Chattanooga, Tenn. (March 23, 2023) – Slaying a dragon when seated with friends at a dining room table covered in dice, rule books, and painstakingly hand-painted miniatures is exhilarating.
Seeing that same dragon towering above you in real-time on a six-story screen, though? Now, that’s an undeniably thrilling experience.
Veteran dungeon divers and complete newcomers to the world of tabletop role-playing games will find plenty to excite and amuse them when Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves premieres Thursday, March 30, at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater.
The film has assembled a powerhouse cast of high-level actors, including Chris Pine (Star Trek), Hugh Grant (Love Actually), and Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious franchise). Audiences will find themselves whisked away to the world of Faerun as they embark on a harrowing quest alongside the charismatic bard Edgin (Pine), the ferocious barbarian Holga (Rodriguez), and the spell-slinging sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) as they confront the turn-cloak rogue Forge (Grant) and a host of evil wizards.
Honor Among Thieves isn’t the first time filmmakers have tackled translating the storied fantasy game universe to the big screen. But if early evaluations of this reboot are any judge, it already is an — ahem — critical hit with reviewers who have given it an 86 percent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Attendees to the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater’s debut screening of Honor Among Thieves will receive a special treat. The first 50 guests to the theater will receive a complete set of seven dice used by players of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop games (limit one set per guest).
As if one giant screen nod to the popularity of geek culture wasn’t enough, Dungeons & Dragons will be followed hot on the heels by the highly anticipated release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie on Wednesday, April 5.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the first feature-length foray into Nintendo’s beloved brick-breaking, mushroom-collecting Italian plumber since a live-action attempt flopped in 1993.
Three decades later and with over 200 games in the Mario franchise, revisiting Nintendo’s flagship franchise in a way that lives up to its namesake’s reputation is a tall order. This time, however, Mario’s adventure has been stunningly realized by the animation experts at Illumination, best known for their work on the Ice Age and Despicable Me series, and features a who’s who of Hollywood talent to voice its beloved characters.
This family-friendly adventure shows how a humble plumber from New York became the heroic savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, a fantastic land filled with pipes and marching mushrooms that fans have come to know and love after triple-jumping and flinging fireballs through it for decades.
Announced almost five years ago, anticipation has been steadily building for the film’s debut, especially after the unveiling last fall of its powered-up cast, including:
- Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy) as Mario
- Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) as Princess Peach
- Tenacious D lead singer Jack Black (School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda) as Bowser
- Seth Rogen (Superbad, Pineapple Express) as Donkey Kong
- Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu, Key & Peele) as Toad
- Charlie Day (The Lego Movie, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Luigi
Ticketing information and showtimes for Dungeons & Dragons, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the rest of the IMAX Theater schedule is available at tnaqua.org/imax/.