Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I had this as one of my Christmas presents from my best mate from school, Stephen. The other presents included a tripod for my phone when I want to use it as a camera, and a Dairy Milk bar of chocolate. 🙂 I enjoyed checking out this ‘Lord of the Rings’ film on DVD.

‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is a rather unique film in some respects. Whilst set in the Peter Jackson version of Middle-Earth, this is an anime film directed by Kenji Kamiyama and from a film script by Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou.

I can’t say anime is my thing, even though I’ve seen ‘Pokémon’ and ‘Digimon’, which were first made in Japan. I would have preferred to see ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ as a live-action film instead, but it was fascinating to see this version of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in anime.

I would have liked to have seen this film at the cinema when it came out in December 2024. Sadly, this film and ‘Kraven the Hunter’ fell victim to only having limited releases at the cinema. ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ and ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ had more attention.

Anyway, I’m glad I’ve seen this film on DVD for Christmas in 2025. I don’t know if the film experience would have been better on the big screen compared to the small screen, but I did enjoy exploring more of the kingdom of Rohan as well as the history for Helm’s Deep.

The film takes place about 183 years before the events of the original ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy, according to the back of the DVD cover. It tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary Rohan king that Helm’s Deep happens to be named after. 🙂

For the uninitiated, Helm’s Deep was the fortress that Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli fought in alongside King Théoden and his soldiers to defend Rohan’s women, children and elderly against Saruman’s Uruk-Hai army during the War of the Ring in ‘The Two Towers’.

From watching the film, it was nice to revisit familiar ‘LOTR’ locations in Rohan, including the capital city of Edoras as well as the Helm’s Deep fortress itself. Edoras and Helm’s Deep are recreated beautifully in anime form that you’d forget this is all an anime film. 😀

Back to the story, the neighbouring Dunlendings visit Helm Hammerhand and his family in Edoras with the intention of marrying Wulf, son of Freca, a Dunlending lord with Rohirric blood attempting to claim the throne, to Héra, who is the daughter of Helm Hammerhand.

Unfortunately, after refusing to grant the request of Wulf to wed Héra, Helm unintentionally kills Freca in a fistfight. Soon, a civil war starts in Rohan. Héra must find a way to cease the war once and for all as well as restore order in the kingdom of Rohan. 😐

As well as Edoras and Helm’s Deep, there are other elements in the film that are familiar to ‘LOTR’ fans, including a Mûmakil or a Oliphaunt. It was fascinating and disturbing to see a Mûmakil go rabid when attacking Héra. Soon, it gets eaten up by a Watcher in the Water. 😀

To remind you, a Watcher was seen in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ when it tried to take Frodo before his friends saved him before they entered the Mines of Moria. From watching ‘The War of the Rohirrim’, it was disturbing to see a Mûmakil completely devoured by a Watcher.

‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is a story for Héra, who must overcome her father’s stubbornness as well as prove that she’s a true shieldmaiden of Rohan. This is particularly in the conflict that she has with Wulf, who used to be a good friend before becoming an enemy.

Gaia Wise, who recently plays Charlotte Beauvoir, Tristan’s girlfriend, in the new ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series, voices Héra in the film. Brian Cox, who’s been in ‘X-Men 2’ and ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’, voices Helm Hammerhand in the film. 🙂

Luke Pasqualino, who played d’Artagnan in ‘The Musketeers’ BBC TV series, voices Wulf, the vengeful leader of the Dunlendings in the film. There’s also Laurence Ubong Williams who voices Fréaláf Hildeson, Helm’s nephew as well as successor to the throne of Rohan.

There’s Lorraine Ashbourne as Olwyn, Héra’s aunt in the film. It’s nice that Miranda Otto gets to reprise her role as Éowyn from the ‘LOTR’ films when she’s narrating this film. A shame that Éowyn doesn’t actually appear in the film, as that would’ve been nice to see.

The film’s voice cast also includes Helm’s sons, Yazdan Oafouri as Hama and Benjamin Wainwright as Haleth. Shaun Dooley, who I’ve seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Ghost Monument’, voices Freca, Wulf’s father, who unfortunately gets killed by Helm in the film.

There’s Michael Wildman as General Targg, Jude Akuwudike as Lord Thorne, Bilal Hasna as Lief and Janine Duvitski as Old Pennicruik. Saruman makes an appearance towards the film’s end and is voiced by the late Christopher Lee, via an archival recording.

A couple of orcs appear in the film, and they’re voiced by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan who played Pippin and Mery in the ‘LOTR’ films. Billy Boyd voices Shank and Dominic Monaghan voices Wrot. It’s surreal that two hobbit actors voiced orcs in this film. 🙂

The film concludes with Héra about to ride off with Olwyn to find Gandalf the wizard to uncover more about the two orcs that she saw hunting for rings. I’m saddened that Ian McKellen didn’t get to reprise his role as Gandalf in the film, as that would have been nice too.

‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ has been an enjoyable and fascinating film to check out on DVD. It’s been interesting to see this anime film that tells a story about Rohan in Middle-Earth. I’d prefer live-action, but it’s been worthwhile seeing this anime film at last!

It’s a pity ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ didn’t last long at the cinemas in the UK. I doubt a follow-up film is going to happen and I doubt I’ll be seeing this film repeatedly compared to seeing the main ‘LOTR’ films. But I’m happy to do an in-depth review on the film when the time comes.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂