Lord of the Rings, The: The War of the Rohirrim

image for Lord of the Rings, The: The War of the Rohirrim

Short takes

Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 14 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Lord of the Rings, The: The War of the Rohirrim
  • a review of Lord of the Rings, The: The War of the Rohirrim completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 17 December 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not suitable due to excessive violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 13–14 Parental guidance recommended due to level of violence.
Children aged 15 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Lord of the Rings, The: The War of the Rohirrim
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Animated violence
Length: 134 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Set 183 years before the writings of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and based on its characters, this tells the story of King Helm of Rohan (voice of Brian Cox) and his legacy. Helm’s daughter Héra (Gaia Wise) is a fiercely independent young woman who loves the freedom of riding her horse. Freca (Shaun Dooley), a Dunlending Lord, arrives at King Helm’s hall with his son Wulf (Luca Pasquelino), to ask for Héra’s hand in marriage to Wulf. Although Héra and Wulf were childhood friends, she is uninterested in marriage. A fight breaks out between Helm and Freca, resulting in the death of Freca, and Wulf is banished from the kingdom.

In his isolation, Wulf plots revenge for his father’s death. He amasses a huge army and is determined to destroy Helm, his family and all of Rohan. Héra, together with her loyal maid Olwyn (Lorraine Ashbourne) have to gather the Rohirrim and protect them from the coming invaders. They seek refuge in what becomes known as ‘Helm’s Deep’. There they are surrounded by Wulf and his army who lay siege to the citadel. Héra must call on all of her strength to defend her people and the Kingdom of Rohan.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

War; Fantasy; Anime Fantasy.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, although not particularly bloody or gory, including:

  • A lot of fighting between soldiers, with many killed by the sword, axes, bows and arrows, and knives.
  • The death of several main characters.
  • Freca punches King Helm hard. Helm responds and kills Freca with one blow.
  • Wulf attacks the King with his sword – Helm lifts him up by the throat and throws him to the ground.
  • Héra and Wulf practise sword fighting as children. Héra injures Wulf with her sword.
  • Héra’s brother Hama, is chased by a huge mammoth. He falls off his horse and the mammoth chases after him on foot. The mammoth then chases after Héra who leads it to a lake. There, a huge octopus-type creature comes out of the water and wraps its tentacles around the mammoth. The octopus eats the mammoth.
  • Soldiers capture Héra in the forest. They throw a hood over her head and carry her off.
  • Wulf grabs Héra and pushes her against a wall. He threatens her with a sword and lightly cuts her face with it, leaving a scar.
  • Olwyn bursts in and attacks Wulf with her sword.
  • Wulf’s army attacks Rohan, setting fire to the houses.
  • Hama escapes on his horse but the horse runs out of energy. Hama is captured and, in a particularly disturbing scene, Wulf holds a knife across Hama’s throat. Wulf pulls the knife but this is shown from behind and so not actually seen.
  • Héra is attacked by a huge monster. King Helm attacks the beast and they fight. The king kills the beast, smashing it several times with a stone.
  • A final battle between Héra and Wulf is shown in slow motion.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There are many scenes and characters that would frighten children in this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Freca is a large, intimidating man with tattoos across his face. He has an evil laugh.
  • Huge eagles stand in front of Héra, who is dwarfed by them.
  • A huge mammoth with many tusks frightens the villagers as it sways its way through a forest, clearing all in its path. It roars and crashes through very loudly.
  • A huge octopus-type creature comes up out of a lake.
  • Some of the soldiers in Wulf’s army are Orcs and other fierce-looking creatures.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Wulf cries over the death of his father.
  • A horse rears up and neighs wildly when Héra and her cousin Fréalaf enter a desolate area. They find a skeleton of a man who’s flesh has been ‘picked clean’ by birds.
  • A young boy screams in fear and all of the villagers run from a huge mammoth.
  • Héra screams for help when she is captured. She wakes up to find herself in a dark rock-cave.
  • Wulf tells Héra he will kill her father and her brothers.
  • Olwyn and Héra jump from a high tower to escape from Wulf.
  • A woman is seen crying over the dead body of her husband who has a spear through his body.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Some children in this age group could be affected by the violence in this movie.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • One use of the word “damned”.

In a nutshell

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated epic fantasy movie based on the classic Tolkien’s characters and is a prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There is a lot of animated violence in this movie, including the death of several main characters, as well as large, scary creatures, which makes the film unsuitable for children under 13. It is more suited to teens and adults.

The main messages from this movie are to never give up and to be open to change and new ideas.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Bravery
  • Courage
  • Self-determination
  • Loyalty
  • Resourcefulness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Wulf’s growing bitterness and determination to get revenge cost him dearly. This could be a good point to discuss with children – that revenge doesn’t make things right or better.
  • Héra was treated very badly by Wulf and his soldiers but she remained true to herself and her desires. Women in the past had few choices other than marriage and again this could be something parents could discuss with their children – that girls do have choices now.