Doing A Viking Animation? Here's A Movie That's ... Uhhh ...

Steve K

In recent discussions here in the animation forum, several posters (me being one) mentioned an animation in progress involving Vikings. I just watched the early 60's movie "The Long Ships", based *very* loosely on a novel from the 1940's of the same title (which I've read). The movie is for rent at Amazon and YouTube for a few dollars, here is the original trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f8u9YAR_kA

Some review comments at Amazon:

"What we have here is good, old-fashioned 'hokum'--the actors knew it--the director knew it--so lighten up, and enjoy ..."

"No, this is not AFI 100 stuff, but sometimes, you just don't care and want something like this."

"Take a swarthy group of Vikings on the quest for a giant golden bell, a dangerous sea journey, an army of Moors to battle, a ruthless King, and a fiendishly unusual device, 'The Steel Mare', to kill a man and you have a classic."

"A real comic book of a movie with a bizarre cast, nonsensical script, shaky special effects, repetitive music yet a striking visual style with occasionally impressive direction. The Long Ships is one of those films that is so awful that it becomes enjoyable - a real Saturday afternoon popcorn flick ... "

I lean more toward "comic book" than "classic". I did laugh at one reviewer's comment to Sidney Portier, "James Brown called, he wants his hair back."