Let's get the obvious out of the way first. This is a movie made on a shoe-string budget, using comic panels with the occasionally moving figure done in straight-up stop-motion fashion. There's some animation of the most basic sort (wavy lines representing water, for instance, were animated in a very simple fashion, or stylized eyes blinking) but nothing along the lines of what modern animation programs can do on a basic laptop. There's no way around these facts, and the result is exactly what you'd expect. It would be disingenuous to pretend that's not a fairly low bar, even in the early 2000s. The artwork itself (entirely black and white) is a mixture of cartoonish and semi-realistic (I was actually familiar with the artist's renditions of various Lovecraftian tales before I ever watched this) and depends a lot on chiaroscuro and shading effects. It has to be taken on its own merits. You're not getting even comic book quality, but that's not a criticism -- it's an observation. Some people love this sort of art; others demand more realistic (and colorized) art. De gustibus and all.With that out of the way, let's talk about what the movie is rather than what it isn't. It is a (slightly inelegant) solution to the problem of how to actually make a movie out of a sprawling and extremely fantastical story. "Dreamquest" is an almost quintessential 'unfilmable' piece. The budget necessary to film a live-action version capable of doing justice to the material would be astronomical, especially for such a niche story with limited general appeal. A traditionally animated one would be less onerous, but once again we hit the issue of budget to appeal ratio. What this movie is is an attempt to bring the story to life through visuals using the best means at the disposal of, well, a creator with virtually no budget. And that's definitely worth appreciating. Fans of the original story might crave a world where it could get the same cinematic treatment as 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Harry Potter,' but the realistic ones know this simply isn't feasible. What we have here is what *is* feasible, and it's very obviously a labor of love. If you set aside preconceptions (which I know can be difficult) and take this movie on its own merits, it can be quite a fun watch. Perhaps more than most cinematic adaptions of beloved stories, this is going to appeal mos to people who are intimately familiar with the source text and the mythos of the Dreamlands over the range of Lovecraft's entire bibliography. But those unfamiliar with the source text can still enjoy the watch, though ready access to Google and the various Lovecraft fan sites would not be amiss.One complaint I have centers on the voice work. Not the quality of it (as a couple other reviewers have focused on) but on the fact that the Lovecraft text had no dialogue and only a single instance of (lengthy) monologue toward the end. This was, I feel, done by Lovecraft to enhance the dreamlike nature of the story, to keep the more mundane practical phenomena out of the text so the reader is drawn along with the story rather than subjected to reminders of real-world behavior. It's this very dreamlike aspect that makes the story so addictive to read, and I find the creation of dialogue to express what was only described in the text itself jarring and not in keeping with the mood the text was trying to instill. Personally, I feel a skilled narrator doing occasional voice-over would have been a much better choice. Luckily, I know the story by heart, so I could watch the music-only version without losing anything, but most people don't remember the story so thoroughly, if they've even read it at all. But that's a personal complaint, though I suspect many others have the same appreciation I do for the the dreamlike qualities of the text.All in all, though, I do appreciate this movie and appreciate the fact that somebody cared enough about the story to go to all this effort to film it.

I see that some people have seen hidden beauty behind this film, but I simply cannot agree. As much as I am a fan of all things HPL, I was extremely disappointed in this film.First off, you can only call this an animated film in the loosest sense. If your idea of animation is moving a 2-dimensional cutout very poorly, then this fits that qualification. My wife likened this to a long episode of "Reading Rainbow" than an "animated feature length film".The voice actors for the film sound like gamers who were called in by their friends to read lines. Actual voice acting is almost non-existent in the film.I could go on and on why this is not a good purchase, but suffice it to say that I would heartily recommend renting or borrowing this film before purchasing. It is not going to be for everyone and if you are one of the select few who enjoys it, congratulations. For the rest of us, we would best be served by watching one of the many excellent live-action adaptations of HPL.

There is a magical quality to this film that originates not with Lovecraft's source novel, but with the artist and director's love of that material. This film is ambitious to be sure; it may be the lowest budgeted animated feature ever completed. But the edginess that it derives from its humble origins creates a wonderful expectation in the audience. What will happen next? How will the animation evolve? For one of the most interesting aspects of the film's creation is that it was done linearly; so literally the animation becomes more diverse and innovative as the film progresses! I highly recommend this film not only to fans of Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany, but to fans of animation and animated cinema. There is much to be learned from this film's example, and even more to be enjoyed.

THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH is an ambitious movie, striving to adapt one of H.P. Lovecraft's most fantastical fictions and succeeding in nearly every aspect. Using a unique style of animation, director Edward Martin III has created a movie that should be examined by more than the typical "Lovecraft-Crowd" - the movie is that good. The voice actors did an excellent job wrapping their mouths around the more complex "Lovecraft-isms" (Nyarlathotep anyone?) and still conveying the sense of wonder that a story like ...KADATH evokes. The soundtrack was inspired as well.If you have an opportunity to see this movie, SEE IT.