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The Flight of Dragons (finished in 1982, not released until 1986) Dir. by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass
Starring James Earl Jones, John Ritter and Harry Morgan
[content warning: icky romantic behavior towards a child]
Plot:
Faced with the weakening of magic caused by the rise of scientific reasoning, three of the four great wizards attempt to seal off the realms of magic from the rest of the world, only to be opposed by the Red Wizard Ommadon. To defeat him and save magic, they recruit a knight, a dragon, and a man of science from the 20th century, Peter Dickinson. However, before the quest can begin, a magical mishap causes Dickinson’s mind to be placed in the body of the dragon. The quest must go on, though, so Dickinson has to save magic and learn to be a dragon at the same time.
No poster or trailer for this one, since it was a TV movie
My relationship with this movie and its source material is an interesting one. It was originally produced as a TV movie, and that’s how I first saw it, multiple times on cable somewhere between the ages of nine and twelve. I never managed to catch it at the beginning to tape it on VHS, though, and over time I completely forgot about it. Flash forward to my junior year in high school, and I’m an avid reader of fantasy novels. A friend in one of my English classes recommends a book to me, The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson, and lets me borrow a copy. Through the first hundred pages or so, I had a growing sense of familiarity with it, but couldn’t place where I was recognizing it from. Then I got to the sandmirks scene, and I suddenly remembered. While the movie had billed itself as being adapted from the book of the same name by Peter Dickinson, the actual plot of the movie was from the Dickson novel I was reading.
Review:
This is the first request I’m doing for a review, and it actually turns out to be a movie that I probably should have had on my list to begin with. The story I related above is actually one of the “OMG” moments as a fantasy reader that I remember the most strongly. I’ll get into the differences between the book(s) and the movie more later on, but for now I’d like to focus on the actual movie itself.
Despite being written and produced by an American production company, Rankin/Bass (most famous for their stop-motion Christmas movies), it has a lot more in common visually with 1980s anime. Of course, this is because Rankin/Bass farmed the actual animation out to the Japanese firm Topcraft, which also did the animated Hobbit movie and The Last Unicorn (Topcraft itself would go bankrupt in 1985, and was bought by Hayao Miyazaki and renamed Studio Ghibli. Yes, that Studio Ghibli). Like the two previous projects, Flight of Dragons has a highly distinctive style that immediately sets it apart from a lot of the other animation being aired in America at the time. It also has a top-notch voice cast. Other than a couple cases where Bob McFadden’s British accent noticeably slips, I enjoyed pretty much everyone. And you can never go wrong casting James Earl Jones as an evil wizard.
Speaking of the wizards, they were actually surprisingly diverse given the era that the movie was produced. While the main wizard character, Carolinus, is a white Gandalf type, the two other good wizards are Chinese and ambiguously brown (though coded as Middle Eastern by his costume). The movie also scores a couple of points on the gender front, with a badass female archer joining the quest and her gender never being called into question for it. Unfortunately, however, this is undercut quite a bit by the other female character, Carolinus’s adoptive daughter Melisande (and yes, I really want to put an R in there every time I type it). Her only purpose in the film seems to be serving as a love interest. Not only does she have a love-at-first-sight plot with Dickinson, a trope I hate, but there’s an even ickier bit between her and the knight, Sir Orrin, that I’d completely forgotten about. While relating his backstory to Dickinson, he tells about meeting Melisande for the first time when she was about five, and immediately vowing to fall in love with and marry her, “when she was old enough, of course.” Umm….how about no? In fact, can we just take that whole conversation and burn it, please?
This movie is an amalgamation of two very different sources: a speculative non-fiction book called The Flight of Dragons, in which a biologist attempts to theorize how the standard mythological dragon traits (breathing fire, etc.) could have evolved to work biologically, and a fantasy novel by Gordon R. Dickson, in which a medieval history doctoral candidate and his fiancée get transported to a fantasy version of 13th century England, and he accidentally ends up in the body of a dragon. The two have very little to do with each other, and are a fairly awkward fit together. Most of the Flight of Dragons content comes in a couple of scenes in the middle, where the narrative comes to a screeching halt while Dickinson learns how dragons work. I don’t know why they didn’t just adapt The Dragon and the George straight through, as they’ve already got about 80% of the plot present. Maybe they thought the character (called Jim Eckert in the book), wouldn’t be as relatable to the target kid audience if he was in his 30s with a fiancée? If that’s so, why then have the entire final confrontation hinge on Dickinson’s knowledge of science and mathematics, with him spouting off multiple theorems and equations in rapid fire? For being aimed at kids, there’s sure a lot of five dollar words being thrown around.
The movie is also incredibly dark for a kids’ movie. Not quite Don Bluth dark, but there was a lot higher body count than I was remembering. The final confrontation ends with a near total party kill, with only Dickinson surviving. Yes, they all got brought back at the end, but that doesn’t discount the scene of Sir Orrin literally getting set on fire, then slaying the evil dragon that did it while he burns to death. There’s also a scene where Dickinson-as-dragon and his elderly dragon mentor get incredibly drunk at an inn and sing drinking songs together, while Sir Orrin and Danielle the archer head off to a room holding hands after she proclaims it could be their last night alive.
Verdict:
So I did enjoy this rewatch, but couldn’t help spending most of the running time comparing it to the book. It’s a pretty good kids’ movie (what nine-year-old wouldn’t want to turn into a dragon?), but I’d actually recommend anyone interested to skip the film – it’s pretty hard to track down at the moment, having only ever been released on DVD as a burn-on-request title from Amazon – and read the book instead. It’s got pretty much all of the good scenes that this one does, plus a better ending (which is rot13'd below for the spoiler-conscious).
Nostalgia: A- Rewatch: B-
Stray Thoughts:
-[ending spoilers for The Dragon and the George]: Va gur zbivr, Crgre Qvpxvafba erwrpgf zntvp naq ergheaf gb gur 20gu praghel, jvgu gur Cevaprff Zryvfnaqr qrpvqvat gb wbva uvz. Va gur obbx, Wvz Rpxreg, n fbba-gb-or-zneevrq npnqrzvp gelvat gb yvir ba fghqrag ybnaf naq uvf svnaprr'f grnpuvat nffvfgnag fnynel, fnlf "Fperj gung, V unir n pnfgyr!" naq fgnlf va snagnflynaq jvgu uvf abj jvsr. Ur orpbzrf uhzna ntnva, naq vaurevgf gur ynaqf naq gvgyr bs na rivy xavtug ur'q qrsrngrq nf n qentba. Gurer ner npghnyyl unys n qbmra zber obbxf, jurer ur orpbzrf n zntvpny ncceragvpr haqre Pnebyvahf, yrneaf gb orpbzr n qentba ng jvyy, naq vf pnyyrq vagb freivpr svtugvat sbe gur xvat va Senapr.
-They included pretty much every character from the book, except for my favorite: Welsh archer Dafydd ap Hwyel. I guess two archers would have been too much for them?
-There was talk a couple of years ago about making a live-action sequel to the movie, based on the second book in the series, The Dragon Knight. I’m sure it’s been dropped by now, since I would have heard something about it otherwise, but it’s something I wish had been picked up.
Has there been any thought on updating the Mark Reads/Watches banners to be a generic and/or retrospective design? I often go back on them to read old reviews and it's weird that they're now stuck on the last project he did on each.
hello everyone, just wanted to pop in and give a very heartfelt thank you to PythosCheetah and anyone else for the existence mark reads dropbox. I was going to rewatch the hogfather videos today before I found out what had happened and I really was about to start crying LOL, I literally grew up listening to mark read discworld and I'm so glad the videos are still here
hope you all have a kind winter and happy holidays
Sorry for the lack of posting in the last thread, some irl things came up, but I'll definitely have a lot to say in this one because we are about to watch the penultimate episode of S2. Join Mark for the liveblog here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mark-liveblogs-6044...
It starts tonight at 8PM Eastern. See you there, and here for more discussion! I'm definitely going to put some spoilery thoughts into ROT13 below.
Okay, spoilers for episodes 9 and 10 of S2, and some mild implications for the rest of the series:
Gurfr ynfg gjb rcvfbqrf ner fhpu na rzbgvbany evqr. Ubarfgyl, Zvenaqn'f qrngu vf bar bs gur zbfg fubpxvat GI qrnguf V'ir rire rkcrevraprq, ohg bapr lbh xabj vg'f pbzvat gur ohvyqhc vf *nyy* gurer. V zragvbarq va EBG13 qhevat gur cerivbhf yviroybt gung gur yvgreny svefg guvat jr frr va gur Tbireabe'f ubhfr vf gung tbq qnza pybpx, naq vg vf yvxr n fgno va gur urneg rirel gvzr. Zvenaqn'f qrngu vf va zl bcvavba na rknzcyr bs ubj gb qb n fubpxvat punenpgre qrngu ernyyl jryy.
Boivbhfyl, ure qrngu unf n uhtr vzcnpg ba gur fgbel tbvat sbejneq, ohg jr frr vg zbfg vzzrqvngryl va gur F2 svanyr. "Ure jbeq jvyy or gur ynfg jbeq sbe guvf cynpr." Sbe fb zhpu bs gur fubj vg unf orra Zvenaqn'f jbeq (naq ure npgvbaf) gung unir qevira n ybg oruvaq gur fprarf, nf jryy nf zber qverpgyl jvgu Syvag'f npgvbaf. Gurer'f n ernfba V'ir zragvbarq gur perjzrzore jub pynvzf Zvenaqn vf n jvgpu pbagebyyvat Syvag'f npgvbaf zhygvcyr gvzrf. Boivbhfyl fur vfa'g yvgrenyyl qbvat gung, ohg fur unf nofbyhgryl orra n qevivat sbepr oruvaq znal bs uvf npgvbaf naq znal riragf bs gur fubj. Uryy, vg jnf ure jub svefg ortna gb qenj Wnzrf vagb ure naq Gubznf'f jbeyq. Vg jnf ure jub tbg Wnzrf gb onpx qbja naq abg gel gb tb ba n enzcntr gb erfphr Gubznf. Vg jnf ure jub gbyq Wnzrf nobhg Nyserq Unzvygba'f fuvc, xabjvat gung vg jbhyq qevir Syvag gb xvyy uvz. Naq gung'f whfg gur fghss gung unccrarq cer-fubj! Vg'f abg rira trggvat vagb nyy gung unf unccrarq fvapr, naq gur snpg gung gur ernfba gurl ner va Puneyrfgbja ng nyy (naq gung Syvag vf fgvyy nyvir naq abg qrnq gelvat gb gnxr gur sbeg) vf orpnhfr bs Zvenaqn. Ure pubvprf ner oruvaq fb zhpu va guvf fubj, naq vg vf ure pubvprf gung nyfb hygvzngryl yrnq gb ure qrzvfr. Abg gb gel gb 'oynzr' ure sbe gung, boivbhfyl gur bar gb oynzr vf gur zna gung fubg ure nf jryy nf gur pvivyvmngvba gung ercerfragf. Ure svany zbzragf ner fb evtugrbhf. Fur vf fcrnxvat abguvat ohg gur gehgu, naq vg'f uvtuyvtugrq ol Novtnvy va gur F2 svanyr, jura fur gryyf ure sngure gung ur gnhtug ure gur gehgu "jnf gur ebbg bs nyy iveghr". Naq lrg urer ur vf, pbagvahvat gb rzcybl fbzrbar jub zheqrerq nabgure sbe fcrnxvat gur gehgu.
Logging you in...
Medli 141p · 176 weeks ago
Happy holidays to those who celebrate any, and a good rest of the year if you don't!
PythosCheetah 108p · 176 weeks ago
This fortnight: At least Flight of Dragons and Red Sonja, maybe more. Playing it by ear with the holidays
PythosCheetah 108p · 176 weeks ago
Dir. by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass
Starring James Earl Jones, John Ritter and Harry Morgan
[content warning: icky romantic behavior towards a child]
Plot:
Faced with the weakening of magic caused by the rise of scientific reasoning, three of the four great wizards attempt to seal off the realms of magic from the rest of the world, only to be opposed by the Red Wizard Ommadon. To defeat him and save magic, they recruit a knight, a dragon, and a man of science from the 20th century, Peter Dickinson. However, before the quest can begin, a magical mishap causes Dickinson’s mind to be placed in the body of the dragon. The quest must go on, though, so Dickinson has to save magic and learn to be a dragon at the same time.
No poster or trailer for this one, since it was a TV movie
PythosCheetah 108p · 176 weeks ago
My relationship with this movie and its source material is an interesting one. It was originally produced as a TV movie, and that’s how I first saw it, multiple times on cable somewhere between the ages of nine and twelve. I never managed to catch it at the beginning to tape it on VHS, though, and over time I completely forgot about it. Flash forward to my junior year in high school, and I’m an avid reader of fantasy novels. A friend in one of my English classes recommends a book to me, The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson, and lets me borrow a copy. Through the first hundred pages or so, I had a growing sense of familiarity with it, but couldn’t place where I was recognizing it from. Then I got to the sandmirks scene, and I suddenly remembered. While the movie had billed itself as being adapted from the book of the same name by Peter Dickinson, the actual plot of the movie was from the Dickson novel I was reading.
Review:
This is the first request I’m doing for a review, and it actually turns out to be a movie that I probably should have had on my list to begin with. The story I related above is actually one of the “OMG” moments as a fantasy reader that I remember the most strongly. I’ll get into the differences between the book(s) and the movie more later on, but for now I’d like to focus on the actual movie itself.
Despite being written and produced by an American production company, Rankin/Bass (most famous for their stop-motion Christmas movies), it has a lot more in common visually with 1980s anime. Of course, this is because Rankin/Bass farmed the actual animation out to the Japanese firm Topcraft, which also did the animated Hobbit movie and The Last Unicorn (Topcraft itself would go bankrupt in 1985, and was bought by Hayao Miyazaki and renamed Studio Ghibli. Yes, that Studio Ghibli). Like the two previous projects, Flight of Dragons has a highly distinctive style that immediately sets it apart from a lot of the other animation being aired in America at the time. It also has a top-notch voice cast. Other than a couple cases where Bob McFadden’s British accent noticeably slips, I enjoyed pretty much everyone. And you can never go wrong casting James Earl Jones as an evil wizard.
[cont.]
PythosCheetah 108p · 176 weeks ago
This movie is an amalgamation of two very different sources: a speculative non-fiction book called The Flight of Dragons, in which a biologist attempts to theorize how the standard mythological dragon traits (breathing fire, etc.) could have evolved to work biologically, and a fantasy novel by Gordon R. Dickson, in which a medieval history doctoral candidate and his fiancée get transported to a fantasy version of 13th century England, and he accidentally ends up in the body of a dragon. The two have very little to do with each other, and are a fairly awkward fit together. Most of the Flight of Dragons content comes in a couple of scenes in the middle, where the narrative comes to a screeching halt while Dickinson learns how dragons work. I don’t know why they didn’t just adapt The Dragon and the George straight through, as they’ve already got about 80% of the plot present. Maybe they thought the character (called Jim Eckert in the book), wouldn’t be as relatable to the target kid audience if he was in his 30s with a fiancée? If that’s so, why then have the entire final confrontation hinge on Dickinson’s knowledge of science and mathematics, with him spouting off multiple theorems and equations in rapid fire? For being aimed at kids, there’s sure a lot of five dollar words being thrown around.
PythosCheetah 108p · 176 weeks ago
Verdict:
So I did enjoy this rewatch, but couldn’t help spending most of the running time comparing it to the book. It’s a pretty good kids’ movie (what nine-year-old wouldn’t want to turn into a dragon?), but I’d actually recommend anyone interested to skip the film – it’s pretty hard to track down at the moment, having only ever been released on DVD as a burn-on-request title from Amazon – and read the book instead. It’s got pretty much all of the good scenes that this one does, plus a better ending (which is rot13'd below for the spoiler-conscious).
Nostalgia: A-
Rewatch: B-
Stray Thoughts:
-[ending spoilers for The Dragon and the George]: Va gur zbivr, Crgre Qvpxvafba erwrpgf zntvp naq ergheaf gb gur 20gu praghel, jvgu gur Cevaprff Zryvfnaqr qrpvqvat gb wbva uvz. Va gur obbx, Wvz Rpxreg, n fbba-gb-or-zneevrq npnqrzvp gelvat gb yvir ba fghqrag ybnaf naq uvf svnaprr'f grnpuvat nffvfgnag fnynel, fnlf "Fperj gung, V unir n pnfgyr!" naq fgnlf va snagnflynaq jvgu uvf abj jvsr. Ur orpbzrf uhzna ntnva, naq vaurevgf gur ynaqf naq gvgyr bs na rivy xavtug ur'q qrsrngrq nf n qentba. Gurer ner npghnyyl unys n qbmra zber obbxf, jurer ur orpbzrf n zntvpny ncceragvpr haqre Pnebyvahf, yrneaf gb orpbzr n qentba ng jvyy, naq vf pnyyrq vagb freivpr svtugvat sbe gur xvat va Senapr.
-They included pretty much every character from the book, except for my favorite: Welsh archer Dafydd ap Hwyel. I guess two archers would have been too much for them?
-There was talk a couple of years ago about making a live-action sequel to the movie, based on the second book in the series, The Dragon Knight. I’m sure it’s been dropped by now, since I would have heard something about it otherwise, but it’s something I wish had been picked up.
RadagastWiz 110p · 176 weeks ago
wren_wallace 1p · 175 weeks ago
hope you all have a kind winter and happy holidays
forensicfanatic 115p · 175 weeks ago
Coldrun 137p · 175 weeks ago
soraina 119p · 175 weeks ago
Sorry for the lack of posting in the last thread, some irl things came up, but I'll definitely have a lot to say in this one because we are about to watch the penultimate episode of S2. Join Mark for the liveblog here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mark-liveblogs-6044...
It starts tonight at 8PM Eastern. See you there, and here for more discussion! I'm definitely going to put some spoilery thoughts into ROT13 below.
soraina 119p · 175 weeks ago
Gurfr ynfg gjb rcvfbqrf ner fhpu na rzbgvbany evqr. Ubarfgyl, Zvenaqn'f qrngu vf bar bs gur zbfg fubpxvat GI qrnguf V'ir rire rkcrevraprq, ohg bapr lbh xabj vg'f pbzvat gur ohvyqhc vf *nyy* gurer. V zragvbarq va EBG13 qhevat gur cerivbhf yviroybt gung gur yvgreny svefg guvat jr frr va gur Tbireabe'f ubhfr vf gung tbq qnza pybpx, naq vg vf yvxr n fgno va gur urneg rirel gvzr. Zvenaqn'f qrngu vf va zl bcvavba na rknzcyr bs ubj gb qb n fubpxvat punenpgre qrngu ernyyl jryy.
Boivbhfyl, ure qrngu unf n uhtr vzcnpg ba gur fgbel tbvat sbejneq, ohg jr frr vg zbfg vzzrqvngryl va gur F2 svanyr. "Ure jbeq jvyy or gur ynfg jbeq sbe guvf cynpr." Sbe fb zhpu bs gur fubj vg unf orra Zvenaqn'f jbeq (naq ure npgvbaf) gung unir qevira n ybg oruvaq gur fprarf, nf jryy nf zber qverpgyl jvgu Syvag'f npgvbaf. Gurer'f n ernfba V'ir zragvbarq gur perjzrzore jub pynvzf Zvenaqn vf n jvgpu pbagebyyvat Syvag'f npgvbaf zhygvcyr gvzrf. Boivbhfyl fur vfa'g yvgrenyyl qbvat gung, ohg fur unf nofbyhgryl orra n qevivat sbepr oruvaq znal bs uvf npgvbaf naq znal riragf bs gur fubj. Uryy, vg jnf ure jub svefg ortna gb qenj Wnzrf vagb ure naq Gubznf'f jbeyq. Vg jnf ure jub tbg Wnzrf gb onpx qbja naq abg gel gb tb ba n enzcntr gb erfphr Gubznf. Vg jnf ure jub gbyq Wnzrf nobhg Nyserq Unzvygba'f fuvc, xabjvat gung vg jbhyq qevir Syvag gb xvyy uvz. Naq gung'f whfg gur fghss gung unccrarq cer-fubj! Vg'f abg rira trggvat vagb nyy gung unf unccrarq fvapr, naq gur snpg gung gur ernfba gurl ner va Puneyrfgbja ng nyy (naq gung Syvag vf fgvyy nyvir naq abg qrnq gelvat gb gnxr gur sbeg) vf orpnhfr bs Zvenaqn. Ure pubvprf ner oruvaq fb zhpu va guvf fubj, naq vg vf ure pubvprf gung nyfb hygvzngryl yrnq gb ure qrzvfr. Abg gb gel gb 'oynzr' ure sbe gung, boivbhfyl gur bar gb oynzr vf gur zna gung fubg ure nf jryy nf gur pvivyvmngvba gung ercerfragf. Ure svany zbzragf ner fb evtugrbhf. Fur vf fcrnxvat abguvat ohg gur gehgu, naq vg'f uvtuyvtugrq ol Novtnvy va gur F2 svanyr, jura fur gryyf ure sngure gung ur gnhtug ure gur gehgu "jnf gur ebbg bs nyy iveghr". Naq lrg urer ur vf, pbagvahvat gb rzcybl fbzrbar jub zheqrerq nabgure sbe fcrnxvat gur gehgu.
Vg'f nyy gentvp naq urnegoernxvat naq fb jryy jevggra. *Purs'f xvff*
Medli 141p · 174 weeks ago