The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie Review

Dungeons not included.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 17, 2022

Rankin-Bass' forgotten 1982 animated fantasy film The Flight of Dragons was not seen by most audiences until 1986, when it aired on ABC as a "Saturday Night Movie" during the last weeks of summer vacation. That era's fascination with wizards and warriors was still in full effect, even almost a full decade after Rankin-Bass' own animated adaptions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings came about, and I'd imagine it left an impression on audiences despite the four-year delay. Somehow I completely missed this one during its original "run", but no matter: The Flight of Dragons is a strong enough effort to please animation fans of all ages, even those who aren't wearing rose-colored glasses.

It's the rare kid-friendly movie that's just as palatable to full-grown adults, thanks to a story based on not one but two pieces of source material: Gordon R. Dickson's popular 1976 fantasy novel The Dragon and the George --- his first of nine "Dragon Knight" books, as the tenth was unfinished after his 2014 death -- and the eponymous art book by author Peter Dickinson, who attempted to fuse familiar dragon lore with loose science to prove their hypothetical existence. (Dickinson himself, as voiced by John Ritter, is actually the film's main character.) It's an interesting combination that works well within the story's lightweight 92-minute lifespan, a mix of comfortable fantasy tropes and lofty scientific hypotheses that sets The Flight of Dragons apart from most other genre entries of that era and beyond.

Our story begins from the perspective of green wizard Carolinus (Harry Morgan), who discovers his magic powers are fading as recent inventions gain traction in the world, such as water wheels and windmills. He proposes a sealed realm free from these human achievements, and his elemental brothers, golden wizard Lo Tae Zhao (Don Messick) and blue wizard Solarius (Paul Frees), are both in agreement. The black sheep of their family, red wizard Ommadon (James Earl Jones), would rather see the humans tear themselves apart through greed and fear. Since the wizards cannot fight each other, the three in agreement assemble a team of heroes to steal Ommadon's power, including valiant knight Sir Orrin Neville-Smythe (Bob McFadden) and Carolinus' brave house dragon Gorbash (also McFadden).

A leader is needed and, consulting their mythical source of power "Antiquity", a man of science -- and fantasy board game designer -- named Peter Dickinson (Ritter) is brought back from the 20th century. Mentored by Gorbash's uncle Smrgol (James Gregory), Dickinson is given the tools and knowledge needed to lead the charge against Ommadon and his minions... but not before falling hard for princess Melisande (Alexandra Stoddart), Carolinus' young ward. Naturally, the heroes' journey towards Ommadon's domain brings with it the threat of enemies and help from new companions, including a recently revived wolf named Aragh (Victor Buono, in his final film role), the elf leader Giles (Don Messick), and skilled archer Danielle (Nellie Bellflower). Their later stay at Hellsway Inn, a rest stop between worlds, might be the last night for some of them as Ommadon's forces -- including his own dragon army -- draw near.

Even The Flight of Dragons' most well-worn fantasy tropes are mostly smoothed over by its charm, which extends from the slightly stiff but very attractive animation to its effective cast, a mixture of well-placed celebrities and established voice actors; it's only missing the talents of Frank Welker for a few monstrous grunts and growls. The majority of this film will delight first-time viewers with its sturdy blend of refreshing ideas and hand-drawn visuals, while anyone who saw The Flight of Dragons in their younger days will obviously love getting re-acquainted with the film on home video. It's traced a path from VHS and laserdisc all the way to Warner Archive's 2009 DVD, along with of course the boutique label's Blu-ray in recent years. As with the film itself I'm a little late to the party here... but The Flight of Dragons has held up surprisingly well during the last few decades, so it's absolutely ripe for (re)discovery in any year.

The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Although the source material and scan resolution were not specified by Warner Archive's original press materials, this great-looking 1080p presentation of The Flight of Dragons is reportedly sourced from a recent master of original film elements. Like other rare animated entries in the boutique label's ever-growing catalog, it's almost a purist's dream (see below) and clearly excels in the areas of image detail, film grain, density, and color saturation. It absolutely looks accurate to this particular era of hand-drawn animation with mostly muted colors, well-rendered shadows, and a dark but inviting atmosphere that occasional gives way to bright primaries and well-placed special effects. The skilled team of Japanese animators created a pleasing variety of detailed character designs with beautiful textures and simple, elegant linework, even if the ultra-smoothness of larger-budgeted productions is missing here.

Overall, it's a fine-looking production that's been preserved nicely on Blu-ray with one slight exception: the aspect ratio, which is presented in 1.78:1 as matted for potential theatrical showings that obviously never happened; this was a direct-to-video (or in some cases, TV) film. Although an open matte version is included as this Blu-ray's lone bonus feature, it's presented in unrestored 480p and suffers from a few native drawbacks listed below. While the widescreen presentation doesn't hinder most compositions in any real way -- and shows a bit more information on both sides in comparison to its SD counterpart -- it does exacerbate a few source flaws (dodgy linework, paintbrush strokes) and other age-related wear-and-tear. Plus, of course, I'd imagine that most purists would have simply preferred to see the version they grew up with. I don't know why Warner Archive couldn't have restored the open-matte version and simply presented the cropped one as an alternate; this is, after all, a dual-layered disc with room to spare. This matting isn't a deal-breaker by any means, but it's worth mentioning and prevents the disc from scoring even higher.

The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix cleanly supports The Flight of Dragons original one-channel mix on this split mono track, which is obviously a bit thin on the whole but nonetheless balances crisp dialogue and well-balanced background effects. If you're looking for pure sonic power or a deep, rich dynamic range you'll be sorely disappointed, but it fits in perfectly alongside previous Rankin-Bass films like the two linked above while trailing behind The Last Unicorn, which did in fact reach theaters in 1982. Either way, I'm just glad that the original format has been preserved... and was also at least given a cursory upgrade to lossless audio, compared to the older DVD's Dolby Digital mix.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature only; more on that later.

The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with poster-themed (but not very accurate) cover art and no inserts. Extras are unfortunately minimal, and probably frustrating when keeping the film's aspect ratio in mind.

• Standard Definition TV Version (1:35:19) - This unrestored and rather scuzzy-looking 480p presentation of the film -- which runs about 25 seconds shorter, but I couldn't spot any obvious differences -- is presented in its open-matte 4x3 framing (approx.) as seen on VHS and TV broadcasts of the film. But in addition to the glaring differences in overall quality (which are huge, as this transfer suffers from heavy interlacing and other defects), the colors lean towards yellow/green and the line work suffers from its lower resolution. While I do prefer the open-matte framing in most cases, the trade-off in image quality is not worth it although at least the audio is lossless. No optional subtitles either, which is just dumb as they could have been ported over easily.

  Screenshots #21-25 are sourced from this bonus SD version of the film, with a few exactly mirroring their 1080p counterparts if you need a quick and dirty comparison between the two.

The Flight of Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass' The Flight of Dragons is their lesser-known animated fantasy film from 1982, but wasn't even seen by most American audiences until its 1986 TV debut. Despite these potential warning signs, it's a worthwhile adventure and will appeal to anyone who values this era's hand-drawn animation... and you don't even need the benefit of nostalgia to enjoy it. Warner Archive's welcome (and still very much available) Blu-ray is nonetheless something of a missed opportunity, as only the matted widescreen version of the film has been fully restored. Otherwise, The Flight of Dragons is a pretty solid movie-only disc and comes recommend to fans and first-timers alike.