Valhalla (1986)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Must See Movie...

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

From looking at the other reviews, it seems like a lot of people saw this as children and fell in love with it, and are still looking at it through that lens. Well, I read the comics as a kid and loved them, and still love them as an adult, but having just seen the movie I was really disappointed. This movie has barely any plot to it (whetever plot there is could have been told in about 15 minutes) and it spends a lot of time on ultimately meaningless fooling around. Now, you can expect a few dancing and singing scenes and playing around in an animation, but if that's what the bulk of the movie consists of and nothing really happens, then it's ultimately very uninteresting, I have to say. Very little of the wit and the nicely-packed adventures of the original comics are to be found here--if they'd just decided to pick one of the earlier albums and dramatise that, this would've been much interesting. It really doesn't help that they decided to include the Quark, who is mostly an incredibly annoying little git who makes everyone's life miserable, yet we are somehow supposed to feel sympathy for him. And unfortunately, the Quark's story is the only really character-oriented bit in the movie. Parts of the movie illustrate the old Norse myths wonderfully and the backgrounds are beautifully painted, but overall there's just not that much meat to it. In a movie about Norse myths, I would've enjoyed seeing more mythical adventures instead of 20-minute sequences of kids building tree houses and clapping their hands, or endless excruciatingly frustrating sequences of the Quark breaking stuff and being annoying. I would've wanted to see more of Thor, Loki and Odin because the nature of the gods was pretty close to what it was in the myths and the comics, but instead I just got a baby troll whose neck I wanted to wring. I'm really surprised that such witty and entertaining comics (with fun and exciting versions of the old myths) could result in such a frustrating and boring movie. It's a great shame, because there was certainly a lot of potential.

I can't understand how one could be praising such a typical animation as this one.Music and effects are basic stuff for most parts and they don't deserve any kind of special remark. There is absolutely no positively unconventional or surprising element in the score. It might as well have been ripped from Disney or some forgotten television animation series. At the end of the movie the music shifts into a horrible pop rock song musical which made my stomach turn.Characters are conventional animation characters portrayed without any authentic personality. There is absolutely no respect in "Thor" who is supposed to be a though guy, so it doesn't matter so much that he is also a loser who can't do anything right. His sidekick "Loki" has to act as Thor's brains even though he isn't too bright himself. So it is a good break that this couple gets bunch of kids to help them out in their difficult quest of beating up a group of giants in a game of intelligence. In the meanwhile these kids go look "Odin" playing chess and also a big part of the movie is dedicated for these kids playing in a tree house.Real family values are taught by only briefly exposing Thor's wife while she takes care of Thor's children and cooks stew (god's wife thus gives a good example to mortal children about the role of women in the house). I'm also worried about sexual values in this movie: there are no beautiful ladies or knights in this fairytale, only kids, muscle men and badly animated troll giants. So if one likes to see the great gods of Valhalla perverted into a bunch of wimps playing around with mortal (and immortal) children this is the movie to see.I gave this 2/10 because at the end of the movie there is a two second shot of a chicken waving it's rear sphincter (I'm not kidding) at the camera. I considered this to be a relatively original idea of making the audience feel like they have been screwed.

I don't know how many times I've sat through this. I've probably read all the original written efforts, as well. I'm hardly the loudest or most likely candidate when it comes to bragging about Denmark, but this is an aspect in which I feel pride. I will not be commenting on the English dub, nor do I intend to hear it, and I don't care for the fact that this(*our* cultural heritage) was first done to fit that, then synchronized to our tongue. This is based partially on the comic book series, the artist/writer of it helming it(and I think he did a darn good job), and is magnificent both as an introduction to reading them, if one so desires(I'd say they may very well enjoy them thoroughly), and as a retelling of the subject matter. This takes portions of a couple of these novels, and they fit together well. It takes us through Asgaard and Udgaard, shows us several of the creatures and people residing in them, and includes an adventure or two. The plot is well-done and develops nicely... it's never actually boring. The pacing is pretty much spot-on, with mood and atmosphere in a concise movie. The art and animation are great. The detail in the entire production is impressive. The tone is an interesting case... this could be viewed by children, and definitely does cater to them some, but it isn't insulting to other age-groups, and at times, it's fairly dark(and it could be argued that there are hints of adult stuff). The voices, as provided by us Danes, are marvelous, as is quite a bit of the acting. Kaysø and Bank-Mikkelsen with their deep, booming speech are among the perfect casting. Kristensen, though you might not immediately choose him for what who he performs, is, as well. Eje adds a lot of personality through mere grunts and such. Ryskjær and Rolffes deserve mention as well, as Hugin and Munin, the ravens. The characters are reasonably fleshed out, and their traits are instantly recognizable from the source material. The score is excellent, with themes for the various groups, and more often than not, famous pieces, used well. The audience had better at the very least tolerate Quark, because he's there a lot. For my money, the "whisle scene" is rather high up on the list of the most entertaining of that type of thing. The humor varies, and there is silly, cartoon-y, but also clever, laughs herein. There are morals in this, as well, and they aren't heavy-handed. The DVD of this features three trailers, a work-reel and commentary tracks with each director, and they are informative and well worth listening through. I, myself, would jump at the opportunity to watch well-done films about the Norse myths. That doesn't mean this is anything less than masterful. I recommend this to anyone into the stories. 8/10

It's great to see a feature length animated movie that doesn't completely succumb to the Disney way of doing things. Plus, it has a killer score.