The Longest Journey (1999) (VG)

Directors:

Didrik Tollefsen
Ragnar Tørnquist

Writer:

Ragnar Tørnquist (writer)

Release Date:

17 November 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Have you ever had a dream so real... you are not sure if you are awake or still dreaming?

Plot:

April Ryan is a young visual-arts student in Venice, Newport. She's been having some strange dreams lately, but little does she know about the important role she'll have in changing the future... |

Plot Keywords:

Dream | Shell | Diary | Guard | Queen

Cast

Sarah Hamilton	...	April Ryan (voice: English version)
Louis Aguirre	...	Cortez / Adrian (voice: English version)
Roger Raines	...	Crow / Actor Cop / Vanguard Receptionist (voice: English version)
Ron Foster	...	The Wood Spirit / Tobias Grensret / The Ancient Dragon (voice: English version)
Nicole Orth-Pallavicini	...	The White Dragon / The Maerum Queen (voice: English version)
Helen Stenborg	...	Old Woman / Alatien Teller (voice: English version)
Ron Gallop	...	Zack Lee / Captured Banda / Stickman Woody / Thin Repairman (voice: English version)
Julia K. Murney	...	Emma / Young Alatien Woman / Female Visitor (voice: English version) (as Julia Murney)
Mark Anthony Henry	...	Charlie (voice: English version)
Victor Warren	...	Fat Repairman / Lost Banda / Cups Handler (voice: English version)
Andrea Bowen	...	Young April / Alatien Child (voice: English version)
Andrew Donnelly	...	Burns Flipper / Lorhan (voice: English version)
Kevin Merritt	...	Gordon / Male Visitor (voice: English version)
Ralph Byers	...	Roper Klacks / Brian Westhouse / Jacob McAllen (voice: English version)
Stephanie Garry	...	FACT Voice / Colonial Representative / Mickey (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Den lengste reisen (Norway) (dubbed version)

Country:

Norway

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Spain:13 | Germany:16 | France:-16 | USA:M

Company:

Funcom

Trivia:

There are some indirect but obvious references to other adventure games, all of which happen to be from LucasArts. 1.: April has a toy monkey called "Guybrush" (The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) (VG) and its sequels). 2. and 3.: There is a crossing of two streets in Newport which are named after two LucasArts protagonists: "Calavera Crossing" (Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango (1998) (VG)) and "Threadbare Lane" (Bobbin Threadbare from Loom (1990) (VG)). Also Cortez's, one of the main characters, real name is Manny, like Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango. His accent is also a reference to that game...

Quotes:

April: Wake up!
Crow: Huh? Turn off the big light, Mommy.
April: Its called the sun, Crow. Welcome to the world of the living.
Crow: Oh, I was having this weird dream about a big ass turkey wearing a pair of red shoes... and you were there, and he was there, and... and... maybe it wasn't a dream after all?
April: I think it's safe to say that you need therapy.

Movie Connections:

References "The X Files" (1993)

something of a milestone for the form

The Longest Journey is a cross between a traditional point-and-click adventure game and a computer-animated novel. Story, character and environment are much more important than you'd expect, and it's here that most of the innovation is to be found - the puzzles are quite old-fashioned and occasionally a bit silly, and the technology doesn't push any envelopes.

Ragnar Tornquist's script, though, is hugely ambitious, and mostly successful; it has a superb premise - essentially a pair of worlds, one futuristic, the other a place of post-Tolkeinish fantasy, and with a heroine (April Ryan) who finds herself shifting, at first unwillingly, between the two. There are some problems - a few too many genre clichés, and the script is needlessly verbose in places where less would have been more. Most of the vocal performances are excellent, however, especially from the lead characters, and visually the design, especially of the environments through which April moves, is superbly evocative. This gives TLJ a narrative range and emotional resonance that's very rarely found in games - if you have the patience to operate at its meditative pace. Even if there'll never be a mass market for this kind of thing, I hope it is another step along the way to the development of the computer game as a genuine art form.