Details from IMDB:
Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons
- 2019
- 1h 31 min
A documentary that explores the history, influence, stories, and lasting impact behind the art. The film profiles D&D artists – both past and present and also features former company insiders, game designers, authors, and fans.
- Directors
- Stars
Initial Thoughts:
People like to hate on Amazon, I get it they are a mega-corporation that has most likely done a lot of questionable things in business but I think that’s the same for 99% of companies who get that big. That said they have a large amount of content and I find that the past 5-6 years they deliver more and more what I want to see, this was a great example of something the algorithm suggested to me that caught me my eye. So as I often do on a Sunday night I choose this documentary and gave it a watch.
Main Points:
I have loved D&D since I was 14, so over 35 years and I used to love just looking at the Monster Manual and imagining these monsters and (as a DM) wondered how they would work in my campaign to fight the PCs. This documentary was really nice as it was both a stroll down memory lane seeing so many iconic covers and monster artwork along with art going all the way back to first edition D&D (which I never played) and of course rough sketches/unused art that never made it to print.
I enjoyed this documentary but you could tell it was on the low-budget side, I know it shouldn’t matter but it does subtract a little bit from my enjoyment, it’s a weird unconscious/esthetic thing I guess. I learned a lot about the artists and the history of D&D. I wish they had talked to less artists and had more in depth interviews, I thought they spent too much time talking with people who only worked with TSR for a year or two, the people who had been there 10, 15 or 20 years were the most interesting/best artists.
Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed this documentary, really I like anything about D&D as it’s been a part of my life for so long. For a change I can recommend this to kids, no coarse language or any adult material I noticed. If you enjoy fantasy art/D&D I think you will like this, I give it a 7.5 and would like to see a new version come out which focuses on “Call of Cthulhu” and other RPG artists/artwork and could do the most recent version of D&D. The runtime was also great at just 1.5 hours, always good to leave the audience wanting more. This film will give you an appreciation for artists (not AI!) and how much fantasy art has changed and grown over the years but yet still has historical roots, I agree that it’s because of the D&D artists that we have fantasy art/animation/video games in the current dynamic style/exciting style, art can reach out and grab you, just like this film.