Sometimes it's really fun when you come across something that's both old and new, such is the case with Flight of Dragons. This charming story was produced by Rankin and Bass as a DTV movie in 1982, then later shown as a an animated TV special in 1986. I had never even heard of the film until its recent release by the Warner Bros. Archive Collection, but since I was already re-watching several other Rankin and Bass movies I decided to order a copy and give it a try. What I found was a very well written - if mediocre looking - film chalk full of unique ideas and concepts.
The inspiration for Flight of Dragons comes from the the Peter Dickinson novel of the same name and the Gordon Dickson novel "The Dragon and the George". It features a young man named Peter Dickinson who has given up his life as a scientist in the quest to write a novel about dragons. Short on funds Dickinson creates a board game (like Dungeons and Dragons) in the hopes that it will prove successful enough to finance his stagnate writing career. Unbeknownst to Peter the characters comprising his game actually exist in an age long past, a time period of waning magic. In this bygone era mankind has begun to embrace science over magic and as a result all the worlds magical creatures face extinction. This is not just a problem for beings of magic though, mankind will also suffer because magic is the source of human inspiration and imagination.
The wizard Carolinus is first to recognize how dire a threat this is when he's unable to perform a simple vanishing spell early in the film. Summoning his three brothers for the first time in four centuries, Carolinus proposes that they combine their remaining powers and use it to create the "Last Realm of Magic", a sanctuary where all magical creatures can live on long after mankind has forgotten magic. Two of the brothers agree to this plan but the third - Ommadon - refuses. Being a wizard of darkness Ommadon plans to use humanities greedy and violent nature against them, all the while growing stronger by inspiring evil deeds. Bound by a cosmic law preventing the four brothers from ever fighting, Carolinus must instead seek out a champion to stop Ommadon. Reaching across time Carolinus is guided to Peter who is brought back into the past and given the task of stealing Ommadon's Red Crown. There are a lot of other important story points that I could detail here but the synopsis above should be sufficient for this review.
What I enjoy most about the writing of Flight of Dragons is the use of science in the realm of magic. Over the centuries there have been some pretty silly mythical creatures. Mermaids for example. Why would a mammal living under the ocean's surface have hair on its head, opposable thumbs, or eyebrows? Same goes for Dragons. A giant fire breathing lizard weighing thousands of pounds that's capable of flight, really? Do you have any idea how enormous that wing span would have to be, or the sheer physical exertion necessary to achieve and sustain lift? I'm no biologist - or physicist for that matter - but I'm pretty sure these animals couldn't exist without the all important "magic" loophole. Yet Flight of the Dragons does something truly fantastic, it actually offers up a scientific explanation for dragons. In the film we learn that dragons fly by filling portions of their body with lighter-than-air gas. Once airborne they use their wings and tail to steer. To dive or lower themselves back to the ground the gas is released and simultaneously ignited via the dragons mouth, thus dragons breath fire. Yes the science here is still pretty spotty, but the fact that such a reasonable explanation is even offered made me exceedingly happy.
Additional lessons in science are offered throughout the film, occasionally giving the movie a "Mr. Wizard" vibe. Every now and again I felt like I was watching a deviously disguised after school special, one trying to trick me into thinking science was cool. Fortunately this feeling would soon pass as the movie would slip back into the standard setting of an action/adventure quest. Besides the excellent use of science, Flight of the Dragons really is a good story featuring an eclectic cast of characters and some genuinely somber moments. I'm not going to use words like "brilliant" or "perfect" to describe its writing, but I will say that I found the movie very clever and lots of fun.
Visually the movie is very average. Being a Rankin and Bass film one should not be surprised to find minimal animation and TV quality backgrounds. Though I like the look and feel Rankin and Bass brought to many of their movies, I also hate that they could never muster more respectable budgets for them. On the positive side I didn't see a lot of the squat, hobbit like designs that often plague these films, a merciful omission to be sure. Additionally the dragon designs were both plentiful and varied, definitely the strongest looking part of the movie. Still there just isn't much to get excited about here.
Another pedestrian aspect of the film would be its audio. Outside of the solid James Earl Jones performance for Ommadon, I wasn't impressed with any of the movies voice acting. Harry Morgan was okay as Carolinus and John Ritter didn't offend me as Peter Dickinson, but neither of these performances really added much to the film either. Musically the soundtrack gets the job done, just not in a very memorable fashion. Ultimately I felt that Flight of the Dragons neither suffered, nor succeeded due to its tepid music or run of the mill voice acting.
Despite the movies lackluster production value, Flight of the Dragons proves to be a surprisingly good film. Much like the battle between science and magic, good storytelling and characterization prove too strong for average animation and mediocre sound to overcome. I definitely recommend this film to any fans of Rankin and Bass, or to anybody who loves fantasy animation. You can get the manufactured on demand DVD from the Warner Brothers website or Amazon.
NOTE: Manufactured on demand DVDs are not exactly the same as DVDs you buy from the store. Mass produced DVDs (like the ones at Wal-Mart or Best Buy) are stamped and should play in any DVD enabled device. Manufactured on demand DVDs are burnt (much like you would do yourself with a DVD burner) and will sometimes not work in secondary DVD devices like video game counsels or PC computers. The reason some movies are only available by manufacture on demand is that it helps keep costs down and storage space minimal for the company producing it. For more obscure movies and tv shows this is the only way the studio can turn enough profit to make a DVD release worthwhile. Though the quality of video is no different and the packaging still quite good, I wanted to make sure that I at least called this out.
