Flight of Dragons
Rankin and Bass Productions stepped out from the shadow of typical cartooning in the 70's to produce at least three of the most memorial fantasy cartoons of the era; The Last Unicorn, The Hobbit, and The Flight of Dragons (Warner Brothers). The three films are all based on previously released literature, but Flight of Dragons went a little further in their adaptation. Taking a semi-factual book, The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson and many ancient tales of the unlikely knight against the unbeatable dragon, they created a fantasy film with all of the classic elements that fans of the genre expect. There are one-eyed Ogres of Gormly Keep, the Quest for the Red Crown of Ommadon, the stately Knight Sir Orin Neville Smythe, the almost useful Princess in love with…well, John Ritter. Ritter provides the voice of Peter Dickenson, scientist and author who cannot get dragons off of his mind. When the quest begins, he is chosen to lead, even though he's quite a clueless modern man in the medieval setting.
Stereotypes abound, but they're the stereotypes that we have known all our lives and grown to love and watch with nostalgia. No, there aren't many twists and surprises that you won't see coming. Part of the delight is how well this fits into conventions of fantasy "cartoons" and still pulls the viewer along. There are lessons on the science of dragon flight, based on the book. Wolves, dwarves, rangers, and a lot of dragons pepper the screen before the film is over.
The story is simple, magic is fading from the world as man chooses logic instead. The Green Wizard Carolinus (Harry Morgan, MASH) gathers his magic brothers, the Blue, Gold, and Red Wizards to discuss how to survive as their magic is failing. Of course, the evil Red Wizard Ommadon (appropriately voiced by James Earl Jones) refuses their plans in favor of helping man discover his logic, and a long speech of how he will control man; provoke war, chaos, and destruction. We've heard it all before, but Jones has proven that he could read the phone book in an interesting manner, and so the audience is scared for mankind, and Carolinus' evokes a quest. The party is assembled, a dragon, a knight, and a clueless man from modern Boston who was chosen by antiquity; that would be John Ritter.
The three are joined as they travel, as every good party should be. They suffer hardships that they must conquer through their wits instead of brute force, and must use the magical items that were given to them at the start of the quest. It sounds more and more like a rousing Dungeons and Dragons game as it continues to its predictable but enjoyable conclusion. The film offers the question of why mankind rejected magic, and gives the prerequisite happy ending as well. As predictable as it can be, it still surprises every once in a while, and is a wonderfully enjoying ride all the same.
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