The Flight of Dragons (1982 - 1986)
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This is an odd one. There are a lot of animated features from the 70s and 80s which are not aired in the UK often (or ever), apart from Watership Down every Christmas. This story mixes the novel, "The Dragon and the George", with Peter Dickinson's "The Flight of Dragons". The latter is actually a speculative natural history theory about how mythical dragons could have existed and how their flight and fiery breath could work. In the animation, Dickinson is the protagonist who occasionally makes references to his theories.
That being said, the 'science' used in the movie is suspect. There is a prominent science vs magic argument that the plot hinges on, and the arguments made on the side of logic are... ineffective to put it nicely. The loose premise of the film is the ending of the "Age of Magic" to be replaced with the "Age of Reason" (despite the human architecture being roughly late medieval in period, buuuut I won't start getting that nitpicky). This is all pushed to the side to make room for a generic quest to get the MacGuffin from the bad guys. The real strength comes from the voice actors, who do a great job of personifying the characters and delivering the lines with a bit of enthusiasm. Some of the dialogue really detracts from the youth of the target audience of this family friendly film. There's some nice back-n-forths, some masterfully hammed up speeches, and the voice of Darth Vader as the main antagonist. Is there anything that James Earl Jones doesn't improve? A favourite particular discussion of mine between two characters involves robbing dwarves in a matter-of-fact manner.
What's with the date range in the title? Well, this animation was finished and released direct to VHS in 1982, which is really reflected in the style of the animation. However, it didn't make it to TV until 1986. I don't know for sure when it was first shown in the UK, but I suspect it was rather later. Unfortunately, the world of animation had moved on quite far since then. I still find it charming aesthetically nonetheless. The artists had an affinity to attaching large noses to as many characters as they could.
So, if you want to watch an old-style traditional art animation with some well spoken, light-hearted dialogue that you can have a good laugh at, look it up. I believe it finally saw a DVD release within the last few years. Enjoy the ham and cheese! You can have fun with this film by taking some of the situations in it to logical, scientific extremes... like "what would actually happen to a hydrogren-blimp-like-dragon if it lost consciousness whilst flying quite high?", or "how often do said creatures burst into horrific fireballs mid-flight? Is that why they went extinct?". See this link to see the miniatures work of the fellow who asked some of these questions.
This is an odd one. There are a lot of animated features from the 70s and 80s which are not aired in the UK often (or ever), apart from Watership Down every Christmas. This story mixes the novel, "The Dragon and the George", with Peter Dickinson's "The Flight of Dragons". The latter is actually a speculative natural history theory about how mythical dragons could have existed and how their flight and fiery breath could work. In the animation, Dickinson is the protagonist who occasionally makes references to his theories.
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| AARGH! Goddamnit dragon! |
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| image from http://floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.co.uk Don't fret, the fez doesn't make a long appearance. |
So, if you want to watch an old-style traditional art animation with some well spoken, light-hearted dialogue that you can have a good laugh at, look it up. I believe it finally saw a DVD release within the last few years. Enjoy the ham and cheese! You can have fun with this film by taking some of the situations in it to logical, scientific extremes... like "what would actually happen to a hydrogren-blimp-like-dragon if it lost consciousness whilst flying quite high?", or "how often do said creatures burst into horrific fireballs mid-flight? Is that why they went extinct?". See this link to see the miniatures work of the fellow who asked some of these questions.
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