sol- Concerned about the prospects of logic and magic existing side-by-side in harmony, a Medieval wizard summons the help of a twentieth century board gamer inventor who believes in dragons in this popular animated feature film. The movie is adapted from two separate books about dragons: one that speculates the existence of dragons and their biology, and the other a more straightforward fantasy adventure yarn. Memorable as many of the action sequences are, the film is at its best when channeling the more speculative book. The pseudoscience behind dragons, how they breath fire and how they fly is endlessly fascinating. The film also crosses some curious science fiction territory as the game board inventor also gets to experience how a dragon mind works after the wizard accidentally melds him with a dragon. The vast majority of the film though channels the adventure tale, which is significantly less interesting, especially as the characters keep droning on about science versus magic. That said, the film offers some thought-provoking notions in terms of the role of magic in human evolution, such as the idea that television screens were inspired by the crystal balls of fortune tellers and that planes resulted from fairies inspiring humankind to consider flight. The film benefits from some decent vocal work too. Only Harry Morgan disappoints due to the distinctive nature of his voice; he always sounds like Col. Potter from 'M*A*S*H'. James Earl Jones is especially good as the chief villain and John Ritter is perfect as the easily excited protagonist.

jrcarney52 Unlike other Rankin and Bass animated movies--The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn--this film isn't based on a single work. It doesn't have a "primary text," if you will, to accurately relate or deviate from. It's based on other works, but it is a mixture of two: (1) the "speculative natural history" book titled Flight of Dragons (1979) by Peter Dickinson, and (2) the novel, The Dragon and the George (1976), by Gordon R. Dickson. I'm not familiar with either of these works (though I wish I was). Needless to say, the narrative of this film is unique and not one that precedes its production.Some brief plot summary: the film concerns the adventures of a former biology student turned fantasy novelist / fantasy game maker. He creates a very "Dungeons and Dragons" type game and a world to go along with it. And, through some various magical happenings, he gets whisked away to the fantasy world he created. There he finds out that he is the champion of this world. He has to fight an evil necromancer named Ommadon (voiced by James Earl Jones). The story is filled with dragons, elves, rangers, knights, magical spells, fairies, slime worms, dreary taverns, etc..On the level of plot, it's very thrilling.But the plot is not the only thing that endears me to this film. Let me just list some of the elements that make it a masterpiece.The animation style: Rankin and Bass's unique animation style comes through here. Slightly strange, borderline grotesque, the artistic style creates a tension between the real world elements the drawings are derived from and the abstractions the drawings are supposed to represent. Thus, there is a kind of rawness / baseness to it.The drawings are stylized, for sure, but the nature of the stylization is such that it might even be described as a resistance to stylization. In other words, the artists strived for reality while realizing that reality was beyond the pale of animation. In other animated films, artists seem to abstain from any ambition to "realistically" represent something. And in this way you get the "four-fingered" hands of so much animation / cartoons.The voice acting: There is some strange voice acting in this film, but it endears me to it. Particularly, the voice actor who plays the voice of the Princess character, Millisande, is quite awkward yet completely satisfying for its mystical, almost recitative quality. Also, the voice actor who relates the character of Smrgol the Dragon—James Gregory—is brilliant! He's an old dragon, tired out by life, and the husky voice no-nonsense delivery completely communicates this. John Ritter does the voice of the main character, Peter Dickinson, and he ramps up the nerdy quality of his voice to the extreme. And, of course, James Earl Jones as the archvillain is just brilliant. He evil laughter is pure art.The thematic content: For a kid's film, this flick engages with some serious philosophical issues. Ultimately, this film is about the conflict between magic and science, empiricism and emotion, two fundamentally distinct ways of understanding the world. Without giving away too much of the plot, the main character becomes the avatar for reason and logic, science and math; thus, the baddies become the representatives of superstition, magic, fear, and other emotional ways of coming to terms with the world.Spoiler alert: It's a strange twist, but the main character's quest ultimately preserves "the magical realm," which is an absolute incongruity considering his way of understanding the world necessarily undermines it.But I forgive this film this as it really begs the question, "Are our imaginations and flights of fancy, our impulses toward wonder and beautiful ignorance necessarily incompatible with the scientific endeavor? Is there something worthwhile is hearing "a god's anger" in the thunder rather than, say, "the manifestation of a meteorological phenomenon?" Is there something lost when we "unweave" the rainbow?The film doesn't answer this rich question. It's the source of its aesthetic power is that is even raises it.

tenmantaylor This film has everything that makes a children's film amazing: Escapism, adventure and imagination yet is held together by a fantastic plot addressing all sorts of issues we face as both children and adults making it suitable for all. Change, ageing, facing up to your demons, good: "Good would be totally impotent without the contrast of evil" and evil: "I have weapons you would not dare use, fear rules all man ... he will use science and logic to destroy himself ... turn brother against brother ... greed and avarice shall prevail" Pretty deep for a children's film! The music is fantastic and compliments each scene perfectly. All the best films do.Couldn't recommend it enough! (if you can find it that is! I heard its on google videos).

sheng-long In these days of CGI and DTV, where technology is emulating magic and magic is something you read of in a book, Flight Of Dragons is one of those films that makes it worthwhile to look back at old cel-animation...Through the eyes of Peter, played by the late John Ritter, We are taken to a world which could really exist... Where real old magic is on it's last legs, and the last of the great wizards wish to take it somewhere to exist for the rest of time. When you look at Peter's science, you will find it flawed, since new theories have replaced old, but nowadays, CGI dragons are cheap, and you don't really need to have a actor even on the set... Or, in some cases, the set even.I hope, one day, this will come to DVD... Yeah, The animation is outdated, but it's story is not...