YMMV / The Barbarians

• Awesome Music: The main theme by Pino Donaggio.
• Complete Monster: Kadar is a ruthless warlord and tyrant who seeks to dominate all he can, running his domain with brutal slavery and murder to keep the people in line. Attacking the Ragnick tribe, Kadar massacres them and takes the leader Canary for a concubine, promising to not harm two boys in return. Kadar proceeds to have them enslaved, and beaten by a man in a specific helmet so that when he makes them gladiators 15 years later, they will face each other in the helmets so he can have the pleasure of watching them kill one another. When they escape, Kadar sets after them, attempting to kill them and the remaining Ragnicks.
• Narm:
  • The Barbarians' ridiculous "war cry". It sounds like a cross between a stuttering Tarzan yell impression and a loud belch, and has to be heard to be believed.
    HUUUUURRRR, HUURRRRR
  • The fact that Kadar only loses in the final battle because he attempts to fire his crossbow with his two missing fingers. As in the fingers that had been bitten off 15 years ago.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Television actress Eva LaRue makes her debut here as the thief girl accompanying the twins on their journey.
  • Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will recognize Kadar's actor Richard Lynch as the villainous Noel from Werewolf (1996).
• Signature Scene:
  • The barbarians' horny war cry when they find the harem.
  • The fight with the freudian swamp dragon.
• Squick: At one point, in order to avoid detection while rescuing their mother, the two brothers start making out with each other. Even better, they're brothers in real life too.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The main theme bears some similarities to that of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983).
• Unfortunate Character Design: The swamp dragon has a soft, fleshy head on a long, rigid, rod-like body that slowly rises (one might dare say "erects" itself) out of the swamp muck. There's no hiding what it kind of resembles.

---