Current location:	Ipoh, Malaysia
Current mood:	nostalgic
Current music:	"Flight of Dragons" - Don McLean
Entry tags:	animation, movie, rankin/bass

Animated Movie Nostalgia: The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Occasionally my feelings of nostalgia get triggered by something related. This time it came about as I rewatched "The Last Unicorn" on DVD. I was reminded of another Rankin/Bass production of similar vintage - "The Flight of Dragons".

Between the 2 of them, I enjoyed "The Flight of Dragons" a bit more. The edge came from how this animated movie did not talk down to kids nor did it insult their intelligence. The clear explanation of how and why dragons breathe fire and flew although they were giant beasts made sense and was nicely incorporated into the storyline. In addition, I was well-immersed in Dungeon & Dragons (imported in at great cost) at that time.

This animated movie has 2 well-known actors providing their voices. John Ritter voicing the lead character, Peter Dickinson, and James Earl Jones providing his 'evil' voice to Ommadon, the Red Wizard i.e. 'the villain'. Yet, he is not so much a villain as one who rages against the decline and hopes to turn it in his favour. The plot of the movie is not so much the good-versus-evil type of show that it seems to present on the surface but one about the past and superstition and the advent of science and the future.

The animation is considered quite decent for a TV movie. The designs are not pretty looking but do give the show a more adult look. The background art is reminiscent of the same in "The Last Unicorn". I understand that it even used Japanese animators to do the animation (and that is even what is noted in the Wikipedia entry of this movie although a pinch of salt is required when it comes to Wikipedia).

Here's the opening credits of the movie with the eponymous title song performed by Don McLean uploaded at YouTube.com:


Just can't get enough of the title song when I first saw it on VHS tape in the early 80s.

There have been a few VHS releases and even a LaserDisc release, it seems, but to-date, there is still no official release of this movie on DVD. The last VHS release is in 1999, according to Amazon. Prices of used VHS copies are very high. The whole movie has been uploaded on YouTube.com - 11 parts in all. Video quality is, of course, terrible due to (1) from VHS tape and (2) YouTube streaming "quality". There are also the other *ahem* options.

How I wish this would get an official DVD release or even a Blu-Ray release. It may not have been as popular as "The Last Unicorn" but in my books, it is a more essential purchase.