The Flight of Dragons (1982)

Originally reviewed on 9/6/23, last edited on 9/7/23.

DVD cover showing a cartoon wizard and blonde young man riding on a happy green dragon's back.

🎶Flight of dragonnsssssss.... Flight of dragonsssss....🎶

One of those mediocre movies you put up with because you're desperate for dragon content, ESPECIALLY when it's sapient friendly dragon content.

I could tell this was based on a book before the credits said so, it has that sort of rushed "Oh god we gotta shove this character in somewhere" quality to it. Does make me interested in reading said book though. But yeah, a lot of the plot feels rushed and forced and there's too many characters to juggle to give anyone the attention they demand or the arcs they'd need. Three stars may be a bit too generous

Still an entertaining watch though. I liked the bitchy protagonist that was already into fantasy beforehand, I know this is probably a result of my own doesn't-watch-enough-movies'ness but I feel like most hero's journey guys are like ughh this sucks meanwhile this guys like OH MY GOD A DRAGON FUCK YESSSS. So I loved that. Also, can I just say, can I PLEASE get access to that wizard's library of unwritten books?? I promise so hard I can be trusted with the knowledge I find there and I double promise that I won't find all of my planned novels in there and read what future me writes!

What's interesting and notable about this is that there's speculative biology inside of a high fantasy setting. In fact, that's the entire reason why I decided to try this movie, because I saw this clip online and was very interested in the film it came from as a result. I'm not sure if you're aware, but I LOVE worldbuilding and speculative biology! I fucking ADORE giving scientific explanations to fictional things, so this scene here was fascinating to me!

I especially like this take because it answers how such big heavy beasts can fly and not snap their wing bones after a single flap. They're like blimps!! They're floating, the wings are for steering and speed, not lift! Woaaaaah!!!

Now, I wonder why dragons count as magical creatures and are in the magic realm when in the film's universe they're scientifically sound biological entities. It'd be so fucking cool if they were on the "logic" side of things, as this film's entire deal is "ohhh magic and logic are two at war opposite forces!!!" it'd be SO cool if dragons were like the nonbinary of themes and existed as both and proved that magic and logic are two sides of the same coin that need to co-exist! But, ah, no.

Now, this has some sketchy moments. I feel some of the humans could have more... Sensitive designs. And the women barely fit the art style. And thank god that groomer knight found a different love interest! Indeed, be prepared to see some skeevy shit in here.

If I ever make a page dedicated to specultive biology in films, this guy here is definitely being mentioned.

★★★☆☆