Actually there were a lot of elements taken directly from the game besides Dungeon Master. Bullywugs, Lizard Men, Tiamat, Good (Metallic) and Evil (Chromatic) Dragons, Beholders, Bog Beasts, just to name a few. If you actually had played the game you would've known this to be true.
Ok, but the bullywogs and lizard men are exactly the same as each other in the show, all they do is chase the kids around with spears. So, I imagine they have nothing but a cosmetic connection to their game counterparts.
The main villan, the only one with a significant speaking role, Venger, does not feature in the game I notice. So, Dungeon master is the only one who fulfills a game type role in the proceedings, everyone else could have easily dropped in from some other S&S franchise. ie the show doesn't really reflect the game, rather just another generic S&S universe with Orcs, Lizards, dragons, swamp monsters etc, and from what i understood that's why a lot of the hard core gamers didn't like it, as the only connections, in the main, were cosmetic.
And when I said they "dumbed it down", what I meant was making the stories more kid friendly. Bobby never hits anyone with his club, he just hits the ground and causes earthquakes which knocks the badguys on their butts. Diana never hits anyone with her staff, she just pole vaults over them causing them to bonk heads in typical Three Stooges fashion. Sheila uses her cloak of invisibility in a similar fashion. Presto never pulls anything harmful out of his hat. Eric's sheild is strictly defensive (he doesn't even hit people with it like Captain America). Hank's Energy Bow is the most powerful weapon they have, and he never aims to hurt anyone with it. The arrows either explode in mid air like fireworks and scare the bad guys off, or they wrap around them and tie them up.
Granted it was a kids' Saturday morning cartoon, but they could've at least been allowed to do the same level of violence as Spiderman & His Amazing Friends for example. Hank could've stunned the orcs with direct hits with the energy bow. Bobby, Eric and Diana could've knocked the orcs down with their weapons. Sheila could've done some sweet ass karate moves while invisible. Presto . . . well Presto was pretty much the comic relief, so I'd leave Presto alone.
Hank also fires the arrows at the ground where the villans are standing , causing explosions that send them flying. Bobby and Diana use their weapons to smash through the villan's swords, so there is more aggressive moves than you recall.
Sheila shouldn't be doing kung fu moves, she is the thief, sneaking around. Having a young girl , or boy, strong enough to knock over big monsters is what i would call dumbing down the show.
Some of the kid's weapons are for defence(the shield, the wizard hat, the invisibility cloak), others are for offence(the bow, the club, the javelin). The last three should be used more aggressively in a movie adaptation, you are right. Although the wizard hat can be used for both, but should be used the way it is in the show, with imaginative, humourous alternatives to the usual type of things you expect from magic. The show actually got a lot of flack from parent's groups for being too violent. Although the show probably got this flack because of it's connection to the boardgame which was getting a lot of knee-jerk hysterical reactions from the tabloid press, calling it satanic and mind-warping etc.
What i meant was it was not dumbed down in the way of characterisation, just because it was for kids. 'The Dragon's Graveyard' has a level of maturity in the script that doesn't shy away from the dark emotions stirred up by the pressures of being trapped in the realm.
edit: Oh, and I think you have to re-watch Spider-man and his amazing friends..it suffered from the exact same restrictions on violence. Watch the episode called 'A firestar is Born', when the X-Men fight Juggernaught, very similar to D&D, Cyclops laser is used to make a hole in the ground, like Bobby's club..Wolverine's claws are used for comedy relief, ie he is immediately swatted into a wall where the claws get jammed in.
I don't recall Spider-man ever punching anyone, and the violence is a lot like D&D, a lot of lasers and whatnot getting fired around, but no-one gets hit(except on rare occasions, like in D&D).
It doesn't need to be two seperate things, and D&D characters don't fight giant 12 sided dice (unless their fighting a giant that happens to be an RPG geek that throws them as weapons).
Ok, i was wondering how faithful the die-hard board game fans wanted the movies, so no 12 sided dice bouncing about during action scenes, that would look great coming towards you in 3D though. Maybe if Micheal Gondry made the movie...but i joke.
