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The Dwarvenaut
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Fantasy game docu has positive messages, drunken behavior.
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The Dwarvenaut
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What's the Story?
THE DWARVENAUT is a documentary about Stefan Pokorny, a man who found a way to combine the two great passions of his life: art and Dungeons & Dragons. As a Korean boy raised in 1970s and 1980s New York City by European adoptive parents, Pokorny was starting to head down a dark path of borderline delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and a complete lack of interest in school. Through the help of his parents, who enrolled him in an arts school, as well as an inspiring teacher who nurtured his gifts for painting and sculpture, Pokorny got back on track and fervently pursued art as an avocation. Also, while growing up, Pokorny discovered the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and through the game he found an outlet for his boundless creativity and imagination. In the mid-1990s, Pokorny started a company called Dwarven Forge, where he designed and sold detailed miniatures as companion pieces to heighten the D&D experience. They were an immediate hit for D&D fanatics, and this documentary shows Pokorny setting up a Kickstarter campaign to fund his latest project: a "modular city builder terrain system." Pokorny discusses the positive impacts D&D has had on his life and how he sees it as a way to foster community at a time when people spend more time interacting with smartphones than they do with each other.
Is It Any Good?
While the overall themes make this something that can still be enjoyed by those who aren't hard-core fanatics of D&D and Dwarven Forge (Pokorny's company), it's still best for those who already are. One of the toughest challenges in making a documentary focused on a specific subculture is making it interesting for those not invested in the subculture. For the most part, The Dwarvenaut -- a documentary about a D&D-obsessed man who started a company that makes highly regarded and finely detailed buildings, figurines, and terrain to enhance the D&D role-playing experience -- finds the universal messages that go way beyond slaying dragons while rolling 12-sided die. The documentary is at its most interesting when Pokorny discusses how he found redemption and a sense of purpose through both art and D&D and how he found a way to combine the two and turn it into a company with a devoted fan base.
Where the documentary falls short is in the pacing. While Pokorny no doubt sees life as a grand adventure both in and out of D&D, it doesn't mean the viewer necessarily cares to see him cook pasta or nurse a hangover or sit in a coffee shop. And while it's interesting to see Pokorny go to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Dungeons & Dragons, or ride the gondolas of Venice as he talks of artistic inspiration, the time spent in and around the gamers conventions wears thin, doesn't reveal much, and starts to feel like, well, an insurance seminar in Conference Room B of the O'Hare Doubletree.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how The Dwarvenaut is an example of a documentary film centered primarily on one person. How does this documentary balance the story of the subject's present life with his past and background? What are some other examples of documentaries centered on one person?
How were the documentary's central messages conveyed?
How do the universal themes of the movie go beyond the more limited scope of loving Dungeons & Dragons and creating miniatures for the game? How do these themes make the movie more relatable for those who don't share that passion for Dungeons & Dragons?
Movie Details
- In theaters: April 30, 2016
- On DVD or streaming: August 5, 2016
- Cast: Stefan Pokorny
- Director: Josh Bishop
- Studio: Kino
- Genre: Documentary
- Topics: Great Boy Role Models
- Run time: 80 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: September 20, 2019
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