Cecil's Journey to the Heart of Darkness
is a 30 minute long stop motion short movie lampooning the fantasy genre in general and The Lord of the Rings in particular. The protagonist of the story is a wraith named Cecil, a Minion with an F in Evil to the resident Evil Overlord Morkyll. While Cecil is incredibly loyal to Morkyll and professes to believe in "evil", he has a strong moral compass that keeps him from carrying out his dark lord's missions. Unable to bring himself to destroy the wraith, Morkyll sends Cecil on a mission for a (fictional) magic object called "The McGuffin Stone."
Fifty years pass. Cecil is still searching for the stone when he learns that Morkyll has long since been slain in a great world. Distraught at the loss of his master, Cecil decides to go on a quest to raise Morkyll from the dead. Along the way he meets a snarky dragon named Gravatak the Apathetic, a redheaded merchant woman named Arrowyn, a trio of Goblin minstrels, and a cowardly wannabe hero named Orogon, amongst other strange characters. Hilarity Ensues.
The stop motion is amateurish and jerky at times, but the voice acting, script, and character design are worth a look.
This animation contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aerith and Bob: Cecil's name stands out quite a bit next to Arrowyn, Orogon, Gravatak...
- Affectionate Parody: Of The Lord of the Rings, Inheritance Cycle, and Fantasy in general.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Purposely averted and subverted. The goblins and other stereotypically "evil" creatures are all portrayed as normal people who just want a place to live.
- Anti-Villain: Orogon has some delusions of grandeur, but he just wants to be a world renowned hero, and really isn't all that villainous until he gets carried away.
- Chaotic Evil: Cecil claims to be this, but his concept of it is actually closer to Lawful Good.
- Cool Horse: Parodied with the chubby donkey.
- Generic Name: The town of Genericton.
- I Have Many Names: Gravatak the Gray, Gravatak the Apathetic, or simply Gravatak.
- Medieval European Fantasy: With heavy doses of Norse Mythology for good measure.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Cecil can't kick a dog to save his life.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Say "Morkyll" out loud.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Gravatak looks like a very unimpressive version of the stereotypical European dragon, being hardly bigger than a bear and sporting drab gray colors, stubby legs, and a pair of vestigial wings.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Sorta played straight. They look like normal dwarves, but lack the traditional Scottish accents, and have an odd affinity for cross-dressing.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Cecil and the other wraith are ghosts stuck in their corporeal bodies, with Cecil's body having rotted into an animate pile of bones.
- Our Goblins Are Different: They're frog-like and, on occasion, form jazz-playing minstrel bands.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Cecil gathers several other "evil" creatures together by the end of the movie.
- Shout-Out: Very, very many, with nods to Norse Mythology, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd, and Zora Neale Thurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, to name a few.
