Flight of Dragons

Director: Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass 

Screenplay: Romeo Muller

Minutes: 96

Year: 1982

Score: 7.20

Release: Warner Archive

Rankin/Bass Productions is one of the most important film production companies in my life. Every single American has been touched, directly or otherwise, by the company. These men deserve respect, they are moral educators and visionaries. They made Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

From WBShop.com:

The sinister Red Wizard Ommadon threatens to destroy nature. The world’s hope is a man of science and magic from the future. That man is Peter, snatched from the 20th century by the Green Wizard Carolinus to capture Ommadon’s empowering Red Crown. With a fire-breathing dragon, an outlaw elf and a noble knight as comrades-in-arms, Peter applies modern-day logic to battling ages-old evil.

I haven’t watched many current cartoons (which are not rated TV-MA, thanks adult swim) so I don’t know how the themes are shared between the modern children’s cartoons and the old Rankin/Bass pictures from my youth, The Hobbit, The Return of the King, The Wind in the Willows, The Last Unicorn, and this, The Flight of the Dragons (also Thundercats and Silverhawks!!!!)

But that is neither here nor there. The Flight of Dragons stars the voices of James Earl Jones, John Ritter, and Harry Morgan and tells the story of nature and magic overcoming technology and (this is dated and troublesome) modern science taking away our human need to dream and desire. The film is not trying to suggest that logic and science are troublesome but if we sacrifice our ability to yearn for a better life, regardless of why, we will lose the magic of why we live.

As a logic loving science gigolo I struggle some with this movie. I suppose I am Ommadon, the Red Wizard, I am typing this on a math box what dazzles me with colorful lights; but, Carolinus, the Green, because I use magics to transport myself to mental hideout which I use to recoup energies. Through much of it the film watches like anti-industrial revolution propaganda, though, the moral of the story seeks a fine line between nature and technology.

There seems to be a new level to the lessons in Flight of Dragons. We no longer have to teach our children about tech, they know it better than we do, they certainly understand earlier in their development than I did. Can this movie help to remind them of the magic of nature? Is it magical? Science explains pretty much everything that happens, but if you take a walk and suddenly the smells of the world swirl around you then you may know that wind patterns are caused by temperature changes, but it could also be a little magic, right?

Director: 8 – Cinematography: 7 – Edit: 5 – Parity: 1 – Main performance: 7 – Else performance: 5 – Score: 8 – Sound: 5 – Story: 9 – Script: 8 – Effects: 10 – Design: 8 – Costumes: 7 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10