Not sure of their ages but Honour Among Thieves is a fantastic film that I highly recommend. You could also get retro and show them the 80s D&D cartoon which is available on YouTube
Yeah. Honor Among Thieves is great and I would definitely recommend it. I was always surprise that Honor Among Thieves performed poorly at the box office, but I guess it was just released at a bad time.
Honor Among Thieves is a full 2 hour movie though, so I don't know if OP would have enough time to finish it in one session of a middle school D&D club. At least when I was in middle school a few years ago, we would only have 40 minutes of club time daily. But OP could always watch part of the movie during one club meeting and then continue the movie in a future session.
I can tell you why it got a tepid response. The general audience is not currently interested in Fantasy. Plus if you look at the trailers, they were trying to give that Marvel vibe that people were getting sick of that point. As for the movie itself, in isolation is a good movie.... but in the wider context of movies, its too much like a Marvel movie in tone that it brought in all that baggage, the raised standard for action flick, and itself had nothing to really make it stand out. The casting also furthered this image, as people have grown more aware when a movie is trying to use star power because of studio intervention. This also around the time WotC was in back to back controversies, leading to people who were to going to see it on opening to day to start boycotting it. The boycott wouldn't have hurt the movie much, if it not for the fact that represented the bulk of the opening weekend audience. Aka: they lost their only hard carry.
Its being said that streaming has caused "good enough" to no longer be the bare minimum to have a successful theatrical release. And honor among thieves had no hook other than being DnD.... and being DnD means nothing to the wider audiences other than "that thing on stranger things". As far as their concerned, this is another Harry Potter movie, minus the pot heads who would line up to go see it. I'd argue a Stranger Things movie would had done better, due to state of things.
This all is just part of the pile that is modern Hollywood, and how its either lost its ability to be creative, or actively tries to kill creativity because it might shrink the 4 quadrant appeal. With the knock on effect of them trying to recreate the random successes that they completely fail to understand the reasons behind. Such as the second release of Morbius....
Which DnD? Dark Sun perhaps? Willow is deep in the Dark Fantasy valley with things like Lady Hawke, Dragon Heart, Dragon Slayer, and half the other things I've listed.
The main reason I don't have Willow higher on my recommend list is because of the amount of Body Horror, Anxiety inducing danger, infant endangerment, and those nightmarish pig-hounds. Dark Crystal would had been right up there, if not for the Muppet element acting as a sanity buffer.
Frieren has some great stuff in it and would easily tie into a dnd vibe.
Two issues with it, though. One is its not finished. Its kind of got a GRMartin / Game of Thrones issue in that the video is based off print, but the print story is incomplete as of yet.
The other issue is Frieren describes demons in a way thst is indistinguishable from common racist tropes. In frieren's world, demons walk and talk like people, but they are all (1) incapable of empathy (2) use words only to lie anf decieve (3) are hard core, no recourse, go directly to jail do not collect 200, EVIL.
in the real world, this translates with very little effort to how certain bigots viewed other humans as some sort of sub-species to kill on sight.
Frieren kills all demons on sight, and never has the target of her wrath been shown to be undeserving of being killed on sight. Frierens approach to demons is indistinguishable from "the only good (member of species), is a dead (member of species)".
If ypu go back to early editions of dnd, evil alignment was meant to allow players to kill goblins on sight without remorse, cause goblins are just evil. But as rules are revised, dnd has been trying to purge its rules and lore from the unexamined racism and sexism it reinforced.
I remember when playing a woman PC nerfed your character. Used to be orcs and drow were evil. But now they are playable species that can be any alignment. Dnd first edition was extremely reductive and lacked anynself awareness about its racist and sexist tropes. It has been tryijg to fix itself as editions update and change rules.
Frierens story has a lot of great things going on. But the way it shows demons feels like it went back to 1st edition dnd in certain ways.
The 80s had many animated series that apply. Sad part is so many of them are incomplete. Like Netflix today, things were dropped if the executives thought something else would be better. Check out Pirates of Dark Water, Thundarr The Barbarian, Dungeons and Dragons, Master of the Universe
The other issue is Frieren describes demons in a way thst is indistinguishable from common racist tropes. In frieren's world, demons walk and talk like people, but they are all (1) incapable of empathy (2) use words only to lie anf decieve (3) are hard core, no recourse, go directly to jail do not collect 200, EVIL.
Have you seen the show? Which of the demons were worthy of redemption?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
This sort of thread drift has a bad tendency of getting the mods involved.
Yeah, sorry about that. I think I have to watch Willow again. I don't remember any pig dogs or body horror. I think watching the 80s D&D might be both good and confusing. I probably have to watch that as well. I don't remember there being any kind of continuity between episodes and my local network didn't help matters because they would replay episodes in a different order than the time before.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
This sort of thread drift has a bad tendency of getting the mods involved.
Yeah, sorry about that. I think I have to watch Willow again. I don't remember any pig dogs or body horror. I think watching the 80s D&D might be both good and confusing. I probably have to watch that as well. I don't remember there being any kind of continuity between episodes and my local network didn't help matters because they would replay episodes in a different order than the time before.
I remember the dogs in costumes at the beginning of the movie. Not the worst practical effects for animals on film. Not sure about the body horror unless it is in reference to the transformation scene where the army is turned into pigs
I do recommend the D&D animated series from the 80's. My dad used to put them on for me to watch as a kid, so I could be a little biased, but I like them a lot. No real over arching storyline to speak of beyond trying to get home, so the watch order isn't the important.
The 80s animated series. You can actually buy it as a box set, comes with an adventure using the characters from the show. Came out awhile ago though could be a hard to find item now.
I can heartily recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld: The Colour of Magic (2008) for your audience. The movie is funny & engaging, and features a talking magic hero's sword, a walking treasure chest, murderous wizards, invisible dragons, ancient world-shaking magic & apocalyptic events, and a hero named Cohen the Barbarian (yes, I spelled that right.) It stars Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings).
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's --I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so) --I began playing D&D 5e in 2025
The 80s animated series. You can actually buy it as a box set, comes with an adventure using the characters from the show. Came out awhile ago though could be a hard to find item now.
Full episodes of the Dungeons & Dragons animated series (1980s) can be found on YouTube.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's --I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so) --I began playing D&D 5e in 2025
I was thinking there was a 1980's Willow spin-off film, but actually it's a Star Wars made-for-TV film. 'Ewoks: The Battle for Endor' (1985) also starred Warwick Davis, which explains why I thought of Willow. Anyway ISTR this Star Wars spin-off was very D&Dish with an evil witch as the prime villain. I don't remember there being much if any techno. But I bet this may be hard to find.
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's --I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so) --I began playing D&D 5e in 2025
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Gladly.
The 80s were really the heyday of fantasy movies in the US, how about Willow? And every D&D player should see The Princess Bride at least once.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Agreed, and both are PG.
Freiren is quite good and D&D players would appreciate it.
Monty Python is not NOT for kids. Go watch it again.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Freiren IS really good :)
For old fantasy movies I really like Legend. The creature designs are great.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Very true. Is a campaign without a Princess Bride quote truly a D&D campaign?
The movie Willow so D&Dish
I can tell you why it got a tepid response. The general audience is not currently interested in Fantasy. Plus if you look at the trailers, they were trying to give that Marvel vibe that people were getting sick of that point. As for the movie itself, in isolation is a good movie.... but in the wider context of movies, its too much like a Marvel movie in tone that it brought in all that baggage, the raised standard for action flick, and itself had nothing to really make it stand out. The casting also furthered this image, as people have grown more aware when a movie is trying to use star power because of studio intervention. This also around the time WotC was in back to back controversies, leading to people who were to going to see it on opening to day to start boycotting it. The boycott wouldn't have hurt the movie much, if it not for the fact that represented the bulk of the opening weekend audience. Aka: they lost their only hard carry.
Its being said that streaming has caused "good enough" to no longer be the bare minimum to have a successful theatrical release. And honor among thieves had no hook other than being DnD.... and being DnD means nothing to the wider audiences other than "that thing on stranger things". As far as their concerned, this is another Harry Potter movie, minus the pot heads who would line up to go see it. I'd argue a Stranger Things movie would had done better, due to state of things.
This all is just part of the pile that is modern Hollywood, and how its either lost its ability to be creative, or actively tries to kill creativity because it might shrink the 4 quadrant appeal. With the knock on effect of them trying to recreate the random successes that they completely fail to understand the reasons behind. Such as the second release of Morbius....
Which DnD? Dark Sun perhaps? Willow is deep in the Dark Fantasy valley with things like Lady Hawke, Dragon Heart, Dragon Slayer, and half the other things I've listed.
The main reason I don't have Willow higher on my recommend list is because of the amount of Body Horror, Anxiety inducing danger, infant endangerment, and those nightmarish pig-hounds. Dark Crystal would had been right up there, if not for the Muppet element acting as a sanity buffer.
Nah more like GREYHAWK vibe to me
Frieren has some great stuff in it and would easily tie into a dnd vibe.
Two issues with it, though. One is its not finished. Its kind of got a GRMartin / Game of Thrones issue in that the video is based off print, but the print story is incomplete as of yet.
The other issue is Frieren describes demons in a way thst is indistinguishable from common racist tropes. In frieren's world, demons walk and talk like people, but they are all (1) incapable of empathy (2) use words only to lie anf decieve (3) are hard core, no recourse, go directly to jail do not collect 200, EVIL.
in the real world, this translates with very little effort to how certain bigots viewed other humans as some sort of sub-species to kill on sight.
Frieren kills all demons on sight, and never has the target of her wrath been shown to be undeserving of being killed on sight. Frierens approach to demons is indistinguishable from "the only good (member of species), is a dead (member of species)".
If ypu go back to early editions of dnd, evil alignment was meant to allow players to kill goblins on sight without remorse, cause goblins are just evil. But as rules are revised, dnd has been trying to purge its rules and lore from the unexamined racism and sexism it reinforced.
I remember when playing a woman PC nerfed your character. Used to be orcs and drow were evil. But now they are playable species that can be any alignment. Dnd first edition was extremely reductive and lacked anynself awareness about its racist and sexist tropes. It has been tryijg to fix itself as editions update and change rules.
Frierens story has a lot of great things going on. But the way it shows demons feels like it went back to 1st edition dnd in certain ways.
The only difference between that and 5E's approach to demons is that D&D doesn't have demons that look like humans.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
"The only difference between that and 5E's approach to demons is that D&D doesn't have demons that look like humans."
Thats a huge difference though
The 80s had many animated series that apply. Sad part is so many of them are incomplete. Like Netflix today, things were dropped if the executives thought something else would be better. Check out Pirates of Dark Water, Thundarr The Barbarian, Dungeons and Dragons, Master of the Universe
Have you seen the show? Which of the demons were worthy of redemption?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
This sort of thread drift has a bad tendency of getting the mods involved.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yeah, sorry about that. I think I have to watch Willow again. I don't remember any pig dogs or body horror. I think watching the 80s D&D might be both good and confusing. I probably have to watch that as well. I don't remember there being any kind of continuity between episodes and my local network didn't help matters because they would replay episodes in a different order than the time before.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I remember the dogs in costumes at the beginning of the movie. Not the worst practical effects for animals on film. Not sure about the body horror unless it is in reference to the transformation scene where the army is turned into pigs
I do recommend the D&D animated series from the 80's. My dad used to put them on for me to watch as a kid, so I could be a little biased, but I like them a lot. No real over arching storyline to speak of beyond trying to get home, so the watch order isn't the important.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
The 80s animated series. You can actually buy it as a box set, comes with an adventure using the characters from the show. Came out awhile ago though could be a hard to find item now.
I can heartily recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld: The Colour of Magic (2008) for your audience. The movie is funny & engaging, and features a talking magic hero's sword, a walking treasure chest, murderous wizards, invisible dragons, ancient world-shaking magic & apocalyptic events, and a hero named Cohen the Barbarian (yes, I spelled that right.) It stars Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings).
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's
--I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so)
--I began playing D&D 5e in 2025
Full episodes of the Dungeons & Dragons animated series (1980s) can be found on YouTube.
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's
--I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so)
--I began playing D&D 5e in 2025
I was thinking there was a 1980's Willow spin-off film, but actually it's a Star Wars made-for-TV film. 'Ewoks: The Battle for Endor' (1985) also starred Warwick Davis, which explains why I thought of Willow. Anyway ISTR this Star Wars spin-off was very D&Dish with an evil witch as the prime villain. I don't remember there being much if any techno. But I bet this may be hard to find.
--Nimglin & Kurrelguyre were my main AD&D characters from the late 1970's/early '80's
--I resumed playing AD&D in 2015 (and continue to do so)
--I began playing D&D 5e in 2025