The animated movie “Beowulf” tried to deliver the traditional, epic poem of the similar name, reportedly penned within the 11th century, to Twenty first-century audiences by way of movement seize animation. Adapting its 3,000 traces of alliterative poetry was once tasked to “Sandman” writer Neil Gaiman and “Pulp Fiction” co-writer Roger Avary, who, with director Robert Zemeckis, refashioned it as an attractive, gory horror-adventure. Their way adopted the unique textual content, not like 1999’s “Beowulf,” which was once set at some point, or Ecu productions like “Beowulf and Grendel,” which centered simplest on a part of the poem.
The unique “Beowulf” textual content hinges on Beowulf’s fights with 3 monsters: the man-eating Grendel, his mom, and a dragon. Beowulf (voiced via Ray Winstone) meets them within the Zemeckis movie, even though their encounters play out in a different way than within the textual content: Grendel, normally portrayed as a troll-like creature, is as a substitute a deformed humanoid (voiced via Crispin Glover). Grendel’s mom additionally will get a makeover, reworking from a hag or sea monster into the shimmering, unclad type of Angelina Jolie.
The dragon is impressive-looking, however it too is a deviation: it is the fabricated from Grendel’s mom’s seduction of Beowulf and underscores the manager distinction within the movie. Gaiman and Avary’s script makes an attempt to replace the fabric with 21st-century personality main points: Beowulf is a lusty, smug bully, Danish king Hrothgar (voiced via Anthony Hopkins) is Grendel’s secret father, and Grendel’s mom is authorized to are living so as to proceed her monster bloodline (and arrange a sequel). Those touches did not lend a hand deliver “Beowulf” to trendy audiences: the movie grossed simply $196 million on a $150 million finances.
