Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons (2019) User Reviews

A glorious trip down memory lane...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 21 October 2019]

Having grown up with Dungeons & Dragons and been playing fantasy RPGs for more than 30 years, this was definitely a documentary that more than pleased me.

Sure, I was familiar with most of the artists featured here, but the documentary offered a lot of insight into the business and the happenings and how the magic came into being. Lots of great information for life-long fans here. And it was such a glorious trip back memory lane.

And it has been a blast to follow the artwork of the D&D material grow and evolve and becoming more and more vivid and colorful. There is such a world of difference between the meager start of the original Dungeons & Dragons with the simplistic black and white drawings to the intricate and colorful imagery they have today in the most recent 5th edition.

Initially I had some reservations about the documentary, but my doubts were put to shame, and I really enjoyed sitting through and watching this. It was, without a doubt, a really interesting ride from start to end.

This is a niche watching for fans of the D&D and fantasy genre, for sure. But if you are one such person, then you definitely need to do yourself a favor and sit down to watch "Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons".

I am rating this documentary six out of ten stars. Definitely worth the time and effort.

Brought me down memory lane

[wlgunnink · 8/10 · 21 December 2021]

My grandmother, Lynn Harold, did original art for the first Dragon magazines. Living by Lake Geneva gave me a chance to play D&D as a teen. Gen Con in Milwaukee. This movie brought me back to the art and adventure I loved then.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

[sheldonnylander · 8/10 · 24 August 2019]

I might be a bit more lenient on this just because I'm a huge fan of D&D art as well as being an old school player myself. It should not simply be pegged as something only for fantasy nerds, and this film tries to show that. Including interviews with artists from D&D's days when TSR was still around, it gives an interesting explanations of the art and even delves into the creative process.

If I have a complaint, and it's a significant one, it would be the omissions. The film covers art primarily from the first and second editions of the game (it's currently in its fifth edition), which admittedly is the most iconic era of D&D. I would have been interested in seeing an analysis of how the art continued to evolve under Wizards of the Coast in the third and fourth editions (they very, very briefly look at art from the fifth edition).

They also review art specific to popular campaign settings, such as Dragonlance or Dark Sun, but left out one of my personal favorites, Spelljammer. A continuation of this film into the third edition could have included art from Eberron, which was a different type of campaign setting, as well as the controversial Book of Vile Darkness. Maybe they could do this in a sequel. Anyone up for "Eye of the Beholder II: Behold Harder"?

A great film for fantasy art afficionados as well as a fun trip down memory lane for classic D&D players.

Great early look at D&D art history

[tjstanton-231-868899 · 7/10 · 21 January 2022]

Artists like Brom were the reason I got into D&D and MtG, so hearing from him was amazing. There was something terribly off about the lighting and/or color grading on the interviews, because everyone had this sickly reddish pink hue to their skin tone and the beards looked a bit weird too lol. Overall, worth watching for old school D&D fans, and the art (the star of the show) still looked great.

Masterpiece

[connorgboyle · 10/10 · 16 October 2019]

This is a true love letter to the art and artist of D&D and any fans of the game will enjoy this as the treat it is.

FABOO!

[strikezero-397-719375 · 9/10 · 6 October 2019]

A really nice trip down memory lane. These are the artists that made my life better, many of whole I have had the honor and privilege to meet real life (even have a few as FarceBook friends I occasionally get into arguments.... discussions with). I was telling my wife about the people and the ones I knew.

A decent documentary for those with nostalgia

[tinglethefairy · 5/10 · 23 February 2022]

If you grew up alongside some of the interviewees, looking at this art on store shelves, then you're going to love this documentary.

I started playing D&D at 5th Edition, so I don't have the same nostalgia, but I did enjoy seeing how the art changed over the years, how the art affected other people, and how TSR artists look back on their experience.

I think this movie could have really benefitted from a narration or some more consistent music. And I would have liked if it provided a better history lesson of the start of TSR, rather than just, here's an artist --> look at their art.

Considering it's exclusively made up of interviews and imagery, they did a pretty good job, but it definitely could have been presented better.

Fine if you want to look at art

[jellopuke · 5/10 · 27 March 2021]

This was WAY too long for what it was doing. Essentially it's a nearly endless repeating of: here's an artist, he/she was great, here's some art, There's no background on TSR, history of the game, examination of controversies, etc. It's just some artists talking and pictures of their art. Overall, its way too slight to be worth 90 minutes of your life unless you are a super fan. Just look at your old art and get what you can out of it.