I typically watch trailers before judging a movie but this was right off the bat and I must say I enjoyed every tiny bit of it. This movie comprises of rock solid adventure, dark raunchy humor and sarcasm all at the same time, pretty intense. I can safely say a lot probably went into the making of the movie; The direction and animation is very very well made. If you loved 'How to train your dragon', most likely, you'll love this too. I watched it with not great e-translated subtitles and it still made me laugh plenty but I wish this movie comes out with an English dub and I'm pretty sure it's going to hit the IMDb top 250, no doubt. (Because of the original danish language, I'm wondering if a lot theaters around the world would show it) I haven't watched a lot of good animated movies targeting on raunchy humor, this one has one too many and that makes it super funny! Yea, you can't take the kids, I don't think it was made for them. All in all, the movie was BARBARIC!
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pier39lab9 February 2012
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Fl4m3Ph03n1x16 February 2014This is the story of Ronald, a pathetic and weakling barbarian ... that (yes you guessed it) has to save his entire village from the evil lord Volcazar and from certain doom (actually, Volcazar and doom walk in hand in hand, but you get the point).
To achieve this Ronald decided to **not go on a quest** and save everyone with the help of his bard friend and shield maiden.
This is not a story for kids. The humor here is definitely for a mature audience, has multiple references to sex and cursing, but it is all actually funny and it doesn't feel like out of context.
The world is quite similar to the one in Brutal Legend (a world filled with demons that once enslaved mankind, and now everyone needs a hero), and the story can be seen as a cliché (the good guy is clumsy but saves the day).
The movie also tries to teach a life lesson (as in, you will always have problems and you have to face them), but other than that it is pretty much a linear movie.
It is a funny movie with good metal licks, specially in the ending. So if you are a metal fan, want to have a good laugh or feel like checking out a metal satire, feel free to see this movie.
If you don't fit in the previous category, than you are probably better of by leaving this one out. -
MihaiSorinToma8 September 2017Ronal is a skinny, weak, good for nothing member of the barbarian clan who happens to be the only one who hasn't been captured by the evil Lord Volcazar (who plans to sacrifice all barbarians to god Zaal for his immortality). Advised by a shaman that only a sacred sword can defeat Volcazar, he must find it before it's too late together with a couple of friends found along the way.
This movie is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and King Arthur's Excalibur. All sequences are treated in a very funny and entertaining manner, which makes it a great comedy. Although I had some problems understanding it (it's Danish so I had to follow all the subtitles), it will make you laugh or at least put a smile on your face very often. Although it's not a big title, it has good action and quite a good story but it's a bit too predictable and superficial and it leaves you with a feeling that it was a low budget movie (although its producers could have avoided this problem). I think this is a good movie, especially for the animation and comedy fans! -
johnchrjohannsen10 October 2011The movie is ridiculously brutal, sarcastic and at times out right evil. If you enjoy this genre then it is a MUST SEE! If you do not like dark humor - stay out of it. It is really funny, and there are many scenes with violence and gore, sex and embarrassment. It's a parody of "Conan the Barbarian", hence epic one-liners, and overrated macho men and women dominate the storyline. But our four main characters are kind of weak, silly, always horny and not really experienced or skilled with anything (except Zandra). There is a bard who cannot sing, a hero warrior who cannot fight, a guide who always gets lost and the power fighter women who needs to save their asses.
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spud-eleven1 November 2013The other reviewer apparently wasn't watching the same picture that I was. Ronal the Barbarian is a weakling who must rise to the occasion when all of his clanmates are captured for evil purposes, and seeks to liberate them by finding and wielding the Sword of Crane in a fully tongue-in-cheek sendup of sword-and-sorcery pictures, spoofing Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and loads of imitators in addition to riffing wickedly upon the goofy relationship between classic heavy metal and the fantasy genre. The gags translate very well and if you're a fan of Robert E. Howard like I am you'll have more than a few hearty laughs out of this, especially a scene where Ronal uses an invisibility potion to perform a heist - man, that was funny! I can't understand why the other reviewer dumped on this picture (In Danish with English subtitles - I preferred this; English dubbed version available in some markets).
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valemas2 March 2021The animation is weird and hairy, but it is a fun film- A good watch for an evening eating chips in bed.
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Ramnagel7 September 2016This is a fun little outing and they did a great job on the English dub. This has some elements of Conan Barbarian type fantasy but it is much more in the vein of Lord Of The Rings.
The main bad guy looks like Sauron, there are elves like in Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) and they even speak like the elves in the LOTR movies. There is an awesome parody character of Legolas who is hilarious. There is even Runic script and Elvish script (Tengwar) depicted in one scene. There are bad guys called Black Riders who also fly on creatures like the Nazgul.
So, if you are into a High Fantasy parody that does not take itself too seriously, would like a few laughs, and can appreciate more than a few nods to Lord Of The Rings long the way, then I recommend this animated comedy. The violence is depicted in a non-gory or fun way, so if you don't like graphic depictions of violence then you should be fine to watch this movie without being freaked out. -
DogePelis201524 March 2021The plot is decent and has good moments of black humor; it does not bring anything new.
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simon-sonnichsen27 October 2011I had a very good laugh all the way through the film and so did the rest of the cinema. It nice that the animation industry has started to make films for not just the young audience. And this is one of the film that would entertain the grown ups, but might not be good for taking the kids along. Its actually funny but its gory and the language is probably not regarded as suitable for kids. The film is a spin-off joke on the classic Conan the Babarian with a bit of Lord of the Rings added to it. And that might call for one-liners and jokes about about stereotypes of that universe, narcissism, gore violence, mysticism etc. And that works really well. But there is more to the quality of the film than just that. I think the film was generally really well made. Very nice camera work, lay out, cutting and the pace of the film worked well. It is good craftsmanship. Taking a spin on the classic story we have a hero who seems nothing like a hero. And an odd gang. Obviously they have to go on a quest, just like Conan had to. The story is in that sense classic, but at the same time it has lots of clever and dumb comments to the genre. And it really worked for me. I laughed a lot.
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Rectangular_businessman24 November 2012"Ronal the Barbarian" had the potential to be a great parody of the sword and sorcery sub-genre of fantasy, but it ends being a repetition of the typical formula from many other CGI animated films from the previous years: One outcast which is considered a "loser" by the rest of its community had the chance to became a hero due unexpected circumstances. There is also one "funny" character as his friend and ally, and also one assertive (Well, passive–aggressive in this case) female character, which despite being more talented, stronger (and certainly, more interesting)than the so-called-hero, had only a secondary role in the story, in order to include a forced element of romance.
Even when this movie includes some off-color jokes and a PG-13 level of violence (With some deaths and little blood, but nothing too graphic) the truth is that I found this movie to be incredibly childish and forgettable as well. It wasn't terrible, and certainly there were a couple of funny moments (Despite the clichés) but the final result was forgettable at best.
The animation from this movie is merely decent, having a very similar aesthetic to many other CGI animated films which had the influence of Pixar and Dreamworks films.
I think that the best part from this movie (Without being sarcastic) where the end credits which included a funny parody of Heavy Metal songs associated with the fantasy films from the eighties. Beside of that, this was a fairly average film. -
Ronal is the seven stone weakling and the rest of his tribe, the Barbarians, are all built like Arnie. Guess who will be the hero? Ronal the Barbarian is simply one the better kick-back and enjoy it films of the year: rude, sure but not so much that it's gross, violent, not so much actually, and fun - lots and lots of fun.
We just enjoyed this - it's beautifully made, and visually it is really rewarding - nothing skimped here except the clothing for both the men and women - all the men are muscle bound in Borat thongs and all the girls positively pneumatic and Teutonic - however it all fits the style well sure it's gratuitous, but it is not offensive.
The surprise is how good the plot and the script are - the time flies by and there is enough substance here to make this more than watchable.
Above all this is just a kick-back and enjoy it animated adventure that lampoons the Conan genre perfectly while doing so affectionately. The time whizzed by - the voice acting was a notch above - especially when considering this was in Danish and dubbed into English - and overall this would simply be one of the most straight-up enjoyable films of year. Very much recommended if Game of Thrones with lots of laughs and silliness rocks your boat... -
Angels_Review27 August 2016So first off, you might be wondering why you never heard of this movie well this is because it was actually a Danish movie. That's right, this (from what I can find out anyway) was only released in Denmark even though it has English and Danish voice actors. Because of this, there are some things that I don't really understand as far as jokes go.
So the story is pretty much the fish out of water story told a dozen times before. In fact, most of the characters feel loosely based on characters seen in 'How to Train your Dragon'. We have the slightly wimpy Barbarian (substitute Barbarian with Viking and you get Hiccup), the rather tough Warrior Shield Woman (Counterpart would be Astrid), the rather jerky and womanizing Bard (Counterpart would be Snotlout and if you say he isn't a womanizer, have you seen how he acts to Astrid?), the flamboyant Elf (I feel like he was a mix of both Tuffnut and Fishlegs), and the father figure who wants the wimp to be a perfect Barbarian (Pretty much Stoick). Now I don't normally like to compare two movies or shows much, but it was hard for me not to find this as more of an adult form of one of my favorite movies... and in my opinion, it is pretty lacking.
So basically the main story goes along the lines of all the barbarians are kidnapped and Ronal is supposed to be the one to save them. Ya, sound like something else? The evil Volcazar wants to capture all the decedents of the warrior Krong, the one who defeated the god of Volcazar's tribe. Volcazar's tribe is basically the tribe of Masicistic Satanic lust from what I actually gathered. To be fair, I think all the different groups of people in this fantasy world just get on my nerves. All the different tribes and races felt much more like stereotypes. The Barbarians were like Jocks, Amazons like sex crazy cheerleaders, and elves well you can tell what they probably were like (For those who can't tell, they were very flamboyant).
This movie is not a children's movie by any stretch of the imagination. There are references and imagery that would probably be found in the adult cartoons we have here in America like close-ups of the ass and the um supposedly endowed lead male. I don't know fully if this is because it is a Danish movie or if it was made specifically for Adults as they have different customs but it does get very overwhelming very quickly with just how many references they put into it in just a few moments. Hell, the enemies henchmen are pretty much dressed and act a lot like masochists with the amount of pain they put on themselves and the leather they wear. (Talking more stereotypical here. Not everyone who is masochistic dresses like these guys.)
This movie was done with CG graphics and though the designs are very interesting and the texture work is pretty nice, the animation isn't all that great. There are times the characters move so fast that I wonder if they forgot to soften the key positions while animating it. The model's motions seem to pop into place at times making the scenes feel jarring and unnatural. I give them some points for trying but the movement really was the part that made me shy away.
I watched the English voice acting, and it was seriously fast. Not sure if it was something with the translations not fitting the amount of time they had, but I found it very hard to follow. When it did finally calm down, I was so confused of what the heck had just happened. It only slowed down about 40 minutes into the movie but it felt like I was only watching it for 10 minutes. You could call that good movie in that it doesn't drag, but when all you pretty much got was a lot of sexual jokes and high pitch whining from the main character, I don't know if that's a good movie or not. So you have noticed that I haven't talked much on the voice actors, well there really isn't much to say on them. Pierce Cravens is the voice of Ronal and he plays off the wimpy whine of that voice rather well though I kind of wish this wasn't our main character. There are plenty of 'wimpy' sounding main characters that I liked before, Hiccup from 'How to Train your Dragon' being one of them. This one however gets on my nerves. And do not get me started on the country hick voice Ben Bledsoe gave for Alibert, the bard. I think the only two I actually liked was Ashley Carin as the shield warrior Zandra and the Oliver Vaquer as the very fruity elf Elric.
The music is forgettable for the most part. I think the only one that was actually memorable was the ending song which was pretty much a rock Ballard about Ronal which I think was called 'Barbarian Rhapsody'. I'm not much into rock but it wasn't bad.
So I guess we came to the important question of what I thought about this movie. Well I can't lie, I didn't like it. I had a couple nice chuckles from the stereotypes, the spoofs, and some of the odd jokes but overall it was kind of painful to watch. The animation and the voices seemed lacking and the overall story went way to fast to not fast enough. It was OK, but I didn't get much enjoyment. -
CurtHerzstark4 May 2012Pixar, Dreamworks animation etc have all done great stuff within the animation genre and especially with 3D animation. Outside of the USA things have been slightly different.
There have been some attempts by France, Spain etc but some have been very disappointing and others have been mediocre at best. Films like Renaissance (2006), Kaena: La prophétie (2003), have been entertaining but usually lacking both in story and technically.
When comes to the Scandinavian countries it is even more rare to see a full length animated feature that actually is just as good as their counterparts.
Ronal Barbaren (2011) seems to be just that movie. Film is about young Ronal who is a weak geek, among tough, hard barbarians (even the women have bigger biceps then him) but must go on dangerous journey in order to save his tribe from the evil Volcazar.
On his quest of course he meets lots of weird individuals, who joins him and in the process helps him to grow as person.
In the bottom of this funny film is a serious coming of age story, aimed mainly at teens who may or may not recognize themselves in young Ronal and his band of misfits.
The most refreshing about this film is the non Disney approach, meaning trying to only suit a massmarket, using bland stereotypes, musical scenes, and predictable story lines.
The directors is not breaking new ground, this film filled with crude adolescent humor, sex jokes and is basically a parody of Lord of the rings, Conan etc but delivers mainly because US productions is very family oriented while this film is mainly directed at teenagers and adults with a very crude sense of humor.
I urge anyone to see this film, you will probably not see anything like it in USA for a long time.
Unless of course Seth McFarlane decides to make a 3D film.... -
exploringtiger16 September 2016Great Adventure through a Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja spoof. This thing pulls few punches (and punchlines) in Ronal's epic "not a quest" to save his tribe from being used as a sacrifice to an evil god to take over the world. There's a minuscule similarity to How to Train yer Dragon but that was a Viking spoof.
Balls jokes, Boob jokes, Sex jokes (straight and gay), and some nice cartoon style blood and guts.
Some are critical of the animation, but lets face it, this movie is more about making a few nutsack jokes and less about trying to wow the world with state of the art CGI. The Animation is decent and watchable.
See it if you have a sense of humor. Avoid it if "Triggered" is part of your vocabulary and has noting to do with guns. -
niniprower10 November 2012I watched this out of pure curiosity, to see if "adult" animation was still little boys playing dress-up in daddy's suits making dick jokes when actual adult (read: complex story lines and interesting characters with actual stakes) animation is being made right now by Pixar and Dreamworks. It is still like that sadly, for some "adult" mean aiming directly for language, sex and violence and doing it so heavy handedly that it becomes more childish instead. Now, the film does look fairly good to its credit so it has that going for it, too bad everything else about it is poor.
Think along the lines of Scary Movie, Vampires Suck and Meet the Spartans and you have an acutely good idea of what this is, near humor-like substitute for those who know no better or much in general. Had it been live action, it would have been classed as absolute dreck but being animated seems to have saved it from actual criticism which is a shame.
The characters aren't likable and are weakly written ciphers when they're not being stereotypes, the plot is flimsy even for your basic "unlikely hero rises to challenge in order to save family" storyline and the worst aspect of it is the supposed "adult" orientation it supposedly has. Like I said earlier, it revels in the fact it knows how to swear, make constant testicle gags (including one which just went on for far too long) and what boobies are. Problem is though, you need to be funny sometimes without relying on insult comedy, making a weak dick joke or just saying "fuck" to keep things going.
I say it's not horrible because you do get one or two decent jokes and it's not ugly most of the time to look at though but when your script is the same person speaking every line but coming out of different bodies it can't really hope for greatness. Oh and it's short too, cheaply made kids film short which seems fitting. -
nicolade30 July 2018....maybe it is more funny when you are Danish!
A simply completely funny movie, have seen it several times. -
My god.. This movie is so weak. First of all - not a cartoon for kids, if you didn't read/know that already. I've never done a review before but given the high grade here, I've decided to have a swing at it and sorry if it's all over the place.
The story isn't anything new and probably anything new wasn't needed - you can still have good fun with a basic story as told in the plot summary above.. but the movie just doesn't have or do anything with it. The writing is so boring and infantile, not even jackass-funny infantile, mind you. Just your some-kids-learned-some-new-curse-words infantile. It tries so hard to be funny and it shows. No adult jokes, just adult language. That's the comedy here and all it really accomplishes is that you can't show the cartoon to your kids (also a little dash of violence). It cheapens it as if the movie wasn't handicapped enough with the hack writing. The characters are forgettable or just boring and at times just so stupid it's just plain annoying (well, the bard in particular).
Since it's a Denmark flick, the original language was probably Danish (I assume) and the dub over wasn't lip-synced, which is not the end of the world, but still - a minor annoyance. Another thing about the dub.. is it me or does nobody there in the dub give a damn about the roles or is it just how the script was written, or is it that just nobody in the movie was really anybody (again referring that most of them are not really memorable)? I mean, even in Disney's, Pixar's or Dreamwork's films you can at least enjoy the acting, the characters are animated and you, whilst still watching essentially a movie for kids, can still sit through it and maybe even be entertained.
It's around 87 minutes, but for some reason doesn't seem long whilst being overall boring and unfunny, so that could be a sort of a plus (?). It COULD'VE been a passable kid-flick, because the animation is pretty good .. well, not putting the big budget companies to shame as other reviewers say here, but solid (and by the many overly positive reviews, you'd think, the directors and actors gave themselves a pat on the back for this "stellar job"). It'd be a solid kid flick if you'd cut out the adult themes, but it's not. Because it didn't. Because the adult theme appears to be added by kids who are still giddy about the new naughty words they learned and the weak slapstick comedy they added few and far between to remember or take notice. (Or maybe there's a good heft of comedy lost in translation, but I doubt it)
So in short - watch something else. -
Rockenheim13 July 2022Absolutely brilliant 3D animated film that is 100% not for children but was made for adults and teenagers. The jokes are hilarious and all stereotypes are catered for. It's also very well done and the story is great too. Should be watched at least once in a lifetime. Tears of joy Granat <3 The jokes are really great (^o^)
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p-stepien23 September 2013An evident homage to role playing games and the whole fantasy in general, the computer animated feature "Ronal the Barbarian" falters on various fields - from the story department right on to the graphics, which at times look like taken from an online kids flick (cheap, rough and passable at best). Animations unfortunately aren't crude in inspired "South Park" fashion, but instead are hampered by a poor choice in aesthetic feel, especially when glancing on the shimmering faces of our ill-crafted hero.
Ronal comes from a clan of barbaric super-beings, descendants of the fierce warrior Crom, a heroic glorified figure, who once conquered the purest evil from Metalonia. His muscle-bulging tribe inherited the strength of their great ancestor by drinking his blood, thus themselves gaining the traits of invincibility. Ronal however is himself a weakling, unable to properly yielding a sword, thus a laughing stock and subject of much ridicule. However during a surprise attack - caused in part by Ronal's physical inability to sound an alarm - the entire tribe, save for Ronal, is captured by the evil forces of Lord Volcazar, hellbent on world domination and the rule of darkness. Only one weapon can pierce the armour of Lord Volcazar - the sword of Crom, thus reluctantly forcing the young feeble lad on an ill-advised quest. On his way he is joined by a rag tag of allies, such as a chubby foul-mouthed, dry-humping bard Aliberth, a deadly shield maid, who searches for someone capable of defeating her (thus earning her hand in marriage) Zandra and a narcissistic, dandelion elf Elric.
Ronal himself has an unflinching feel of repetitiveness, too close to comfort to the character of Hiccup from the "How to Train a Dragon" movie, as if somewhat of an expansion of his traits and frailties, only set in an adult-friendly environment. Despite a markedly different plot the general overview is pretty much identical, just with the PG rating thrown out the window, all for the benefit of sado-maso gadgets and some on-screen fatalities. Nonetheless the biggest fault lies with the story itself (albeit the unfocused animatics are a disruptive presence throughout), which attempts to infuse laughter through a stock of lewd jokes, mostly falling pretty flat on the face. Probably the biggest success is the character of Elric with his exaggerated elven traits, so sweetly pirouetting during a bloody fight. The rest of the protagonists fall flat and tire out the material potential pretty fast, thus quickly resorting to crude jokes for salvation (which for the most part don't work).
That said a lot of jokes could have just been lost in translation, dubbed out with passable English dialogues in place of the potentially superior Danish language version. Unfortunately the truth of the matter will never be known. -
kosmasp12 April 2015If you think that is funny, than you might be able to really enjoy this movie. It's pretty infantile and juvenile with a lot of sexual innuendo. Wardrobe malfunctions seem inevitable, not that they are hiding much. If Tanga does not count as nudity in your book though, than there isn't really any. That does not mean this movie is for kids though, quite the contrary is the case.
The story itself is predictable, the animation is OK (though nothing to get too excited about, no pun intended). The jokes though are more miss than hit. You have to set the bar pretty low (it's where many jokes are aimed at anyway) to really enjoy them. It's also pretty brutal in the depiction of violence, though it makes "fun" of chopping of body parts rather than depict it as horrible act ... -
RogerB-P3RV321 February 2020Danish fantasy animation promises bawdy humor and comical eye-popping gore but chickens out on both aspects. Ronal is the least likeliest barbarian in company of Kingdom's greatest warriors now threatened by evil Lord Volcazar with typical plan to rule the world. When the Lord's army captures his fellow barbarians, it's up to Ronal and his equally inept friends Alibert the bard & Elric the gayest elfin ever in fantasy lore to stop Volcazar. Thanks to blind luck, they stumbled upon Zandra - young female warrior on quest of her own. With the feisty girl on their side, the boys have a fighting chance. Parody of Arnold's Conan and Lords of the Rings is adequate time-filler. Made in 3-D.
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smetana-michal17 May 2020Sorry but no. This movie just did not work for me. I get the idea. I really do. But still... no. I'll pass on this one.
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daisukereds21 June 2022Childish and simplistic, with ONE decent character (here's a clue, is not the lead) and a lot of skippable pieces.
The inspiration from Lord of the Rings (in more ways than one) is quite notable. Surprisingly, it has a decent base-structure with competent scenes! Like the beginning of the movie, the villain introduction (something even the Avatar movie couldn't get right) and one good fight (with the aforementioned character). Sadly, the rest doesn't amount to much. A short instead of a movie would have been better.
Decent credits. Would not recommend (unless really curious) or watch again. -
anthraph9 July 2023The story felt like it was really inspired by "how to train your dragon" in an parodic environment of classical fantasy, especially the work of Robert E. Howard. It had some potential, but I don't think it did achieve what a parody should do, in mocking the stereotypes of that genre. Instead it was pretty much within the realm of what you would expect from a movie with an anti-hero that has to become something else to achieve his goals.
As it as been noted several times, it is not a movie for children, and sometimes having some jokes aimed at adults felt refreshing and funny. Indeed the movie is not as watered-down as some animated Hollywood productions that are tailored to work for everyone, even for a younger audience. I believe animated movies are a powerful art form, and there should be made for various public, not systematically for children. Sometimes you can even say that this movie had balls (quite literally actually). But adding butt and tits jokes are not sufficient to make this film "adult", at best it's for teenagers... The story, the characters or the humor are just too basic to make them enjoyable to a mature audience. It's too bad because as I said earlier, there was potential to tell interested stuff. I am especially disappointed by the only female character of the movie, because she went into an interesting territory, but her narrative arc ended up in a very predictable resolution.
Unfortunately, I do not recommend watching if you are sensitive to the technical and artistic aspects of animated 3d movies. Surely it wasn't a masterpiece when it was released, but seeing this in 2023 is sometimes really hard... Textures sometimes looks very low definition, modeling and environment are uninspired, and the animation can be really robotic.
To summerize, it does have some funny moments, but overall there's not enough subtilty to entertain an adult audience. It might be a good entertainment for teenagers (although they might be critical regarding the technical aspect), or young adults if the mood if for something a bit stupid but off the charts (I wouldn't say "original" because very few elements of that movie felt like it)