldiers in Wulf’s army one-by-one.  When Héra discovers this, she tries to help, but they get caught outside the gates when they refuse to open.  His heroic stand allows Héra to escape for the moment.  Now the leader, she orders her remaining subjects to go through the same secret passage that had brought her out to find her father after his recovery.  Meanwhile, she intends to stay behind to act as a decoy while the others get away.  Luckily, her bravery is not needed to keep her alive for long as Fréaláf and his men come to save the day, being drawn here by Héra’s eagles.  With the day saved, Hera decides to head into the horizon to pursue more adventures, joined by Olwyn and with Fréaláf’s blessing.

As I understand it, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim does not come from Tolkien’s pen.  Neither do I imagine that the old Oxford man ever envisioned his work to be on the silver screen at all, much less in an animated format.  Thus, what makes these versions preferable?  The main thing, as hinted at in the introduction, is brevity.  The 1977 rendering of The Hobbit is a clean ninety minutes.  The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is longer at 214 minutes.  That is longer, of course, but pales in comparison to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellow of the Ring at nearly three hours, and the final in that trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), is nearly three-and-a-half hours long.  Please understand that this is not meant as a diatribe against lengthy runtimes.  I can sit through any Catholic Mass of similar measures of time without being tempted to fall asleep or worse, but these movies try my patience.  Further, one would expect an animated feature to have more sweeping establishing shots, my main gripe with the live action versions, because drawing costs less than actual filming.  Luckily, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim does not indulge in much of this fluff.  It has its own brand of fluff, like dealing with Helm’s prolonged death, but it works better than other installments in this franchise.

Speaking of this franchise, I wonder how many people know that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is inspired by a Catholic writer.  You would not know it from watching any of the films, and this latest one is no different.  It was explained to me better a few years back with its predecessors, though I do not remember much of what was said.  As such, I am forced to speak in general terms about something which should be full of Catholic symbolism.  With this in mind, there are some good things said about emotions throughout, like grief and pride.  In Helm’s actions, you can see the wages of the sin of pride.  While Helm is right to deny Lord Freca’s claim to his throne, he lets his confidence in his fists carry things too far when he challenges Lord Freca.  The bigger one is fear as experienced by Héra.  You would not know it from seeing her prowess in standing up to giant eagles and river squids the size of small mountains.  By placing our trust in God, we are (hopefully) working against that fear to accomplish something greater.  It is fear that is holding Héra back, at least initially, from leading her people.  It is the dying Helm that informs his daughter that she has within her what it takes to be in charge, telling her that she could rule the world if she so wished.  While I am happy to say she later gives up the temptation to wield power, I appreciate Helm’s description of that inner reservoir of strength.  God’s dwelling is our heart, and the more you cultivate it through your relationship with Him, the better off you, or fictitious kingdoms, will be.

Fortunately, we do not have to also see more of these fictitious kingdoms in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.  Does this mean I recommend this one?  I do not know.  I have trouble keeping up with these films because I do not pay attention to the lore.  This makes this one probably more suited to fans of the franchise.