Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This
Speaker 1: is Rob Lamb and I'm Seth Nicholas Johnson. Yeah, Joe
Speaker 1: is still out on parental leaves, so Seth is joining
Speaker 1: me once again, and we're going to be discussing a
Speaker 1: wonderful slice of early nineteen eighties animation. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about twos, the Flight of Dragons from Ranking and Bass. Seth,
Speaker 1: what's your history with this film? So I assume this
Speaker 1: was pretty common in the eighties and nineties when I
Speaker 1: was a child, But my family had a large collection
Speaker 1: of VHS tapes that you know, contained movies that were
Speaker 1: recorded off of television, especially Gosh. I think ever since
Speaker 1: the beginning of television, a big way to like kind
Speaker 1: of fill that time was just to play old movies.
Speaker 1: And then ultimately someone was like, hey, what if we
Speaker 1: make new movies for television. It's like wow even more,
Speaker 1: you know. So Yeah, I think most parents when they
Speaker 1: had when they got their first VCR, they just taped
Speaker 1: movies off of television perpetually, and they just had these
Speaker 1: amassed collections of two or three movies on a single
Speaker 1: blank VHS cassette and um. Back when this first premiered
Speaker 1: on television in six I presume one of my parents
Speaker 1: recorded it. And then as I got older and I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, going through this, you know, collection
Speaker 1: of black spine tapes with no description other than maybe
Speaker 1: a few hastily scribbled words on on on on like
Speaker 1: a label, I was just seeing, what are these things?
Speaker 1: And one of them that I came across was the
Speaker 1: Flight of Dragons, and uh, it really fascinated me as
Speaker 1: a child. I'm not sure if I could really articulate
Speaker 1: as a child what really made me, you know, uh
Speaker 1: gravitate towards it. But now I was an adult, I
Speaker 1: can go like, wow, you know, this animation is actually
Speaker 1: really complex and really special and really compelling. Um you know,
Speaker 1: the stories actually really kind of deep but also shallow
Speaker 1: enough for a child to understand, and it's got a
Speaker 1: nice kind of like you know balance there, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I just watched it perpetually as a child, and then ultimately,
Speaker 1: as we shifted into the DVD world, I bought a
Speaker 1: new DVD copy from the Warner Archives and I still
Speaker 1: watch it pretty regularly, but mostly honestly for its visuals.
Speaker 1: Its visuals are really pretty stunning in places. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: this one is. It's a real joy to watch. I
Speaker 1: had not only had I never seen this before. It
Speaker 1: was really off my radar for most of my life.
Speaker 1: I don't know what was I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: I was going on in X, but I know that
Speaker 1: we were watching TV. So I'm not sure how I
Speaker 1: missed this one, because there are certainly plenty of other
Speaker 1: films from the Rank and Bess catalog that have an
Speaker 1: important place in my television and film childhood, but this
Speaker 1: is one that I don't think I heard of until
Speaker 1: I guess many years ago. I think Ben Bolan of
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know and ridiculous history
Speaker 1: casually mentioned to me once. He's like, do you remember
Speaker 1: a film called The Flight of Dragons and uh, and
Speaker 1: he gave me some brief description of it. I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of that, but that sounds interesting. And
Speaker 1: then more recently, I knew that you were going to
Speaker 1: be guest host in a couple of episodes of Weird House.
Speaker 1: So I started looking around in various animated features from
Speaker 1: this time period and I ran across that title again.
Speaker 1: And watched. I don't think I watched a trailer, but
Speaker 1: I watched some segment from it and I was instantly interested. No,
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a fascinating thing, and I think
Speaker 1: it's got something to do with, um, the structure of
Speaker 1: replaying things on television when we were younger, because like,
Speaker 1: you know, something like another Rank and Ambass classic, like
Speaker 1: a Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer, there's a built in
Speaker 1: structure for that. Every every Christmas season you play it again,
Speaker 1: and you know, people kind of get like an attachment
Speaker 1: to it. The uh, late seventies early eighties did have
Speaker 1: this kind of like fantasy boom and other things really happened.
Speaker 1: Like I'm going off top of my head here, but
Speaker 1: in eighties six, I believe the other two big animated
Speaker 1: features that came out that year, This might have been
Speaker 1: eighty two, either way, the year this premiered one way
Speaker 1: or the other. I looked this up. It was the
Speaker 1: same year as Secretive Nim and The Last Unicorn. Those
Speaker 1: were like the three big features that year, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh wow, Like that really was like a
Speaker 1: vibe at that time because all three of those they
Speaker 1: are beloved but they're also like cult favorites like they are.
Speaker 1: None of them are mainstream, but they are all well
Speaker 1: known fantasy things. So yeah, I just think it was
Speaker 1: a weird time for UM latching onto the public consciousness
Speaker 1: and trying to capitalize upon high fantasy as mainstream entertainment
Speaker 1: that maybe it wasn't quite as successful as they were
Speaker 1: hoping it would be, you know, with as a moneymaker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you mentioned those films in particular, because,
Speaker 1: on one hand, even if you haven't seen The Flight
Speaker 1: of Dragons and and I had not, it's easy to
Speaker 1: enter into it if you've seen certainly other rank and
Speaker 1: bass animated features from this iron period, but even just
Speaker 1: sort of stuff that was also populating the waters of
Speaker 1: of major animated fantasy at the time, and then specifically
Speaker 1: mentioning The Secretive Nim and The Last Unicorn, both again
Speaker 1: vote beloved films with a very strong following. I could
Speaker 1: sit down and watch either of them. However, I do
Speaker 1: feel like both of those films have their own issues
Speaker 1: as well. Um, depending on where you're coming from, Like
Speaker 1: from for me, I absolutely love like the first half
Speaker 1: of The Last Unicorn, and then it starts kind of
Speaker 1: a drag for me. Um, I think that's that's perhaps
Speaker 1: a element of fantasy that that that perhaps some I
Speaker 1: don't want to call it lazy, but I do feel
Speaker 1: like there's like a pattern to it where it's like
Speaker 1: set up the interesting world for the first half and
Speaker 1: then just let it play out for the second half.
Speaker 1: And I think actually that's part of this this film
Speaker 1: as well, which which we'll get into. Yeah, though this
Speaker 1: one I think does pick back up in a major way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there is sort of that that lag period
Speaker 1: perhaps here as well. Uh secret and him. I'll just
Speaker 1: say real quick, I never had this particular attachment, but
Speaker 1: I know that the source material does not have rat
Speaker 1: wizards in it. I think they added all of that
Speaker 1: for the film, and that's the stuff I love the most.
Speaker 1: So I am certainly not offended by it, but I
Speaker 1: could understand where there would be some weirdness, uh there
Speaker 1: for viewers who had a stronger attachment to the source material.
Speaker 1: Interesting alright, So yes, this is a film that I
Speaker 1: believe debuted in the UK directed video in two and
Speaker 1: in Night six it aired as an ABC movie special.
Speaker 1: It was the ABC movie Well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was ABC movie of the Week, but it was
Speaker 1: an ABC movie special, and I think we're going to
Speaker 1: play the TV spot for that in just a second.
Speaker 1: But first of all, the elevator pitch. What's your elevator
Speaker 1: pitch for this flick? Here? Seth straightforward, I would say,
Speaker 1: an animated Dungeons and Dragons campaign about science for is magic. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that's good. It is a fantasy adventure that
Speaker 1: kind of sneaks a fair amount of pro science propaganda
Speaker 1: into it, but in a way that I absolutely love.
Speaker 1: And I should also note I'll keep coming back to this,
Speaker 1: but when I watched it for the first time, I
Speaker 1: also got my son to watch it with me. It
Speaker 1: was my wife was was out that evening, so we
Speaker 1: we had the TV to ourselves, and I said, okay,
Speaker 1: let's watch this dragon show together. Um, And so he
Speaker 1: ended up really enjoying it as well, and certainly was
Speaker 1: on board for all of the scientific messaging. Nice. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and listen to that trailer. Well, TV
Speaker 1: spot audio, and I believe this is a long time
Speaker 1: ABC announcer Scott Vincent doing the narration to night an
Speaker 1: ABC premier presentation somewhere in another time in another place
Speaker 1: there's a realm of magic. You will never inherit mind
Speaker 1: to me, Well, wizards rule, we want none of your
Speaker 1: dark magic were good bat Will Voices of evil an
Speaker 1: enchanted kingdom from a mystical tale of unforgettable adventure, The
Speaker 1: Flight of Dragons next, I love it. I'm a sucker
Speaker 1: for a good TV spot like that most definitely. Now,
Speaker 1: I would say word of warning if you're if you're
Speaker 1: out there and you're interested, and then you go and
Speaker 1: look at a listing for this on wherever you get
Speaker 1: your your your films, you may find that the box
Speaker 1: art or the thumbnail for this movie looks really bad.
Speaker 1: And I just want to to assure you that that
Speaker 1: the quality of the picture is not entirely represented by
Speaker 1: that that very cartoony image. Not only is the art
Speaker 1: style completely wrong, like the characters barely even look like
Speaker 1: the characters they are supposed to represents. Like, um, the
Speaker 1: main character Peter almost looks like the page master, you know.
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's that's not the art style, that's
Speaker 1: not from the film. That's someone trying to cartoonify it
Speaker 1: and sell it to a younger market. I presume I
Speaker 1: don't know, but unsuccessful. Yeah, wait until we've talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about the some of the other films that
Speaker 1: Ranking and Bass were putting out of the time. Wait
Speaker 1: until we've we've talked about the source material here, because
Speaker 1: I think that does a better job of setting the
Speaker 1: stage and preparing your expectations for what the film is
Speaker 1: like visually. And uh and speaking of yes, where can
Speaker 1: you get this film? I think it's pretty widely available
Speaker 1: right now. Certainly you can get it on on DVD
Speaker 1: or Blu ray from the w B collection, and then
Speaker 1: you can you can rent orse or buy it digitally
Speaker 1: wherever you get your films online. All right, Well, let's
Speaker 1: start with the really the most obvious point that we've
Speaker 1: already hinted at several times. This is a Ranking and
Speaker 1: Bass joint. I love Ranking in Bass. I own so
Speaker 1: many Ranking and Bass films, like like we've mentioned in
Speaker 1: a previous I love stop motion and they did a
Speaker 1: lot of stop motions, so I own a lot of
Speaker 1: Ranking at Bass. Yeah, I feel like it's it's hard
Speaker 1: to not have a connection to something they put they produced,
Speaker 1: something that they had a hand in. If you grew
Speaker 1: up with access to a TV for a number of decades.
Speaker 1: So Ranking and Bass we're talking about author Ranking Jr.
Speaker 1: Who lived and Jules Bass who lived ninety five through two.
Speaker 1: They both have director and producer credits on this. They
Speaker 1: founded the company known as Videocraft International in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: that went on to become Ranking Bass Productions, Inc. They
Speaker 1: were known, of course, for all those holiday films, many
Speaker 1: of which were uh quote unquote any magic. I believe
Speaker 1: that was their term for the stop motion they were using. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was because they they weren't clay, so they couldn't
Speaker 1: use the Will Vinton phrase uh claymation. And they also
Speaker 1: weren't um Let's see who was it someone someone uh
Speaker 1: coined the term puppet too, and I think that was
Speaker 1: the guy that invented gumby. But yeah, everyone had to
Speaker 1: have their own individual name for what they were calling
Speaker 1: stop motion at the time. And yeah, they used ani magic.
Speaker 1: You know why they why they were the revulsion to
Speaker 1: stop motion? Was it just like stop motion like we
Speaker 1: can't that just sounds so negative, it's it's too much
Speaker 1: of an oxymoron. The people just won't understand. But anyway,
Speaker 1: there stop motion productions include the likes of Rudolph the
Speaker 1: Red Nose Reindeer, which I think many, many, many of
Speaker 1: you are familiar with, maybe most of you are familiar with,
Speaker 1: but also a number of lesser known stop motion films.
Speaker 1: There's some Like looking at the list of them, some
Speaker 1: are ones that I vaguely remember catching part of on
Speaker 1: TV and maybe even as a child, being like, I
Speaker 1: don't think this one's for me. And then some I'd
Speaker 1: never heard of, like like this particular one, the Life
Speaker 1: and Adventures of Santa Claus. I love that one. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: this was one of the ones that you're possibly going
Speaker 1: to do for today's episode. High Fantasy, written by L.
Speaker 1: Frank Baum. Is that his name? The Wizard of Oz guy? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And oh my gosh. High Fantasy about a bunch of
Speaker 1: demigods debating amongst one another whether or not to make
Speaker 1: the human man Santa Claus immortal for all the good
Speaker 1: deeds he's done in his life. Fascinating, really fascinating, really beautiful.
Speaker 1: You got to watch it if you're interested in very
Speaker 1: strange holiday movies. There does seem to be an entire
Speaker 1: genre of holiday films where folks decide to flesh out
Speaker 1: the Santa Claus mythology. Sometimes too great results. Other times
Speaker 1: to kind of you get into kind of weird areas
Speaker 1: when you have to build all this like support structures
Speaker 1: to hold this idea up, especially I think as a youth,
Speaker 1: when you watch these and it's not like, you know,
Speaker 1: they're all working from the same blueprint. So you have
Speaker 1: let's say five or six different origin tales for Santa
Speaker 1: Claus that never really match up. They don't really kind
Speaker 1: of lay over one another, so it just muddles the whole,
Speaker 1: the whole, the whole idea. Yeah, and they all end
Speaker 1: up feeling a little bit like heresy, especially if you're
Speaker 1: still if you're still a believer in Santa or you
Speaker 1: still were holding onto some of those beliefs, Um, you're
Speaker 1: gonna look at something like then be like, I don't
Speaker 1: know about this, um this this line of faith. I
Speaker 1: think they've perhaps they've perhaps lost track of themselves for sure. Now.
Speaker 1: Ranking and Bass were also responsible for some beloved non
Speaker 1: holiday animated films of the sixties, seventies, and eighties, which
Speaker 1: I think these probably deserve more of our attention here,
Speaker 1: uh at least for this film. These include the likes
Speaker 1: of h and Stop Me If you have thoughts on
Speaker 1: on some of these here Seth but Willie McBean and
Speaker 1: his Magic Machine from No thoughts on that one. Okay,
Speaker 1: this this next one I've only seen parts of and
Speaker 1: i've every year at Halloween. I'm tempted to play it
Speaker 1: in full. But Mad Monster Party question mark from seven.
Speaker 1: That one is love it. I love that one dearly. Um,
Speaker 1: It's a bit dated at this point, but I love it,
Speaker 1: love it, love it. I mean it's it's a bunch
Speaker 1: of stop motion monsters throwing a party. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: a really good time. The next one is one of
Speaker 1: my personal favorites and definitely a film I grew up with.
Speaker 1: Ninety seven's The Hobbit. Yeah, this one, The Hobbits and
Speaker 1: the follow up Return of the King. I still to
Speaker 1: this day get confused with the Ralph backshe uh, you know,
Speaker 1: token adaptations, very confusing. They all kind of blend together
Speaker 1: in my head. Um, I'm not really sure how to
Speaker 1: to parse them apart. Yeah, yeah, It's The Hobbit. Is
Speaker 1: is a film that I know as a as a child,
Speaker 1: I loved, and then later on I when I was
Speaker 1: reading and rereading the novels for the first time, I
Speaker 1: had a strong dislike for them because I didn't want
Speaker 1: to picture the characters as they appeared in the in
Speaker 1: the animated film while I was reading it. But then
Speaker 1: I've subsequently come back around and really really embrace the Hobbit.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's tremendous. John Houston, I
Speaker 1: think is my Gandalf. As much as I love Ian McKellen,
Speaker 1: I've got to go with John Houston for my Gandalf.
Speaker 1: And also it's just the pacing in seventy the Hobbit
Speaker 1: is just so good, like they managed to take one
Speaker 1: book make one film out of it. Yes, they cut
Speaker 1: out some some great stuff to do it, but you
Speaker 1: end up with a very watchable film and you're in
Speaker 1: and out in seventy eight minutes. It also feels good
Speaker 1: that UM. I feel like the material it adapted much
Speaker 1: smoother than it did in the Um Jackson films, because
Speaker 1: it went from this is a short children's book too,
Speaker 1: this is a short children's film. It was a one
Speaker 1: to one. It was very easy. There there was no flourish,
Speaker 1: no no no guilding the lily like they did on
Speaker 1: the The Jackson Wage, which I enjoyed a certain extent.
Speaker 1: I think they're fine, they're just not as good as
Speaker 1: obviously the other trilogy. They're they're they're fun as well.
Speaker 1: I don't dislike those and and certainly when you get
Speaker 1: to the adaptation of The Lord of the Rings you
Speaker 1: have to give a lot of Lord of Rings itself.
Speaker 1: You have to give a lot of credit to to
Speaker 1: Peter Jackson. I mean, those are are are pretty terrific films.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, the animated attempts to bring that
Speaker 1: trilogy to the screen, we're a little a little rougher
Speaker 1: around the edges. You have the Ralph backsheet film, and
Speaker 1: then of course Ranking and Bass come back around and
Speaker 1: finish what back she started with the Return of the King,
Speaker 1: which I also remember enjoying. It also has has some
Speaker 1: nice Orc songs in it, something that I think has
Speaker 1: largely been been lacking. I don't remember if the Orcs
Speaker 1: sang at all in the Peter Jackson films, but I
Speaker 1: haven't seen all the cuts all right. On top of those,
Speaker 1: we also have the Last Unicorn from eighty two, which
Speaker 1: we already mentioned, certainly a classic great vocal performances in
Speaker 1: that some for my money, terrific music by America. Uh,
Speaker 1: there at least a couple of tracks in there that
Speaker 1: that I will absolutely go out of my way to
Speaker 1: listen to on their own every now and then. That
Speaker 1: was also an element of the early eighties late seventies
Speaker 1: animation was they worked in popular musicians. I think form
Speaker 1: like the first time and uh, I think we're better
Speaker 1: for it. Well, we'll have a little theme song by
Speaker 1: by a popular musician later for this film. Well, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that later. On the TV end of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: There was also ThunderCats and silver Hawks. Silver Hawks it
Speaker 1: was basically ThunderCats remixed the same basic concept but in
Speaker 1: space and instead of cat people, they were like metal
Speaker 1: bird people, and instead of mom Ra you had Monstar
Speaker 1: the space crime Boss. Yeah, but I definitely remember watching
Speaker 1: those shows. Rankin and Bass also had their hands in
Speaker 1: some mostly live action films that are also worth noting.
Speaker 1: One is V seven The Last Dinosaur, which is Japanese
Speaker 1: co production, and then there's The Bermuda Depths. This is
Speaker 1: another Japanese co production that featured a young Carl Weathers.
Speaker 1: Burrow Lives and I believe a giant psychic sea turtle.
Speaker 1: Joe has seen this and I have not, but he
Speaker 1: tells me that it's amazing. It sounds amazing. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen it either. Now one one more quick note about
Speaker 1: the animation here. As with other as with various other
Speaker 1: Rank and Bass productions, you'll note a number of Japanese
Speaker 1: animators and filmmakers credited. They worked with a company called
Speaker 1: top Craft on this one, a Japanese animation studio that
Speaker 1: did hand drawn animations on this picture. Top Craft went
Speaker 1: on to make one of the greatest animated films of
Speaker 1: all time, Miyazaki's Nasaka of the Valley of the Wind.
Speaker 1: And when top Craft folded, Miyazaki and others formed studio
Speaker 1: Ghibli And you can tell you can tell there there
Speaker 1: are a number of shots in this film that you
Speaker 1: may want to like just because it looks dated, because
Speaker 1: it looks very seventies. Might just want to dismiss the
Speaker 1: whole thing and be like, oh, that's that's old and no, no, no,
Speaker 1: this isn't good. But no, they're there. Um multiple shots
Speaker 1: that when you look at them, you're like, oh, they
Speaker 1: weren't lazy. They weren't They went to extremes to make
Speaker 1: this shot successful. Um one for example that will come
Speaker 1: up later. We have a wizard and our protagonist Peter,
Speaker 1: both sitting on a die with a pair of dice,
Speaker 1: each of them sitting on one, and they rock it
Speaker 1: up into the air like a little rocket ship and
Speaker 1: spin while they're doing it, and we see their bodies
Speaker 1: full three sixty degrees from from going or because they're
Speaker 1: spinning in a circle and going up from beneath us
Speaker 1: two above us. And when I was watching that recently
Speaker 1: as an adult who has, you know, made a career
Speaker 1: in animation, I go, oh, no, that is so much
Speaker 1: time like that. That is weeks, weeks and weeks for
Speaker 1: that one very quick shot. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: they they weren't being lazy, you know, there were there
Speaker 1: were a lot of ways to do that shot lazy
Speaker 1: and they didn't do it. Do you think something like
Speaker 1: that is a case when you're looking at, especially a
Speaker 1: collaboration like this co production. Is that a case where
Speaker 1: the animators are hungry to do something like cool and
Speaker 1: and and maybe that requires more work or is it
Speaker 1: a situation where others are like, no, this is what
Speaker 1: we need, this is the shot we need, make it happen.
Speaker 1: I think it both. I think, um, someone who's a
Speaker 1: storyboard artist, which would originally put that in because they
Speaker 1: think it would look cool. And then when it gets
Speaker 1: hand handed off to the animation director or to the animators,
Speaker 1: they would look at it and go, oh, no, this
Speaker 1: this is gonna take a lot. And then they would go, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it would be pretty cool. They're like, yeah, that
Speaker 1: would be pretty cool. All right, do we have time
Speaker 1: for this? Do we have the money for this? Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's do it. So so I think it.
Speaker 1: I think it's a combination of both, all right. Getting
Speaker 1: into the writing on this one real quick. Romeo Muller
Speaker 1: who was a long time ranking bass writer, he was
Speaker 1: a writer on this. There's also Jeffrey Walker that is
Speaker 1: credited with writing additional material. I'm not exactly sure what
Speaker 1: the additional material was, but they they were an actor
Speaker 1: and writer as well. Now getting into the source material here,
Speaker 1: they are really a couple of things. The main one, uh,
Speaker 1: seems to be this book The Flight of Dragons by
Speaker 1: Peter Dickinson who lived ninety seven through and illustrated by
Speaker 1: Wayne Anderson who was born in nineteen six. And I
Speaker 1: believe as if this recording is still very much alive.
Speaker 1: I actually got a copy of this book. You can
Speaker 1: pick it up used for relatively cheap, I mean basically
Speaker 1: very little more than it would have cost fresh off
Speaker 1: the shelf back when it came out. But this was
Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy nine book. Uh, pick it up if
Speaker 1: you were at all interested in this topic. I'll talk
Speaker 1: more about it in a bit. But of these two individuals,
Speaker 1: Dickinson was an English children's author of numerous books, including
Speaker 1: Tolku from nineteen seventy nine and City of Gold from
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Anderson is a splendid illustrator and artist whose
Speaker 1: work has shown up just all over the place. Has
Speaker 1: a very distinctive style, which you can see if you
Speaker 1: go to his website. It's a Wayne Anderson art dot com.
Speaker 1: And I know I had previously run into some of
Speaker 1: his dragon illustrations because they were used or reused in
Speaker 1: the Time Life Enchanted World books, I believe, specifically in
Speaker 1: their Dragons book. So a lot of the some of
Speaker 1: the cooler elements and the science the elements and also
Speaker 1: the monster science of the dragons is all right out
Speaker 1: of this book. And there's even more of it, Like
Speaker 1: there's a stuff about dragon blood and the chemical composition
Speaker 1: of dragon blood. So I haven't had a time to
Speaker 1: just devour it all, but it's it's a really cool book. Uh,
Speaker 1: definitely worth picking up, you know. It's it's one of
Speaker 1: these where it's it's not real history, it's not real
Speaker 1: science of dragons, but it is. It is all sort
Speaker 1: of speculative science of dragons, and I love it. I
Speaker 1: mean that's always fun stuff. I mean, that's stuff you
Speaker 1: and Joe have done on this podcast often, which is,
Speaker 1: here's something unexplainable, let's explain it. Let's find a way
Speaker 1: to make it work. Yeah, there's a theory of dragonflight
Speaker 1: in this that Will will describe when we get into
Speaker 1: the plot. And it's it's amazing. I never thought of
Speaker 1: it before. My son was very amused by it. It's
Speaker 1: great Now. In addition to this, because this is not
Speaker 1: a really a narrative book, this is more of a
Speaker 1: here's the world of dragons and how it works book.
Speaker 1: Apparently some story material also came from the book The
Speaker 1: Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dixon who lived
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, author of the Dragon Night series,
Speaker 1: of which I believe this was the first volume the
Speaker 1: Child cycle, as well as such novels as The Forever
Speaker 1: Man from six. He also wrote a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: short stories. All right, let's get into the voice cast
Speaker 1: on this picture. It is, as you might expect from
Speaker 1: this time period, rather interesting. It's a mix of folks
Speaker 1: that might surprise you that they're here at all. And
Speaker 1: uh and there are also some just really great voice
Speaker 1: voice actors that pop up as well. So first of all,
Speaker 1: there's a wizard in this by the name of Carolinas
Speaker 1: who's very important. He's essentially our our main good wizard
Speaker 1: and he is voiced by Harry Morgan who lived nineteen
Speaker 1: fifteen through two thousand and eleven. And I have to
Speaker 1: say this bit of casting feels a bit weird but
Speaker 1: also totally spot on for late seventies or early eighties casting.
Speaker 1: He as an accomplished actor of stage and screen well
Speaker 1: before TVs MASH, but MASH is probably where a lot
Speaker 1: of people would recognize this guy from. And if you
Speaker 1: you hear his voice, he has that very dry voice,
Speaker 1: kind of crackley American accent in this in this picture,
Speaker 1: then you know exactly who this guy is. He was
Speaker 1: also on drag Net. Uh so, yeah, very much a
Speaker 1: drag Net cop voice for our our weird nature wizard,
Speaker 1: which again feels kind of strange but all right. Um
Speaker 1: Morgan was also into High Noon two is the ox
Speaker 1: Bow incident in nineteen sixties Inherent the Wind. He was
Speaker 1: also just in a ton of TV over the years,
Speaker 1: often doing little guest spots, showing up on such shows
Speaker 1: as Night Gallery. He was in a segment on Night Gallery,
Speaker 1: and he was also on an episode of The Simpsons,
Speaker 1: just to name a couple of his many appearances. So
Speaker 1: that's our main good wizard, but we also have an
Speaker 1: evil wizard, as one tends to have in pictures like this.
Speaker 1: This is the wizard Omada On who and Ohmadon is
Speaker 1: voiced by James Earl Jones one. This is, of course
Speaker 1: the legendary actor of stage, screen, TV, and more legendary
Speaker 1: is the voice behind Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise.
Speaker 1: He originated the role of Jack Jefferson on Broadway and
Speaker 1: The Great White Hope and gave a really electric performance
Speaker 1: of that role in the nineteen seventy film adaptation. He's
Speaker 1: been in so many things we can't we can't even
Speaker 1: begin to list them all, including playing King Joffey in
Speaker 1: Coming to America voicing Mufassa in The Lion King. And
Speaker 1: there's also no shortage of weirder, smaller roles that he
Speaker 1: did as well, and he needed TV work, but he
Speaker 1: also pops up in things like grim Prairie Tales from nine.
Speaker 1: There's a two monster movie that I was recently looking
Speaker 1: at called Blood Tide, where he plays like a kind
Speaker 1: of suspicious archaeologist who may have awakened a monster in Greece.
Speaker 1: I believe it's the plot. Um. He has a memorable
Speaker 1: role in seven s Matuan and the role that this
Speaker 1: performance I think mostly made me think of is another
Speaker 1: performance from two. He of course played the villainous wizard
Speaker 1: cult leader Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian. There's even
Speaker 1: a part in this film where he starts saying doom, Doom, doom,
Speaker 1: and it definitely um connects the two in my mind. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love that part all right. We also have a
Speaker 1: kind of befuddled writer character from our world, from the
Speaker 1: normal human world, the world of science, who gets sucked
Speaker 1: into all of this. This is the character Peter Dickinson. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this is yes, the same name as the actual
Speaker 1: author of the Flight of Dragon's book, and he's voiced
Speaker 1: by John Ritter. John Ritter, of course thousand and three
Speaker 1: beloved TV and film actor and made a splash on
Speaker 1: the small screen for the sitcom Three's Company, which I
Speaker 1: weirdly grew up watching a lot. I think that was
Speaker 1: like a show that would be on TV and syndication
Speaker 1: and well generally I think while my mom was cooking
Speaker 1: dinner and the we the kids would just watch Threees Company.
Speaker 1: Did I have no I have no reason in my
Speaker 1: mind other than the fact that it was on all
Speaker 1: the time. Like I didn't I didn't really care or
Speaker 1: even understand about the dynamics of this household. But they
Speaker 1: were funny and John Rider in particular, it was kind
Speaker 1: of a goofy, cartoony guy, so at least he appealed
Speaker 1: to kids in a way. Yeah, it was weird because
Speaker 1: like later on I would learn that, oh yeah, this
Speaker 1: was like supposedly a risk a kind of TV show,
Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be like, you know, breaking
Speaker 1: down boundaries, Like here's this guy and he lives with
Speaker 1: these two women and they're keeping it a secret from
Speaker 1: the landlord. All of that just completely washed over me
Speaker 1: as a kid, and you just take it at at
Speaker 1: face value, it was like, Oh, yeah, he lives there
Speaker 1: with these these two women, and I guess the he
Speaker 1: has these goofy, wacky landlords that they just try and
Speaker 1: keep out. Yeah. No, he worked on two levels. Um.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, he also did a lot of
Speaker 1: film though. He did Sling Blade, Problem Child, Bride of Chucky,
Speaker 1: and also a lot of TV shows, popping up in
Speaker 1: guest spots, usually in episodes of stuff like Buffy, Tales
Speaker 1: from the Crypt and News Radio. Of course, we also
Speaker 1: have some dragon voices in this. The dragon rog is
Speaker 1: voiced by Victor Boueno. Wait a minute, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I thought was the wolf? Oh yes, Oh, of course
Speaker 1: is the wolf. Yes, I know we're getting ahead here. Yes,
Speaker 1: a wolf will show up in this and he talks. Uh.
Speaker 1: Our ag is voiced by Victor Bueno. Um. This is
Speaker 1: the last role for this individual, a longtime TV and
Speaker 1: film actor, probably best known for films such as nine
Speaker 1: sixty two Is Whatever having to Baby Jane and n
Speaker 1: seventies Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which he
Speaker 1: plays one of the mutants. I included an image here
Speaker 1: for you, Seth in case you have flashbacks to beneath
Speaker 1: the Planet of the Apes. Now, now, was he also
Speaker 1: King Tut in the Batman Live Action series or or
Speaker 1: am I completely making that up? I think this is true. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: one of the deals that I grabbed shows I think
Speaker 1: images from both of these. Um, I think he did
Speaker 1: play King Tutt. I've just been forget. Yes, Yes, that
Speaker 1: that is him. That is him. A very strange character
Speaker 1: in the history of Batman. I believe he was a
Speaker 1: college professor who was hit on the head and then
Speaker 1: suddenly believed he was King Tuts and then would commit
Speaker 1: crimes befitting King Tuts trying to exist in this modern
Speaker 1: twentieth century world of ninety six Gotham City. One of
Speaker 1: the most beloved Batman villains of all time, right up
Speaker 1: there with a Joker, Yeah, right below Egghead. I'm not
Speaker 1: really a Batman comics guy, but I do seem to
Speaker 1: recall there there have like Batman is never going to end,
Speaker 1: and so inevitably creators have come back to some of those, um,
Speaker 1: those villains from the Batman TV series and found new
Speaker 1: things to do with them. And I think I've read
Speaker 1: something about like one where you had a faction that
Speaker 1: had these sort of forgotten characters Lie King, Tutt, and Egghead.
Speaker 1: I have read it. I have read it. It was
Speaker 1: a complete series exclusively based on the nineteen sixty six
Speaker 1: Batman television series, as if it continued on after the
Speaker 1: television show. And uh no, it's wonderful if if you
Speaker 1: like Batman sixty six the TV series, which I do
Speaker 1: very much, it's it's fun just to have more adventures
Speaker 1: in that camp be world with these characters that never
Speaker 1: really got much attention outside of that world. All right.
Speaker 1: We also have Briag and Smurgle. These are are these
Speaker 1: both dragons? Smurgle definitely is Briag. I think that's the
Speaker 1: evil red dragon and Smurgle is like the elderly good dragon.
Speaker 1: I believe that's the two. But just like our God,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of like just guttural noises.
Speaker 1: That's just mythical creature. Yeah, I guess this is draconic.
Speaker 1: This is a dragon language. It all sounds like growling.
Speaker 1: But um. Both of these characters were voiced by James Gregory,
Speaker 1: who of nineteen eleven through two thousand and two New
Speaker 1: York actor. He had a long running role on TV
Speaker 1: Barney Miller. He was in sixty two The Manchurian Candidate.
Speaker 1: He was in sixties six is murders Row, and he
Speaker 1: was also in nineteen seventies Beneath the Planet of the Apes,
Speaker 1: in which he played the ape general Ursus the Planet
Speaker 1: of the Apes franchise. Whenever anyone even just starts talking
Speaker 1: about it, I always feel the pole just to watch
Speaker 1: them all again. It's just there. There's something very comforting
Speaker 1: about them, and I'm not quite sure what that is,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, those are those enjoyable films. The original series,
Speaker 1: of course, is what I'm speaking of. Yeah, I need
Speaker 1: to read. I'm guess I'm kind of waiting until my
Speaker 1: son's ready for them, and then I'm gonna definitely watch
Speaker 1: the first one, and I really want to watch the
Speaker 1: second one again. I I have a a weird attachment
Speaker 1: to Beneath the Planet of the Apes. If that is
Speaker 1: the second one. There's not a one in between those two,
Speaker 1: is there? No? No, that's the one. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: one where they are like, you know, um um worshiping
Speaker 1: the atomic bomb and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a fun one. I also really like the one
Speaker 1: where um the two apes go into our modern world
Speaker 1: and are kind of like wandering around being like the
Speaker 1: toast of the town. I forget which one that one is.
Speaker 1: It's like the creature walks among us, except it's about
Speaker 1: to ape creatures. It's fun, yes, the same energy, is
Speaker 1: that for sure? Alright? Getting into just a couple of
Speaker 1: smaller roles here, Larry Storch plays the pawn broker in
Speaker 1: this which is a fun little role we'll discuss. But
Speaker 1: this guy Live two actor and comedian. But I only
Speaker 1: really wanted to highlight him because he also played the
Speaker 1: scout Master in nineteen eighties Without Warning, which of course
Speaker 1: was the first episode of Weird House cinema classic for
Speaker 1: that reason alone. We have a voice in this film.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a power, almost a deity. It is
Speaker 1: known as Antiquity, and it is voiced by Paul Freese,
Speaker 1: who six he's actually I believe uncredited on this film,
Speaker 1: but this was a long time voiceover voice actor that
Speaker 1: frequently popped up and Ranking and Bass productions also Paul
Speaker 1: Freeze did the voice, also uncredited. Hilarious the Blue Wizard,
Speaker 1: another role which once again and in the credits for
Speaker 1: no reason, he just doesn't get credited. But there he
Speaker 1: is he he plays one of our main four wizards
Speaker 1: as well, but one of the lesser ones, one of
Speaker 1: the ones with fewer lines. I do always find it
Speaker 1: interesting when you look back at a voice acting in
Speaker 1: the nineties and earlier, like sometimes you would find situations
Speaker 1: where they just have one voice actor to just do
Speaker 1: numerous voices in ways that you I guess that you
Speaker 1: certainly don't see as much on modern animated pictures. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and here's actually to me the worst part about that.
Speaker 1: UM think about Looney Tunes shorts. For example, Mel Blank
Speaker 1: did almost every cartoon voice almost all of them. However,
Speaker 1: there are two other actors which are very prominent in
Speaker 1: that world. One is June four A and one is
Speaker 1: Arthur Q. Bryan. Arthur Q Bryant is mostly known for
Speaker 1: that the Elmer Fudd voice that was not Mel Blank,
Speaker 1: that was Arthur Q. Bryan and June four A. Basically
Speaker 1: most of the female character is like a witch, Hazel, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: They often were never credited. Uh. In these old Luny
Speaker 1: Tunes shorts, all the voice credits always just went to
Speaker 1: Mel Blank for the longest time, and there's no particular
Speaker 1: reason other than you know, ego or I don't know,
Speaker 1: perhaps trying to fool people into thinking he did more
Speaker 1: than he did. It's just it's just a weird practice,
Speaker 1: and it still happens. There's still a lot of that
Speaker 1: of people not getting credit for work that they have
Speaker 1: done or um. It's just it's just a strange practice
Speaker 1: that still exists in the entertainment industry. All right. Finally,
Speaker 1: on the music front, um, First of all, the score
Speaker 1: we tend to highlight the score of the score is
Speaker 1: by Marie Laws who nineteen also scored The Last Dinosaur
Speaker 1: as well as The Hobbit from and other various ranking
Speaker 1: and bass joints. But the real, the real, real juicy
Speaker 1: part of the music is of course the theme song
Speaker 1: to the Flight of Dragons. I this is really just
Speaker 1: gotten its hooks into my brain ever since I watched
Speaker 1: this film last week. If I even see the book
Speaker 1: The Flight of Dragons on the shelf, my brain will
Speaker 1: just automatically go Flight of Dragons. And it's the voice
Speaker 1: of Don McClain, American music legend, singing the Flight of
Speaker 1: Dragons theme song. I mean Mr American Pie himself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now he he didn't write this one. I believe, but
Speaker 1: he does perform it, and it's it's a fun little
Speaker 1: little theme song. It's it first, it might feel kind
Speaker 1: of weird because it does not. It does not feel medieval.
Speaker 1: I don't know, um not. I mean not that the
Speaker 1: theme song to The Last Unicorn by America feels medieval either,
Speaker 1: But that's a great one as well. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I I think it absolutely works here. I absolutely can't
Speaker 1: get it out of my head. It's that's the tone
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah. It gives it like an airy, dreamy vibe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it totally works. All right. Are we ready to
Speaker 1: talk about the the actual the plots of this film. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get into it. So we begin with a shot
Speaker 1: of mountaintops and they are cresting through a sea of clouds.
Speaker 1: The sun is low on the horizon, and we slowly
Speaker 1: move in on a figure dressed in green robes standing
Speaker 1: at the precipice of the highest mountain. Uh. This green
Speaker 1: cloaked figure shouts out gore, Bash, Gore bash, Come, and
Speaker 1: a large green dragon, maybe like ten times the size
Speaker 1: of the shouting figure. He just kind of pulls up
Speaker 1: next to the mountaintop and allows what we can now
Speaker 1: see as an elderly looking man with a long white
Speaker 1: beard to step onto its back. The man of the
Speaker 1: dragon take off into the sky and join an already
Speaker 1: established thunder of dragons. Now I had to look this up.
Speaker 1: I was like, what is a group of dragons called? And,
Speaker 1: because of course they are fictional, I actually found many
Speaker 1: many different words to to describe a group of dragons.
Speaker 1: My favorite was thunder, So I'm going to refer to that.
Speaker 1: A thunder of dragons just sounds very cool to me. However,
Speaker 1: another explanation for a group of dragons, another word for
Speaker 1: that is a flight of dragons, which will be brought
Speaker 1: up multiple times actually in this movie. So I suppose
Speaker 1: I should I should use that term. But thunder of
Speaker 1: dragons just sounded so cool to me. That does. That
Speaker 1: sounds good? So the figure in green monologues to himself
Speaker 1: a bit about how the world isn't in a transition
Speaker 1: period between magic and science, and he he just kind
Speaker 1: of wonders to himself, um, what he's gonna do about that?
Speaker 1: You know? So so from there, the epic theme song
Speaker 1: from Don McLean begins, and there's a long credit sequence
Speaker 1: showing this group of dragons. This thunder of dragons in
Speaker 1: flight long. Uh, this is just a thing they did
Speaker 1: back in the late seventies, early eighties. This is the
Speaker 1: kind of moment that when I was a child I
Speaker 1: would fast forward through. But as an adult I appreciate if,
Speaker 1: if memory serves this is actually a sequence from later
Speaker 1: on in the picture, the right to say that they
Speaker 1: just went ahead and front loaded to just give you,
Speaker 1: give you a lot of dragons to look at while
Speaker 1: you listen to this wonderful Don McClain song. Uh so
Speaker 1: you know, fair enough, why not? It is beautiful, so
Speaker 1: why not? But but much like a cheer up Charlie
Speaker 1: in a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or um, let's
Speaker 1: see what the other one be, it was a candle
Speaker 1: on the water and Pete's dragon. These were those eighties
Speaker 1: seventies ballads that were they put in children's films that
Speaker 1: I just fast forwarded through. Um. Now, at this point,
Speaker 1: since we've mentioned the dragons and we've seen multiple dragons,
Speaker 1: should point out that, yes, the dragons in this film
Speaker 1: are as as my my son described them, chalky. They are.
Speaker 1: They are big, chunky dragons and at first you might
Speaker 1: look at these and thinks I just can't. I do
Speaker 1: not feel in these big, chunky dragons. But I would
Speaker 1: just advise you to stay seated until the film can
Speaker 1: reach its cruising altitude, because this will make perfect sense
Speaker 1: in a bit. Yeah, it's necessary that there, they're there.
Speaker 1: Chunk is very necessary. So um, after this montage of
Speaker 1: dragons flying through the sky, several of the dragons land
Speaker 1: on a river bank, and we see a few other
Speaker 1: mythical creatures, including some pegas I which I presume is
Speaker 1: the plural for pegasus. Do you think so pegas? I
Speaker 1: guess you get into that weird situation where is pegasus
Speaker 1: an individual for his pegasus a species and so forth.
Speaker 1: So more than one Pegasus is on this bank, amongst
Speaker 1: some fairies who are riding down the river, floating on
Speaker 1: the back of a swan. But oh no, uh, this
Speaker 1: swan that the fairies are riding on and the fairies
Speaker 1: themselves are suddenly sucked into a water wheel attached to
Speaker 1: a mill, and they are mangled and presumed dead, but
Speaker 1: they're lifeless. But this green cloaked figure who we have
Speaker 1: seen flying around in the back of the dragon, he
Speaker 1: lays his hands upon the swan, and the fairies and
Speaker 1: he revives them. We must assume bringing them back to life. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this is like the first like visual metaphor for
Speaker 1: kind of the overarching thesis of this film. You know,
Speaker 1: can this technology, this water wheel exists in the same
Speaker 1: world as this magic these fairies, Like can they co
Speaker 1: exist or is one destroying the other? You know. So
Speaker 1: the man is upset and he yells at the mill
Speaker 1: you know, be careful with your technology. And then the
Speaker 1: mill workers come out and they start belittling the man
Speaker 1: in green and he says, no, I am Carolinas. I'm
Speaker 1: the protagonist of this film. I am the green Wizard.
Speaker 1: You know. My domain is the green world, nature itself
Speaker 1: and all of its inhabitants. You know. The mill workers
Speaker 1: they're like whatever, and they start throwing large rocks at
Speaker 1: Carolinas and just tell them to go away. Carolinas is mad,
Speaker 1: so he casts a spell to destroy their water wheel.
Speaker 1: But as he casts it, it the spell just kind
Speaker 1: of fizzles out and just kind of plops into the
Speaker 1: river and has no effect. Thus, the ridicule from the
Speaker 1: mill workers increases and he's just having a bad day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This this was unexpected because when this looked like he
Speaker 1: was going to really come down hard on these awful
Speaker 1: mill workers, and my son was like, well, they brought
Speaker 1: this on themselves. He was ready for it, and he
Speaker 1: was totally supporting anything he was about to do. But then,
Speaker 1: you know, the spell fizzles out and he just kind
Speaker 1: of has to walk away. So Carolinas walks home dejected.
Speaker 1: He actually lives nearby. These are his neighbors, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh he's comforted by his daughter, Princess Melissandra, and
Speaker 1: we will we'll see here more and throughout the story.
Speaker 1: And um so so Carolinas just thinking to himself, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do about this? So he summons his
Speaker 1: three brothers to a meeting. This is the first time
Speaker 1: they've all come together in four hundred years, because they
Speaker 1: need to have a discussion about the state of magic.
Speaker 1: So um, he sends off the letters on owls, as
Speaker 1: you do. However, one thing I learned recently. Did you
Speaker 1: know the owls are actually the slowest birds, so therefore
Speaker 1: terrible conveyance for messages. You know, he's he was a
Speaker 1: quicker bird. Please, But anyway, magic I did No, I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that. Um, Joe and I did an episode
Speaker 1: a while back talking about the idea of using things
Speaker 1: other than pigeons as as messengers, like ravens or owls,
Speaker 1: and we talked about some of the possibilities and limitations
Speaker 1: with these different species. But yeah, we we somehow didn't
Speaker 1: touch on the flying speed of the common owl. You know,
Speaker 1: there there are more important things than speed, you know.
Speaker 1: There there's there's all kinds of aspects we could look atto.
Speaker 1: But let's meet our three other wizards. So they're all
Speaker 1: color coded to keep everyone straight on these. So we've
Speaker 1: met Carolina's he's the green Wizard, Nature grass, all the creatures,
Speaker 1: you got it green. Uh. Next we have Silarious, the
Speaker 1: Blue Wizard. He is the lord of the depths and
Speaker 1: the heights. His realm is outer space, deepest ocean, and
Speaker 1: highest mountain. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, he's he's
Speaker 1: kind of almost like a c deity, but in the
Speaker 1: like in the older sense where you know, you have
Speaker 1: a situation where um, you know, the Greek god of
Speaker 1: the ocean beside and is not limited at the sea,
Speaker 1: like he's the sea is like one of his domains,
Speaker 1: but he has domains beyond the sea as well. I
Speaker 1: I love the combination of outer space and deepest ocean,
Speaker 1: because it does make a lot of sense in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. No air, big, murky, bluish black voids
Speaker 1: like you know, it's it's it's a fun juxtaposition. I
Speaker 1: dig it, I dig it. Next up we have low
Speaker 1: to Jao. This is the Golden Wizard. His realm is
Speaker 1: light and air. He's the lord of transcendence, healing and contemplation.
Speaker 1: Once again, I love it. I also love that because
Speaker 1: he is designed as like you know, uh more of
Speaker 1: like an Eastern wizard. His dragon is the only one
Speaker 1: in the whole movie that is like an Eastern style dragon,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, this is a cool dragon.
Speaker 1: And my son for the most part like this one.
Speaker 1: But he did point out, well, it does have tiny wings,
Speaker 1: and you tend not to to find wings of any
Speaker 1: sort on Eastern dragons. I had to look it up
Speaker 1: in the source book. Here there is an illustration of
Speaker 1: a Chinese dragon, and then there's a bit about Chinese
Speaker 1: dragons and they don't have tiny wings on it. So interesting.
Speaker 1: I wonder if they were trying to maybe perhaps patch
Speaker 1: a um plot hole, because later on we do find
Speaker 1: out the importance of the wing when when they start
Speaker 1: discussing the science of how dragons fly. So yes, I
Speaker 1: I wonder, I wonder how, what, what, what kind of
Speaker 1: thought went into that? But well, I guess we'll see. Well,
Speaker 1: even the book seems a little conflicted on this, because
Speaker 1: the picture of the Chinese dragon has no wings, but
Speaker 1: then the text says that there that they do have
Speaker 1: wings that are just not as noticeable. So I guess
Speaker 1: fair enough, if you try and put those two together
Speaker 1: and come up with some version that can work on
Speaker 1: the screen, you just throw some tiny wings in there
Speaker 1: and call it a den. Well, well, we'll discuss that
Speaker 1: when we get to the science of dragons flying, because
Speaker 1: I have I have a thought about the differences between
Speaker 1: the Eastern and the Western dragon. We'll get there. Now.
Speaker 1: Our fourth wizard, this is the evil one we mentioned
Speaker 1: to the James Earl Jones wizard. This is Ohmadon, the
Speaker 1: Red Wizard, Lord of the Devil's Domain, seducer of Darkness,
Speaker 1: master of black magic. He's he's our villain, and man,
Speaker 1: he's beautiful. I love the design of Ohmadon. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like his robe. He's of course wearing red and dark colors,
Speaker 1: but he has stars on his robes as well as
Speaker 1: opposed to skulls or anything. There are stars and then
Speaker 1: his face too, He's like he's not really he's either
Speaker 1: beyond human at this point or has some sort of
Speaker 1: hybridity going on, because he has like this kind of
Speaker 1: beastly almost ratlike catlike face. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, and um
Speaker 1: he um. He morphs at various times throughout this film,
Speaker 1: and it's all gorgeous. He's he's the one to watch
Speaker 1: for visual splendor. And the James Old Jones voice performance
Speaker 1: on this character is just absolutely great. I mean, James
Speaker 1: el Jones is not just laying back in his chair
Speaker 1: or sitting in a hammock reading lines on this He's
Speaker 1: just chewing every bit of dialogue up and spitting it
Speaker 1: out and it's wonderful. Yeah. So these four wizards, just
Speaker 1: to remind every one, we got a Green Wizard, we
Speaker 1: got a Blue Wizard, we have a Gold Wizard, we
Speaker 1: have a Red Wizard. Those are the four. They will
Speaker 1: come up, but mostly we're focusing on Green and Red.
Speaker 1: Those are the primary antagonist protagonist. So at their meeting
Speaker 1: the four brothers, they discussed that magic is getting weaker
Speaker 1: because humankind is choosing logic over magic, but Carolinas has
Speaker 1: a plan though. He wants the four wizards to consolidate
Speaker 1: their power and create a realm of magic, sealed off
Speaker 1: from the rest of the world where magic can live
Speaker 1: and survive, almost just like you know, a little terrarium
Speaker 1: of of like all the magical creatures, all the magic,
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, we we don't own the world,
Speaker 1: but in this zone we have full magical power. That's
Speaker 1: that's his plan. The Blue Wizard and the Golden Wizard
Speaker 1: agree and pledge their help. The Red Wizard, oh, madon no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he disagrees. He calls uh this proposed magic realm a
Speaker 1: retirement home for magic, and he would rather destroy humankind.
Speaker 1: And his method is really fascinating. Um. Basically, he says, like, um,
Speaker 1: I will take their worst instincts and basically use them
Speaker 1: against themselves, you know, more or less kind of like
Speaker 1: playing into the idea of like, oh, you want to
Speaker 1: build a bomb, I will help you build the biggest
Speaker 1: bomb humans you know. Oh, you you want to distrust
Speaker 1: each other, you should distrust everybody And really just like
Speaker 1: leaning into the worst aspects of humankind and using it
Speaker 1: to destroy ourselves. That's his magic. Plan. Yeah, inviting Omedon
Speaker 1: really couldn't have gone worse for everyone, And I I
Speaker 1: do love the villainist tak he has on. All of
Speaker 1: this reminds me a lot of some of the concepts
Speaker 1: that Michael Inda explored in the book The Never Ending Story,
Speaker 1: because in this work, in the Flight of Dragons, there
Speaker 1: is this idea that they they discuss a lot where
Speaker 1: magic is kind of the inspiration for humans to do
Speaker 1: great things but also potentially terrible things, as Ahmadon is
Speaker 1: channeling here. And in The Never Ending Story we get
Speaker 1: this idea that's particularly presented by the amorph and discussing
Speaker 1: the like the motivations of the nothing and the powers
Speaker 1: beyond the nothing. That, like the same energy that gives
Speaker 1: a child um imagination and gives imaginative individuals that the
Speaker 1: chance to dream and create these magical worlds, it also
Speaker 1: is the same energy that can be twisted into the
Speaker 1: domain of lies and deception. Uh. And so I think
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of echoed in this work as well,
Speaker 1: most definitely. And there is even a point just in
Speaker 1: case a kid is watching this and thinking to themselves,
Speaker 1: you know, this doesn't make any sense. Um Princess Melissandra.
Speaker 1: She she says to Carolina's her father and goes, why
Speaker 1: are you even inviting this guy? You know? Ohmadon's a jerk.
Speaker 1: Don't don't invite him. And Carolinas has a stock answer,
Speaker 1: but he's just like, hey, you know, good can't exist
Speaker 1: without evil. He is necessary, you know. And it's like, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: I'll buy that in a fantasy realm. Well we'll take that.
Speaker 1: Uh So, uh, Omadon wants to destroy human kind. He
Speaker 1: does not want to, you know, hide his magic away.
Speaker 1: So the three good Wizards, Blue, Green, and Gold. They
Speaker 1: decided that they must stop the Red Wizard from destroying humanity.
Speaker 1: But because there is a rule with their like wizard God,
Speaker 1: which we will get into. It's it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: an entity known as Antiquity. Well we'll get there. Um,
Speaker 1: there is a wizard law that says you are not
Speaker 1: able to fight against another wizard, and Antiquity, this this
Speaker 1: wizard god, will basically ensure that. I believe they start
Speaker 1: getting mad at Omadon, and Antiquity starts causing like an
Speaker 1: earthquake and dropping like giant stones near them and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, so they can't do it. They cannot fight Omadon,
Speaker 1: so they decided to use their magic to inspire a
Speaker 1: quest to go take Omadon's Red Crown to to basically
Speaker 1: destroy Omadon. So again with the wizarding laws, which will
Speaker 1: come up, and we also stop to go, you know what,
Speaker 1: just go with it, you know, when the wizarding laws
Speaker 1: come up, we'll just go. Okay, that's the wizarding law.
Speaker 1: I don't know this wizarding world. I'll take your word
Speaker 1: for it. So another wizarding law says that a magic
Speaker 1: quest must have three core members. Carolinas picks an old
Speaker 1: knight that he knows, someone who he knows to be
Speaker 1: trustworthy and brave, Sir orin Neville Smythe. He also picks
Speaker 1: his dragon that we met at the very beginning, gore Bash,
Speaker 1: who was young and perhaps a bit of foolhardy, but
Speaker 1: very brave, very strong. So gore Bash the Green Dragon
Speaker 1: he'll go to. But he doesn't know who to pick
Speaker 1: as the leader. He he just he can't really figure
Speaker 1: that out. So he goes later that night to talk
Speaker 1: to Antiquity once again. This is like the wizard god
Speaker 1: more or less, and it's represented by a silver tree
Speaker 1: that just kind of grows out of the ground again,
Speaker 1: just go with it. And Antiquity tells Carolinas that the
Speaker 1: leader of the quest is in the future and that
Speaker 1: he is Peter Dickinson. He is the correct choice for
Speaker 1: this quest and the only choice for this quest because
Speaker 1: he is the descendant of a great dragon master. But
Speaker 1: he is also the first in this line that is
Speaker 1: also a man of science. Carolinas is confused about this.
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't know, you know, why do we
Speaker 1: need that? But Antiquity is like, come on, I'm god,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's like, all right, fine, fine, fine,
Speaker 1: we'll do this. So so Carolinas is given a silver
Speaker 1: acorn by Antiquity is silver tree, and he throws it
Speaker 1: into a limpid pool under the direction of Antiquity, and
Speaker 1: now he can see Peter Dickinson in the future. Specifically,
Speaker 1: they say, I think it's like, um, they call it
Speaker 1: like the the the final you know, death Rattle of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century or however they phrase it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: the end of the late twentieth century. So we can
Speaker 1: assume it's probably two just like you know, just like
Speaker 1: the it was made in. So we meet Peter. He
Speaker 1: is developing a D and D style board game, old
Speaker 1: Flight of Dragons, and he's showing it to a friend
Speaker 1: of his who runs a pawn shop, and he's discussing, Oh,
Speaker 1: I really want to get this game made, but money,
Speaker 1: so maybe I can pawn this watch and the pawn
Speaker 1: brokers like that watch isn't worth anything. And then he
Speaker 1: also explains that he's also writing a book called Flight
Speaker 1: of Dragons and that basically he's just obsessed with dragons.
Speaker 1: He really wants to figure out how dragons fly, how
Speaker 1: they breathe, fire, etcetera. He's just he's he's a dragon fanatic. However,
Speaker 1: does not seem like really would be your first pick
Speaker 1: to lead a an adventuring party into the heart of
Speaker 1: darkness to stop an evil sorcerer. But Antiquity knows better
Speaker 1: than we do. I guess yeah, because every character mentions that.
Speaker 1: Every characters like, are you sure this guy you know?
Speaker 1: And uh so yeah, uh. Peter and the pawn broker
Speaker 1: are playing their D and D style board game together
Speaker 1: and all the figures on the board are all of
Speaker 1: Carolina's brothers and himself and Princess melissand and the dragons,
Speaker 1: and he's like Okay, that's that's a pretty big sign
Speaker 1: like something's going on here. I better come get this guy.
Speaker 1: So he uses his magic. Uh now, now remember Carolinas
Speaker 1: doesn't actually have a lot of magic these days, so
Speaker 1: this is a pretty um this is this is an
Speaker 1: expensive use of his magic to go get Peter in
Speaker 1: the future and bring him back to his time. This
Speaker 1: is where I mentioned is that really beautiful shot of
Speaker 1: them both writing on top of a two of a
Speaker 1: pair of dice and spinning through the air and then
Speaker 1: they're falling. Blah blah blah. It's it's it's quite beautiful.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's that. So we're now introduced to that
Speaker 1: that they they go back in time. We we are
Speaker 1: we are with them back in the Magical Age where
Speaker 1: our story is, and we're introduced to a b story
Speaker 1: where Peter is now in love with Carolina's daughter, Princess Melissandra.
Speaker 1: Doesn't really affect the story, it's just it's a it's
Speaker 1: a subplot. Don't really worry about it. It's just there. Uh.
Speaker 1: So at this point, it turns out that almost all
Speaker 1: of the dragons have joined ohmadon because he used black
Speaker 1: magic on them. Uh. The only remaining dragons on the
Speaker 1: hero's side our gore Bash and Smurgle. Smurgle is gore
Speaker 1: Bash's elderly uncle. He's not quite as um spry, but
Speaker 1: he's he's he's very knowledgeable. So now Omadon has not
Speaker 1: only one fierce dragon, but also an entire army of
Speaker 1: dragons at his disposal. Yes, we will see later that
Speaker 1: the other two wizards still have control of Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess we should mention this. Each of the four
Speaker 1: wizard brothers, each of the four colors, they each have
Speaker 1: their own more or less pet dragon, their familiar dragon. Um. However,
Speaker 1: the other two, the Gold Wizard and the Blue Wizard,
Speaker 1: there's don't join Ohmadon, And yet they don't. They also
Speaker 1: don't help, so I don't know why. Maybe they're just
Speaker 1: too far away. Who knows. They contribute magical items, That's
Speaker 1: that's true. We do get, of course, the magical items.
Speaker 1: This is actually my favorite parts of the movie, especially
Speaker 1: to me as a child. Peter as the fish out
Speaker 1: of water character, he makes a lot of discoveries throughout
Speaker 1: the film that kind of like defined like the cannon
Speaker 1: of being a dragon. You know, this was his goal.
Speaker 1: He wanted to learn more about dragons. Now he gets
Speaker 1: to do it firsthand, and so so now he gets
Speaker 1: to learn about this biology of dragons and how they work.
Speaker 1: And this will occur throughout the film, but I'll point
Speaker 1: them out as dragon Can in facts when they do
Speaker 1: so dragon Can in fact number one that he just
Speaker 1: kind of hears this in conversation amongst the dragons. A
Speaker 1: dragon having a horde of gold is a pretty common thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's in all the fantasy literature that you come across,
Speaker 1: whether it be a token or um oh gosh, what's
Speaker 1: his name, the guy that made the Chronicles of Narnia
Speaker 1: um C. S. Lewis. Yeah, a dragon's horde of gold
Speaker 1: is a pretty common thing. Why well, in this they
Speaker 1: describe that it's because dragons need somewhere soft to sleep
Speaker 1: that won't accidentally catch on fire, because even while they sleep,
Speaker 1: they could actually you know, spark it, you know, with
Speaker 1: their fire breath, and they just need somewhere that's you know, unflammable,
Speaker 1: not flammable. I love it, Yeah, I love it. Why not?
Speaker 1: I never I never thought about about this sort of
Speaker 1: thing before. When it comes to the gold, and this
Speaker 1: is you know, this is a perfect explanation. Granted, it
Speaker 1: does raise questions like why don't they sleep on lead
Speaker 1: and so forth? Gold is soft in addition to being
Speaker 1: shiny and prize, So I absolutely by yeah yeah, And um,
Speaker 1: I remember we mentioned this a long time ago about
Speaker 1: a child's love for learning cannon facts. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is, but like like hearing, like the definitive
Speaker 1: version of like classic creatures, classic tales, et cetera, is
Speaker 1: something that children just love. Myself included, So therefore I
Speaker 1: I really loved these when when when I was watching
Speaker 1: this movie as a child, Yeah, yeah, my my son
Speaker 1: really started getting into the dragons at this point when
Speaker 1: when this film when they start explaining how they work
Speaker 1: within the context of the film. So, uh, Caroline, this
Speaker 1: before this big quest kicks off, he gives Peter two gifts. Um, now,
Speaker 1: these aren't really that important, but they do help in
Speaker 1: the trials later, so I got to mention them. One
Speaker 1: is the shield of Saturn, It's a big golden shield,
Speaker 1: and the other is the flute of Olympus. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: these will aid in trials later, but don't worry about it. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Ohmadon sends his big dragon familiar to kill Peter and
Speaker 1: uh Carolinas tries to save him, but in using a
Speaker 1: magic spell, he accidentally merges Peter's mind into gore Bash's body.
Speaker 1: Gore Bash, if people remember, is the big green dragon
Speaker 1: from the beginning. So yes, our hero is now a
Speaker 1: giant dragon. So fun, right, Oh yeah, I think this
Speaker 1: is this is a point in the film where I
Speaker 1: think everything really picked up for us as viewers, because
Speaker 1: now we don't just have Peter the sort of fish
Speaker 1: out of water character. Now he is in the body
Speaker 1: of a dragon. So now all the things he's learning
Speaker 1: about dragons is also him trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to function as a dragon, and it just makes everything
Speaker 1: a lot more entertaining. It's it's a great way to
Speaker 1: kind of like dole out some exposition. Is like you know,
Speaker 1: a newbie learning the ropes. It's it's it's great, and
Speaker 1: it it introduces a lot of room for comedy to like,
Speaker 1: oh am I doing it right, Oh no, I'm falling
Speaker 1: out of the sky and so forth. Exactly. But like
Speaker 1: we said, wizard laws dictate that there must be three
Speaker 1: members on a magic quest, and now, since two of
Speaker 1: our members are merged into one, Peter and Gore Bash.
Speaker 1: We were back to two again. We need a third member,
Speaker 1: so we have the Night we have Peter in gore
Speaker 1: Bash's body, and so Smurgle, the elderly dragon, joins the
Speaker 1: quest to make up for that lost member. So we're
Speaker 1: back to three again. The magic Quest can begin. So
Speaker 1: on the quest, Smuggle is now instructing Dragon Peter on
Speaker 1: how to be a dragon, so we get more dragon
Speaker 1: can in facts. I love these, this one's fun. I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed this. So dragon can In fact number two,
Speaker 1: dragons eat dime and to get them into their craw.
Speaker 1: In the film, we see them actually like bullying some
Speaker 1: dwarves to make them look for them to bring them
Speaker 1: out giant sacks full of diamonds, and then they just
Speaker 1: gobble them up right away. Peter actually feels a little
Speaker 1: bad about this. Uh so so so so picture that
Speaker 1: a dragon eats a sack full of diamonds, puts it
Speaker 1: in his craw much like a bird, and then they
Speaker 1: start to eat limestone, which will then be ground up
Speaker 1: by the diamonds, much like a bird uses a grit
Speaker 1: to grind up feed because they don't have teeth. Okay,
Speaker 1: so limestone is high in calcium, which mixes with the
Speaker 1: stomach acid to create hydrogen. So then hydrogen is lighter
Speaker 1: than air and expands their bodies, giving them that chunky
Speaker 1: look and giving them their ability to fly. Uh much
Speaker 1: in the same way a blimp does. Yes, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I absolutely love this. And again this is this is
Speaker 1: out of the book as well, that the dragons of
Speaker 1: the Flight of Dragons are essentially hydrogen airships, self powered
Speaker 1: hydrogen airships. It's fatuous. So so that's where the wings
Speaker 1: factor in and their long like snakelike bodies or I
Speaker 1: should say, you know, lizard like either way. That that's
Speaker 1: how they propel themselves, is with these wings much like
Speaker 1: an airplane, much like a blimp. Yeah, just just uh,
Speaker 1: they are just floating and then they're their appendages, their wings, tails, arms, whatever,
Speaker 1: that's what actually guides them through the air. Um, So
Speaker 1: how are they going to get down? That's an important
Speaker 1: aspect of this. They need to expel the hydrogen. So
Speaker 1: for a dragon, expelling the hydrogen is done by breathing fire.
Speaker 1: Now they don't fully explain this in the movie, but
Speaker 1: I think the logic of my mind goes, you need
Speaker 1: to can't just be like a balloon letting off hydrogen,
Speaker 1: because if that's the case, it'll push you in a
Speaker 1: different direction because they'll be forced coming out. What you
Speaker 1: need is a way to expel it in a controlled way,
Speaker 1: which is why they ignite the expelled hydrogen to breathe fire.
Speaker 1: Doesn't quite make sense in my mind, but that's they
Speaker 1: don't really explain it either. Um. In fact, Peter asks Smurgle,
Speaker 1: he goes, wait, so why is it fire? He's like,
Speaker 1: because we're dragon sweet breathe fire. Uh now, but here
Speaker 1: this is a part I love. Um. Smurgle explains that
Speaker 1: the hydrogen is ignited because dragons have something in their
Speaker 1: mouth known as a thor's thimble. It's in the roof
Speaker 1: of their mouth and has the ability to spark, and
Speaker 1: we'll basically ignite the hydrogen much like an electric stove
Speaker 1: ignites you know, gas. And that's fun too. More dragon facts. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is all all pretty fabulous. And I didn't
Speaker 1: even think about the potential plot holes in any of it,
Speaker 1: because it was just while watching the film you're just
Speaker 1: completely like, oh my good, this this is it. Yes,
Speaker 1: I buy it. And then you have the fun banter
Speaker 1: between the the dragon mentor and Peter and dragon form
Speaker 1: because he keeps asking obsessive science leaning questions and the
Speaker 1: answers are often along the lines of cause we're dragons.
Speaker 1: Smurgle has not thought about this very much, and he's
Speaker 1: okay with that. Peter should think less about this, so
Speaker 1: says Smurgle, Yeah, don't don't think about it, just do it.
Speaker 1: Just fly. So at this point, basically this turns into
Speaker 1: a D and D campaign. That's the that's the remainder
Speaker 1: of this movie. There's that really much to talk about
Speaker 1: from from from pure on out, so we'll go through
Speaker 1: it quickly. But um. Along the way, they face various
Speaker 1: trials and meet new allies that joined them. One ally
Speaker 1: is named ag that's the wolf character we talked about. Um.
Speaker 1: He's an undead talking wolf. They describe it briefly, but
Speaker 1: basically he he drowned and then one of the wizards
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, if you do me this favor, I'll
Speaker 1: bring you back to life, and so he does. He
Speaker 1: comes back and saves our heroes, which just works. Another
Speaker 1: is dan Yell of the Woodlands. She's a very skilled
Speaker 1: archer and warrior. Another one is Giles of the Tree Tops.
Speaker 1: He's the leader of the wood elves. They all join
Speaker 1: that this this magic quest, and the part he looks
Speaker 1: more and more token as time passes, you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a variety of trials they go through. There are
Speaker 1: these sonic rat things which were really beautiful. They were
Speaker 1: just kind of these odd like goblin rats that let
Speaker 1: off a real high pitched noise that drove the listener
Speaker 1: um to be very ill tempered, and uh, they had
Speaker 1: to destroy them. It was fascinating. Oh that that sequence
Speaker 1: was great because I didn't really know what was going
Speaker 1: to happen. I wasn't sure what they kind of they
Speaker 1: presented this threat slowly and you're not sure what you
Speaker 1: know either're about to run into something, but you can't
Speaker 1: really tell what it is. And then yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: this weird concept of screeching um rat things that like
Speaker 1: destroy your mind and so forth. It was done very
Speaker 1: well and very fun to watch. The next trial I
Speaker 1: also really enjoyed it was this ogre. Oh, this ogre
Speaker 1: other than Ohmadon was probably my favorite thing to look at,
Speaker 1: just just beautifully depicted. And they also threw in some
Speaker 1: like fun ogre facts about like why ogres are like
Speaker 1: so sturdy and kind of him almost invincible in many ways.
Speaker 1: And a big part of it I really loved was
Speaker 1: that Ogres have very very thick bones that they don't
Speaker 1: have much flesh. Most of their body is boned, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that's fun, like just picturing that
Speaker 1: ogre skeleton in my mind. You know. He also has
Speaker 1: three eyes, but only two are functional. I love. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one of the one in the middle of his
Speaker 1: head is is his additional eye, but one of his
Speaker 1: like traditional eyes, I believe it was his left eye,
Speaker 1: was was gone. So it's just just gorgeous, really gorgeous,
Speaker 1: real meaty fella, you know. Uh. Then then there's this
Speaker 1: worm thing, also very beautiful to look at, but it
Speaker 1: is pretty quickly dispatched. Um. And then um. Then Ohmadon's
Speaker 1: get involved because they're getting much closer to his home base,
Speaker 1: and he casts this doubt spell that basically just makes
Speaker 1: everyone depressed and everyone just has imposter syndrome like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm no good, you know, And that's that's pretty fun.
Speaker 1: They overcome that, um along with this giant dragon swarm
Speaker 1: by uh, let's see here, what's what's the order of it.
Speaker 1: I believe the doubt spell is dispelled by the magic
Speaker 1: shield that he was given earlier. And then there's a
Speaker 1: giant dragon swarm that comes soon after that, and that's
Speaker 1: dispelled by the magic flute, which the the gosh, the
Speaker 1: the wood Elf. He he plays the magic flute, and
Speaker 1: this makes all the dragons fall asleep, including Peter, you know,
Speaker 1: because he's like, hey, we gotta do this quick play
Speaker 1: that flute, I know to make me fall asleep. But
Speaker 1: it's got to happen, you know. This, This is this
Speaker 1: is weird how this one lined up because we watched
Speaker 1: My son and I watched this film while we were
Speaker 1: also watching the new season of The Dragon Prints. Both
Speaker 1: of these have plot elements involving magical musical instruments that
Speaker 1: put dragons to sleep. Nice nice yeah uh so uh
Speaker 1: this this works. And then we're into the final battle.
Speaker 1: Now here's where it's gonna begin. With Peter facing off
Speaker 1: against Ahmadon, and the first thing he does is he
Speaker 1: breaks the spell of his dragon merge through logic, so
Speaker 1: when he falls asleep, basically when he awakens, he's man
Speaker 1: Peter again. And someone asked him like, how did you
Speaker 1: do that? He's like, oh, well, two objects, can't you know?
Speaker 1: Occupy the same space. That's just logic, So I logic
Speaker 1: my way out of that dragon. Everyone's like all right,
Speaker 1: you know, sure, but but at this point it's just
Speaker 1: Peter the human against Ohmadon, this all powerful wizard. So
Speaker 1: already this is a point where we're suddenly I feel
Speaker 1: like an uncharted territory because that we were setting everything
Speaker 1: up for more of a traditional high fantasy battle and
Speaker 1: now we're somewhere else like uh, like all the big
Speaker 1: flight of dragons has been put to sleep. Um, and
Speaker 1: let's see, have we I think we've at this point
Speaker 1: lost a few characters as well. Right, yes, some folks
Speaker 1: have have definitely not worked out, you know. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a scene where our our our night bites it battling
Speaker 1: a dragon, the big bad dragon that serves Omadon. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a we we lose our archer. We I think
Speaker 1: we also lose our wood Elf. I think he gets
Speaker 1: thrown against a a a stone cliff and is at
Speaker 1: least passed out, if not dead. Yeah, so they're at
Speaker 1: any rate, they're all taken out of the equation. So
Speaker 1: instead of getting this continuation of the fantasy battle that
Speaker 1: we seem to have been setting up, it is this
Speaker 1: standoff between a sorcerer and a game design and uh,
Speaker 1: first of all, Omadon erupts into this giant, multiheaded dragon
Speaker 1: and it's the prettiest thing of this whole movie. It's
Speaker 1: so so beautiful, Like, Ohmadon looks cool when he was
Speaker 1: just the red Wizard. Now he is a he's a
Speaker 1: red Wizard hydra. Like It's yeah, it's gorgeous. I love, love,
Speaker 1: love the look of this then, but it's also perfect
Speaker 1: because it's so nonsensical, it's so chaotic. It's like he
Speaker 1: is because basically this becomes a standoff between logic and
Speaker 1: um and chaotic imagination. And so it makes sense that
Speaker 1: Ohmadon would just defy all logic and just be this
Speaker 1: swirling amalgam of humanoid and dragon features. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: so since the only tool that you can fight uh
Speaker 1: chaos with is logic, that's what Peter does. Peter just
Speaker 1: starts basically talking his way out of this battle uh
Speaker 1: much in the same way that like, oh, let's say
Speaker 1: Sarah you know, talks her way out of u uh
Speaker 1: Jariff and Labyrinth or um I forget that the protagonist's
Speaker 1: name and nightmare on Elm Streets where she's like, I'm
Speaker 1: not afraid of you. You know. It's just like that
Speaker 1: that simple thing of just like, hey, your power rests
Speaker 1: in this If I you know, you have no power
Speaker 1: over me. If you just kind of declare it, you
Speaker 1: get to you get to kind of just like move on.
Speaker 1: So that's what he does. He just starts like quoting
Speaker 1: scientific principles and equation and then he starts listening like
Speaker 1: like just different branches of scientific study and just and
Speaker 1: it works. It just kind of knocks knocks the wizard
Speaker 1: down one by one. One of my favorites. There are
Speaker 1: many examples of like him just like kind of like
Speaker 1: spouting book learning at this wizard to kind of like
Speaker 1: make him kind of lose power. My favorite was that
Speaker 1: Omadon was like calling on the power of the sun
Speaker 1: and and um Peter's response was like every child knows
Speaker 1: that it takes this long. I think he says eight
Speaker 1: minutes for the sun Sun's raised to travel to the Earth,
Speaker 1: So you're not even calling upon the sun. You're calling
Speaker 1: upon where the sun was eight minutes ago. And Obadon's like, Watts, No, No,
Speaker 1: the Sun's right there. And it's it's fun. Things like
Speaker 1: that and ultimately without even like you know, laying a
Speaker 1: single blow. Peter beats Omadon with just logic, you know,
Speaker 1: just saying science terms out loud, and yet it it
Speaker 1: works so well. Like, for instance, the Labyrinth scene I
Speaker 1: think is a is a great comparison. I have no power,
Speaker 1: you have no power over me thing with Sarah and Jared,
Speaker 1: and yet I'd never have I love Labyrinth, but there
Speaker 1: there I have questions about various things in the plot,
Speaker 1: and that whole scene never felt completely earned for me,
Speaker 1: Whereas in this film, I feel like they do a
Speaker 1: great job of of laying everything out, Like for instance,
Speaker 1: there's the whole scene part of it where Omadon is
Speaker 1: just you know, calling upon forces of darkness, saying these
Speaker 1: evil sounding magic words, some sort of incantation in Peter's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have incantations too, and he's like, bam, he equals
Speaker 1: MC squared and so forth, and like these are actually
Speaker 1: like hurting Omadon, Like the logic is cutting into him
Speaker 1: and taking away his power. Yeah, No, it's earned and
Speaker 1: it works. It's it's a fun little ending. So so
Speaker 1: he doesn't he beats Omadon, he is destroyed, turns into
Speaker 1: just dust on the ground. It's mostly a visual scenes,
Speaker 1: so we can't really go through it entirely. But then
Speaker 1: Peter is sent back a modern Boston and he's back
Speaker 1: where he left off. He's back in the pawnbroker shop
Speaker 1: with his friend playing his D and D game that
Speaker 1: he invented. Um Now, remember earlier, way in the beginning,
Speaker 1: Peter wanted to pawn his watch so he could get
Speaker 1: his board game created. Well, now suddenly he has the
Speaker 1: Shield of Saturn with him, this big golden shield, and
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, pawnbroker, how about this? And he's like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is great. This will give you so much money
Speaker 1: you could You'll be able to do whatever you want,
Speaker 1: you know. And then here here's the nice part where
Speaker 1: it all ties up Melissan to the princess, the daughter
Speaker 1: of um Uh Carolina's. She enters the pawn shop in
Speaker 1: this modern world because she has fallen in love with Peter,
Speaker 1: and she brought Omadon's crown with her and she pawns
Speaker 1: that too, and it's like, hey, now he gets love.
Speaker 1: Also yea the end, that's the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's so good. I deny all magic Uh
Speaker 1: was another one of the rallying cries of Peter in
Speaker 1: the final battle. Huh, and there's it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: fun thing because the balance between I love magic and
Speaker 1: magic isn't real is really on display here. And then
Speaker 1: that's that's why they needed Peter. He was a guy
Speaker 1: that loved dragons and really cared about magic and had
Speaker 1: a great knowledge for it, but also knew the science
Speaker 1: and so therefore he could both respect the magic as
Speaker 1: well as cut it down a peg. But I think
Speaker 1: I like, almost ultimately Carolinas like sealed his own fate
Speaker 1: by inviting Peter into his realm, because in many ways
Speaker 1: that what he didn't want to happen happened very quickly,
Speaker 1: which was that that science destroyed magic. Yeah, but they
Speaker 1: get their magic refuge where they get to keep all
Speaker 1: their magical creatures running around. Yes, yes, so you know
Speaker 1: it's it's it's not an unhappy ending for them as well.
Speaker 1: It works out. I do want to also point out,
Speaker 1: because I'm always a sucker for these sorts of scenes,
Speaker 1: when Omanon is finally defeated, he does like sort of
Speaker 1: shrink and melt and then wither away to nothing, turns
Speaker 1: to dust and blows away in the wind, and it's
Speaker 1: a fabulous animated sequence. Good stuff, good stuff all around.
Speaker 1: And that's that's this movie. Yeah, The Flight of Dragons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just just a real delight. This one I think holds
Speaker 1: up so well. Like I said, I didn't. I had
Speaker 1: never seen it before, so I didn't have anything to
Speaker 1: compare it to in in my memory, though it it
Speaker 1: did resonate with my love for these other pictures from
Speaker 1: this time period, like the Ranking and Pass Hobbit film.
Speaker 1: If you're a D and D person, not only will
Speaker 1: you recognize basically the structure of this, but you'll also
Speaker 1: probably really enjoy it. Yeah. All right, Well, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go and close this one out here, but we'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from everyone out there, especially for those of
Speaker 1: you who, like se have definite childhood memories of the
Speaker 1: Flight of Dragons. If you want to share how or
Speaker 1: when you saw this for the first time and what
Speaker 1: your impressions were, right in, we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Uh And if you're like me, if you just for
Speaker 1: the first time as an adult or or recently introduced
Speaker 1: a child to it, uh, right in and let us
Speaker 1: know how that went. A reminder that stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: Your Mind is primarily a science podcast, but every Friday
Speaker 1: we set aside most serious concerns. You just talk about
Speaker 1: a weird film in Weird House Cinema. If you want
Speaker 1: to follow the various films that we cover on Weird
Speaker 1: House Cinema, well, um, I mean they're all on the feed,
Speaker 1: but also I blog about them at summuna music dot com,
Speaker 1: and I also list all of them on our Letterboxed profile.
Speaker 1: If you go to letterboxed dot com, it's l E
Speaker 1: T T E R b O x D. You can
Speaker 1: look us up. We're Our user name is weird House.
Speaker 1: There have all the films that we've watched so far,
Speaker 1: and sometimes there'll be a peek ahead at what's coming next. Uh.
Speaker 1: Speaking of all this, of course, Seth is not just
Speaker 1: the producer of Stuff to Blow your Mind. He is
Speaker 1: also a podcast host. Uh tell us what's happening right
Speaker 1: now on Rusty Needles Record Club. Yes, Rusty Needles Record Club.
Speaker 1: It is a book club, but for music instead. It's
Speaker 1: a weekly podcast to find out wherever you find your
Speaker 1: favorite podcasts. Now. Um, this week we are doing Grace
Speaker 1: Jones Nightclubbing, very fun hit. Everyone loves Grace Jones and Uh.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for just some great, uh fun music discussion,
Speaker 1: something just kind of you know, make you feel less
Speaker 1: lonely as a music nerd, or if you're looking for
Speaker 1: some really good music recommendations, check out Rusty Needles Record Club.
Speaker 1: It's a fun show all right. So if you want
Speaker 1: to reach out, and if you have thoughts for for Joe,
Speaker 1: if you have thoughts for me or Seth, you can
Speaker 1: email us at contact at stuff to blow your Mind
Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,