For the nearly four years its been airing live episodes, Critical Role has had a few different intros. This weekly Dungeons and Dragons live stream has soared in popularity since its first episode in March of 2015. And with the increase in budget, creative ownership, and fanbase, comes something fans have been begging for.
The idea of seeing Critical Role in animated format has intrigued its fanbase. And it has finally come as during its latest episode a new animated intro debuted. The characters, their backgrounds, and what makes them unique was all rolled into one beautiful intro that is a minute and a half long. Animated by Kamille and Kevin Areopagita and produced by Jason Charles Miller, it also features original lyrics by Sam Riegel. The song is titled Your Turn to Roll and is available to buy in iTunes. The lyrics are sung by Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson, with background vocals by Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham.
The first show intro was the cast in minor cosplay, such as Laura Bailey with elf ears on to depict her half-elven character. The second featured the cast in full cosplay in a complicated sequence that had magic effects and bad guys to fight. Those two dominated Campaign One, where the cast played as adventuring group Vox Machine to nearly level 20. With the start of 2018 Campaign, Two began and the cast played as the adventuring group The Mighty Nein. New characters with uncertain futures meant the cast wasn’t ready to dive immediately into cosplay. Things needed to run their course for a bit.
But the intro we were originally given was still incredible. A throwback to the ’80s, it showed the cast in colorful clothes playing in a living room. A year after this second campaign began, Brian W. Foster teased a couple seconds of animation on the show Talks Machina – a talk show about Critical Role. Fans had to wait a couple days before the big reveal. It was incredible to see nearly half a year of hard work come together in such beautiful animation. Fans will also notice a raven on a grave – a homage to Vax’ildan from Campaign One.
With new shows like All Work, No Play, Between the Sheets, art books, comics, and an expanded store, what more goodies can we expect from Critical Role in 2019?
https://youtu.be/dz2o_bVkgPA