WoW Moviewatch: The Ballad of Matthias Lehner
by Michael Gray 
Nov 17th 2009 at 12:00PM
Regular lore fans are probably pretty familiar with good old Matthias Lehner. It seems the little ghostly boy has some connection to the Lich King, and that story is one that's sparked the imagination of many World of Warcraft players. Melvenor is helping to immortalize the young chap with the creation of The Ballad of Matthias Lehner.
The video itself is actually relatively short. Its scenery and composition are both beautiful, drawing on the stark Icecrown landscapes to help highlight Melvenor's story. The voice-acting was also pretty good, which made the video relatively easy to follow. It probably could have used a little more plot action to help keep the audience involved, but if you take the film as a genre piece, it all works out fairly well.
At the end of the day, this is a nice addition the machinima about Lehner, so I'm curious to see what Melvenor will do next.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew R. Nov 17th 2009 12:12PM
That was short but very good. The movie didn't have the detail as something like Blind(not that there is a comparison) or other movies that stand out. Instead the voice acting was spot on. With that being said I give it two thumbs up. The music was perfect, the scenery was great and it was a short but awesome movie.
Risa Nov 17th 2009 12:23PM
Bear in mind Arthas and Medivh's voices are sound files from WCIII. Michael Bell was Medivh and Justin Gross was Arthas. Euphoria's narration is original and as the only amateur voice actor, she did a very fine job. The voice over narration was very good and was easy to follow.
Tirrimas Nov 17th 2009 12:29PM
Gave me shivers.
Vjax Nov 17th 2009 12:43PM
There is no great mystery with Matthias Lehner, It is the ghostly embodiment of the un-corrupted ARTHAS MENETHIL, Matthias Lehner has the exact same letters folks.
kev-dogg Nov 17th 2009 12:55PM
This. I was going to point out the same thing. Matthias Lehner is an anagram of Arthas Menethil.
Arbitor Nov 17th 2009 12:51PM
That was AWESOME, one of the best story-driven machinimas I've seen in a while.
The Mathias Lehner story was a very nice little chain, and one of the few story lines in WoW where we actually suffer a loss (the prince is unredeemable, Tirion is injured).
I loved the narration, and the recreation of the arthas-medivh meeting from warcraft 3 was a very nice touch.
Bryan Dare Nov 17th 2009 1:29PM
It's things like this that really demonstrate how Warcraft could be an amazing film(s) in the right hands (I wish they were mine, but hopefully it is in good hands).
Very dramatic; great use of Warcraft III voice-acting, WoW music, and original narration.
One small flaw I noticed was a disparity in the LK's footsteps and the SFX during the bird's eye view shot, a problem I've had myself when shooting on a Bolex (i.e. no sound is recorded while shooting), which may be the only reason I noticed it. Synching footstep sounds is awful.
Dreyja Nov 17th 2009 3:48PM
That was really beautifully done. I've been so curious about that little ghost kid since that quest line under the citadel. I think Arthas' heart is going to figure into the future fights as well. VERY COOL.
:)
vexis58 Nov 17th 2009 10:28PM
Having never done this quest chain (or I assume it's a quest chain, from the comments) I've never heard of this kid, and found this movie very confusing and not helpful at all to figure out who this is.
I tried clicking on the link of "Matthias Lehner" in the first paragraph (isn't that what links like those are for?) but all that linked me to was this same video and another "Best Zone in Wrath" article that mentioned him once without really explaining to me who he was.
Had to open up wowwiki myself to figure out what this was referencing.
Maxilimus Nov 18th 2009 12:15AM
If you haven't done that quest chain, i highly suggest you do. You get to become to lich king of the past, kill and raise armys and even defeat Illidan.
Tri Nov 18th 2009 7:52AM
It was a very nice movie, but way too short.. It's like it ended before it really got started.. It left me wanting more!
Amazing questline - one of the best in Icecrown IMO..
mmalsed Feb 6th 2010 6:01PM
I went back and watched all 5 Icecrown movies and they're all awesome - visuals are incredible! I can't wait for the new one to come out (Sister Blade)