Name: The Flight of Dragons
Production: Warner Bros.
Directors: Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr.
Year: 1982
Original Aired Date: August 2, 1986 (US)
DVD Release Date: November 17, 2009
Genre: Animation / Adventure
Rated: Not Rated / PG
Running time: 96 min.
Budget Estimate: N/A

Dragon Contents:

This rating only indicates the dragon contents and importance they play in the movie/game/episodes reviewed.

R a t i n g :

This rating indicates how good or how bad was the movie/game/episodes reviewed. A rating of 5 stars on 10 is considered as the average which mean it is not good but not bad either.

Let me first began by saying that this movie has very little to do with the book of the same name. The movie is based on the book "The Dragon and The George" written by Gordon R. With this said, unto the movie.

Probably the first thing you will notice is that dragons never flap their wing to fly (okay, sometimes they do, but excessively rarely). Their body is also obviously disproportionate. Fortunately, they explain why relatively soon in the movie. According to the movie, dragons eat gem to crush limestone. limestone being rich in calcium creates hydrogen when in contact with stomach acid. Hydrogen being lighters than air makes the dragon "float" and is also flammable. An important point of the movie is that Peter is able to explain thing logically, which eventually prove to be something invaluable later in the movie. It explains why dragons look like small blimp and where the fire comes from. The reason for dragons hoarding gold is stretchier, according to the movie, this is because dragon could ignite normal furniture by mistake so they need a soft metal to sleep on. Gold remain a metal and while it is malleable, it is still hard by most standards compared to ground for example. At any rate, it's just a movie so, they still deserve praise for the effort.


Story line:
In a world where men turn to logic and technology the magic is slowly and inevitably dying. Four brothers control four type of magic, one of the main character, Carolinus is the green wizard of nature realm. Solarius is the Blue wizard; lord of the deep and highest places. His realm is the space, the deepest ocean and the highest mountain. Lo Tae Shao is the Golden wizard of light and air, lord of transcendence, healing and contemplation. Finally, Ommadon is the Red wizard; lord of the devil domain, seducer of darkness, master of black magic.

In order to save magic, the green wizard Carolinus try to convince his three brothers to unite and create the "Last Realm of Magic", the magic realm would be a place sealed from the rest of the world in a mist of invisibility where all creatures of magic could retreat before their age end.

However, Ommadon, cannot accept the idea of retreating and conceding defeat to sciences and vows to summon all the dark power he possess and infest the spirit of man so he use sciences and logic to destroy himself (greed, wars, destruction).

The others clearly do not approve such move but they cannot fight against each other as the ancient laws forbid it. Therefore, they decide to begin a magic quest and give the task to three heroes to take back the red crown of Ommadon, the source of all his power. Peter Dickenson, a scientist of the 20th century, is asked to take part to the quest. He is a direct descendant of an ancient hero (Peter, the Dragons Master) and the first in the bloodline to be a man of sciences.

Before the quest even begins, Ommadon become aware of the quest against him and send his dragon to take Peter. Unfortunately, during the encounter, Carolinus cast a spell that went wrong and bind the spirit of Peter with the body of his house-dragon Gorbash. Knowing nothing of magic or about the ways of the dragons begin his journey with Sir Orin Neville Smythe (a knight) and the dragon Smrgol. And so the journey begin...


Images:
Quite good for a movie made in 1982. The backgrounds are detailed. The basic essence of some of the characters are a bit exaggerated and distorted, while some other character are quite conventional and are drawn as realistically as possible. This should contrast but it blends quite well with the overall style of the animation. The animation is well done and visually enjoyable.


Sound & Music:
I think the voice of Gorbash wasn't very appropriate, it simply didn't sound right for a huge dragon. Just a personal opinion of course, but compared to the voice of other characters, Gorbash seem out of step (Smrgol sounds a lot more realistic in comparison).

The music at the begginning it quite enjoyable and throughout the animation it will definitively carry the right feeling at the right moment.


Acting:
In the beginning, of the movie there seem to be a lot of awkward moments. Such as when Solarius tells how he will marshal a great force (made of water creatures) to fight the Ommadon, only to get the reply "Huh... Unfortunately this quest will occur on land" or when Carolinus merge Peter and Gorbash and say that he can't undo it, until he know what I did in the first place. It's kinda made me pause at moment where I was supposed to get deeper into the storyline. There is a few of those moments in the beginning but as the story elaborate, the characters seem to focus on their quest and act accordingly.