Fluff Asides - The Flight of Dragons
Mismatched Adventurers go on a quest. Along the way they will experience bodyswitching, inter-dimensional travel and a ultimate showdown between good and evil, between science and magic. And of course, dragons. Lots of them. An entire flight in fact.
This is not the lastest homebrew RPG from the Fluffenhammer, but instead the elevator pitch for 1982’s Direct to Video animated movie by animation alumni Rankin / Bass, those magical pencils that brought our younger selves The Hobbit, and The Last Unicorn among a heap of classics that would send us all on a slide of nostaligia to happier times. Rankin/Bass deserve awards by the absolute truckload.
This particular film is based on both a novel from 1979 that holds the name (and written by Peter Dickinson) and taking a large amount of elements from 1976’s The Dragon and George. As an aside, it may be the most watched video of my childhood, beating even 1986’s Transformers The Movie.
It starts small, introducing Carolinus The Green Wizard (voiced by Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H fame) as he sets the tone for the nightmares to come. He is fading, and the world of magic in which he resides fades alongside him. The twin heads of science and logic are pushin away the wonder and enchamtments of magic, replacing the fantastical with the mundane. We could spend many a hour speaking over this opening scene, discussing how the power of magic was held only by the magical and the people sprun it for logic in order to have control, or that without the imagination that magic creates, humans are doomed to become a bitter, inward race. However, for this scene, we shall only discuss that it begins with the near crushing and drowning of a swan, followed by the jeering and insults of people who care not the damage they have done. As we sit, transfixed and stunned by this opening sequence, the folksy sound of Don Mclean transports us to a time that all children can connect to.
This is The Realm of The 80’s.
Carolinus summons each of his also-magical wizard brothers who each represent a different fantastic realm, to a meeting. He proposes that before science inevitably wipes out all their powers, they should combine energies to create The Realm of Magic, a haven for all things mystical. The Blue Wizard Solarius, who commands the heavens and seas, and the Golden Wizard Lo Tae Zhao, whose realm is light and air, agree to the proposal. However, the Red Wizard Ommadon, master of black magic and the forces of evil, resolves instead to infect mankind with fear and greed, causing humans to use their science to destroy themselves This sequence is burned into my brain under the term “fear”.
If you missed his name in the opening credits, Ommadon’s voice will sound chillingly familiar to you: James Earl Jones, bringing a gravel-filled timbre so monstrous it still fills me with a thrill of horror. This, in my eyes, may be Earl’s best work.
Carolinus proposes a quest to destroy Ommadon and prevent further chaos. He finds his champion in the form of a man of science, a scholar from a future time by the name of Peter Dickinson. (the film is meta incarnate.) with John Ritter opening a youthful, niave passion to Peter’s performance. It seems clear to Carolinus that this mind for the logical and a passion for the fantastical will make him the perfect leader for the quest, without anything going wrong from the get-go.
After transporting a delighted Peter back to the magical realm, a freak spell-related accident merges his mind with the body of the dragon Gorbash, starting the entire endeovour off on a unsteady footing as Peter/Gorbash struggles with inhabiting a creature he has long loved and fantasized about, but does not know how to actually be, and must be mentored by the elederly Smrgol.
Along the way Peter/Gorbash is joined by a diverse group of heroes: a chivalrous knight, a wise elderly dragon, a talking wolf, an elf, and a female archer—whose request to join the all male troupe is met without question or hesitation. It’s a nice moment of casual ’80s girl power despite the fact that the only other female character in the movie is Carolinus’ ward, Princess Melisande. A dutiful, obedient and somewhat simpering girl who deems Peter her champion, and is not permitted to join the quest instead serving as the troupe’s narrator as she watches them through visions.
For a children’s movie, The Flight of Dragons has a surprising amount of depth and detail that probably went over many kids’ heads, as it certainly did mine, at that time. In re-watching I could not help but notice the level of self-awareness, the adult humor, and occasional frightening moments that made me wonder why my parents let me watch it over and over again back in the day.
The Christian imagery is heavy, beginning with the search for a young savior who may have to ultimately sacrifice himself, and his selection by an all-knowing invisible entity called “Antiquity,” who appears only once as a burning bush—sorry, sparkly tree. Then there’s the resurrection of a supporting character who returns from the dead to save the quest. There is even a casual water-into-wine moment where Carolinus changes cider into milk to soothe his upset stomach.The movie also manages to convey Peter’s intellectual curiosity in some interesting ways. Using his scientific background, Peter tries to make sense, for both himself and the viewers, of how exactly dragons function. In detailed terms he explains the physical processes that allow a dragon lift to fly, create fire to breathe, and why they have a need to hoard gold. It is never presented as pandering or simplistic, trusting the viewer to keep up.
Also quite striking are the various obstacles the questing party encounter along the way in the form of monsters, ogres, and evil dragons. These are animated ferociously and introduced with a jump scare or two. They are not intended to be endearing or delightful but to instill fear, and do so quite well. There is plenty of death, both graphically depicted and implied, that show the stakes and severity involved when taking on pure evil.With a slick Japanese style of animation and swelling soundtrack devoid of any musical numbers (beyond the title sequence), the movie holds up well, for the most part. If anything, there is a certain sorrow to be felt when contemplating how much further we have advanced in the world of science while leaving behind the fantasies of youth.
Dragons inspire wonderment and fascination, and anyone who’s ever had a childhood fantasy involving these magnificent beasts should seek out this movie, if only for the sequnce where a horde of the flying reptiles fall from sky, lulled to sleep by a magic flute. Each creature is animated differently, and sumptuously for its time. You can see the varying scales and horns. Some are rough, others are sleek. Some belong in King Arthur’s Court, others lifted from a Ming Vase. It is a gorgeously rich piece of wordless animation.
The Flight of Dragons becomes more of an oddity after the fact, an almost forgotten movie, with very little fandom attached to it. Some talks in 2010 about a remake came to nought, and other than a Blueray bare bones release, there is little in the way of merchindise of fan creavity surrounding it. For me though, it sits atop the pile as to why I came to love the fantasy genre,
Do you rememebr seeing this film as a child? What memories do you have of it? Let us know!