I haven’t the slightest idea what era this cartoon was made. It begins with a man, probably somewhere in twenties going into someplace like a hobby shop. Then he falls asleep or something like that, and he wakes up as a dragon in a fantasy world.
I only have a vague memory of a few scattered scenes, like a halfling type guy playing a magic flute to make all the dragons fall asleep. Also the dragons eat limestone mined by gnomes for some odd reason. There’s also a scene where the 2 main dragons get drunk in a tavern with barrelfulls of beer and eat their livestock. There was also a big wyrm that lived in slime and the final battle consisted of the protagonist yelling out real world things (like geometry, mathematics) to kill the evil wizard, who was trying to defend by saying fantasy things (fairies, elves, etc).
Does anyone have an idea what this animated movie is called?
It’s based on the more-or-less non-fiction book by Peter Dickinson (the name of the character in the cartoon), which collects all the folklore about dragons then speculates how dragon biology might work in reality.
I remember this one, VERY vaguely. I think I read the book it was (very loosely) based on, as well, which was sort of a soft-science ‘theory’ on historical dragons. Fun, but hardly convincing, and I was something like 14 at the time, so not at the height of my skepticism. Beowulf’s Grendel was supposed to have been a dragon, who’s light bone structure made it possible for a human to rip an arm off, and like that.
They ate limestone because they needed either hydrogen or methane to get buoyant enough to fly, and to breath fire, of course . . .
It MIGHT have been called Dragons! which I think was the book title, or Flight of Dragons. The latter might have been a different movie, though.
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“Even if you evade the jaws of the dragon, the winds which blow around it will immobilize you, and it’s claws will tear you apart.”
I remember that movie. I saw it on cartoon network when I was younger. I then tried to find the book which I assumed had the same title as the movie but I couldnt find .That was a cool movie.
Thank you everyone, I think it is The Flight of Dragons! Now i’m going to have to go through the task of finding it now.
But I remember the animation being a lot less cartoony than what is depicted on the imdb cover art. Someone tell me that the actually movie is less cartoony than the cover art. Please?
Heh - a little digging and I found an old, old tape with this movie on it in my pile of tapes. Complete with commercial breaks, too, though I haven’t the foggiest idea what channel it was on. However, just to add something to the conversation, it’s also loosely based on Gordon Dickson’s The Dragon and the George. Yeah, the animation’s less cartoony than the cover art.
I remember an animated special along those lines…with the voice
of John Ritter as the dragon and whats-his-name…the old guy
who played Col. Potter from MAS*H played the wizard.
.That was a cool movie.