Review of The Flight of Dragons (1982) by Joshua S — 15 Aug 2008

My friend Matt called me up the other night and told me that I had to come over to his house and watch some old fantasy movie with him. I was skeptical at first, then I found out it was animated and from 1982. Then I was more skeptical. Then I found out that his was only a recording of the movie given to him by some people he used to babysit, so it would have commercials in it. At this point the level skepticism was about as high as Alice Brandt on LORTAB, but I trusted his judgement and was pleasantly suprised.

What suprised me the most about it was that its story, while not very complicated has actually some very deep undertones about the state of the world and how people are destroying each other etc. I found this refreshing, especially from a movie made so long ago. Along with the at least somewhat mature undertones of the storyline there is some intelligent humor, and even some suggestive themes like when the knight and dragons get drunk and the dragons wake up and see the inn trashed they think that they might have had a drunken rampage. Or when the archer girl mentions to the knight that this may be their last night alive and he then offers to escort her to her room.... All these moments are sure to go way over childrens heads but I enjoyed them.

There are also some interesting parts where characters debate how things happen in the world, one side explaining them in terms of magic, the other in terms of science. This is the biggest recurring theme in Flight of Dragons. The Magic vs Logic debate, where the two worlds used to coexist in harmony, but they finally must seperate for good. There is some really complicated science near the end of the movie too, when the hero (a former physics major or something) finds that the only way to kill the dark wizard is to shout complex theories at him. It was sweet.

This film has great style, is funny, has many loveable characters, and some ideas that no kids movie nowadays would dare confront. It is much more complicated than any Disney film, and the halarious 80's commercials every ten minutes only made it better. Good call Matt.

Ps- 80's commertials had so much better music than nowadays. why?