I have to correct my earlier statement about this being a bit cliched. Totally or completely would be far more accurate. The battle at the beginning was delightfully like an animated version of the beginning of the LOTR films. The symbol of the shadowlord was nicely combining the hand of Saruman and the eye of Sauron. The evil birds... Why not just call them fell beasts... Well, I suppose it's no use to list individual aspects borrowed from elsewhere... The list would become far too long.
Still, it was good enough to keep watching. Once you accept the truth there isn't a single original idea in this story, it all rolls quite nicely, at least as far as you can judge based on just one episode.