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Dragon DVDs
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Movies and DVDs that are centered around dragons.
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This story of a winsome orphan and his guardian dragon features an Academy Award-nominated score and song, Helen Reddy's "Candle on the Water." The combination of a live-action story with an animated figure was innovative in 1977, and the green dragon with pink wings will still charm youngsters today. However, its plot has the boy running from a nasty family to whom he's been sold into slavery, as well as an evil magician who tries to steal the dragon for his parts. These dark story lines may scare or bore younger children, who only want to see Elliot the dragon belch fire and give Pete rides on his back. And older children who might appreciate the plot may scoff at the relatively crude animation. This leaves a rather narrow audience window of about ages 3 to 7. A cast of veterans includes Shelley Winters, Mickey Rooney, and Red Buttons, who all turn in the hammiest of performances. Acting newcomer Reddy demonstrates both why her acting career never took off and why her singing career did. (Lines like "You're a bunch of superstitious ding-dongs" don't give her much help.) However, her sometimes awkward performance as the lonely lighthouse keeper who gives the boy a home provides the film with its heart. Bottom line: it's a keeper for diehard Disney fans, dragon lovers, and those who remember this movie fondly from their childhood. --Kimberly Heinrichs
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A lot could've gone wrong in Red Dragon, but the movie exceeds expectations. Replacing the acclaimed Manhunter as an "official" entry in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, this topnotch thriller--the second adaptation of Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel--returns to the fertile soil of The Silence of the Lambs, serving as both prequel and heir to the legacy of Lecter as portrayed, with mischievous menace, by the great Anthony Hopkins. Familiar faces and locations reappear (along with Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally) as Lecter coaches FBI profiler Will Graham (Edward Norton) in tracking the horrific "Tooth Fairy" killer (Ralph Fiennes), whose transformative killing spree is inspired by a William Blake painting. By dutifully serving Harris's potent material, Tally and director Brett Ratner craft a suspenseful film worthy of its predecessors, bringing Hopkins full circle as one of the cinema's all-time greatest villains. With overtones of Psycho and a superb supporting cast, Red Dragon succeeds against considerable odds. --Jeff Shannon
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Hong Kong wuxia films, or martial arts fantasies, traditionally squeeze poor acting, slapstick humor, and silly story lines between elaborate fight scenes in which characters can literally fly. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has no shortage of breathtaking battles, but it also has the dramatic soul of a Greek tragedy and the sweep of an epic romance. This is the work of director Ang Lee, who fell in love with movies while watching wuxia films as a youngster and made Crouching Tiger as a tribute to the form. To elevate the genre above its B-movie roots and broaden its appeal, Lee did two important things. First, he assembled an all-star lineup of talent, joining the famous Asian actors Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh with the striking, charismatic newcomer Zhang Ziyi. Behind the scenes, Lee called upon cinematographer Peter Pau (The Killer, The Bride with White Hair) and legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping, best known outside Asia for his work on The Matrix. Second, in adapting the story from a Chinese pulp-fiction novel written by Wang Du Lu, Lee focused not on the pursuit of a legendary sword known as "The Green Destiny," but instead on the struggles of his female leads against social obligation. In his hands, the requisite fight scenes become another means of expressing the individual spirits of his characters and their conflicts with society and each other. The filming required an immense effort from all involved. Chow and Yeoh had to learn to speak Mandarin, which Lee insisted on using instead of Cantonese to achieve a more classic, lyrical feel. The astonishing battles between Jen (Zhang) and Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) on the rooftops and Jen and Li Mu Bai (Chow) atop the branches of bamboo trees required weeks of excruciating wire and harness work (which in turn required meticulous "digital wire removal"). But the result is a seamless blend of action, romance, and social commentary in a populist film that, like its young star Zhang, soars with balletic grace and dignity. --Eugene Wei
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Wrath of the Dragon God, the sequel to the unfortunate 2000 theatrical release Dungeons and Dragons, is a pleasant surprise in that it not only hews closer to the popular role-playing game that provides its source material, but it's also an enjoyable fantasy adventure with plenty of action and special effects. Longtime movie heel Bruce Payne, who played a second-string villain in the first film, returns here as the evil sorcerer Damodar, who uses a sinister magic orb to launch an attack against a kingdom; a brave but untested group of adventurers (all character types from the game) band together to fight Damodar and his legion of monsters. Gerry Lively, a veteran director of photography on numerous low-budget genre films, guides the proceedings with a capable hand, and the script wisely jettisons the aggravating humor of the previous film in favor of straightforward action and derring-do. --Paul Gaita
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Despite its box-office failure in 1981, Dragonslayer was gradually recognized as one of the finest fantasies to emerge from the post-Star Wars boom in special effects. It's still one of the best adventures of its kind, featuring one of the most fearsome fire-breathing serpents in movie history. Ominously named Vermithrax Pejorative, this ill-tempered monster terrorizes the peasantry of sixth-century England, feeding on maidens sacrificed by a duplicitous king until a sorcerer's apprentice named Galen (Peter MacNicol, long before Ally McBeal) is recruited as a reluctant hero. Aided by a tenacious beauty (Caitlin Clarke) and his resurrected mentor (Ralph Richardson), Galen confronts the soaring beast in a breathtaking climax. Employing a then-innovative technique called Go-Motion to animate the dragon, the special effects are still dazzling, and stunning locations in Scotland and Wales allow director Matthew Robbins (cowriter of Steven Spielberg's feature debut, The Sugarland Express) to maintain a vivid atmosphere for the wealth of movie magic. --Jeff Shannon
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In the eighth Dragon Ball movie (1993), King Kai summons Goku to stop a Super Saiyan who's laid waste to the South Galaxy, and who plans to attack Earth. Paragas arrives and implores Vegeta to rule a re-created Planet Vegeta. Paragas's son Broly was born on the same day as Goku, but at a power level of 10,000! Fearing this potential menace, Vegeta's father ordered the child killed, but he escaped with Paragus. Now the pair is seeking revenge. After the standard battles, in which characters blast each other through solid rock, Goku defeats his legendary foe--with help from Gohan, Trunks, Piccolo, and (reluctantly) Vegeta. The most surprising images in the film depict not Broly's feats of super-strength, but Goku, incongruously clad in a suit and tie for an interview at the school Chi-Chi wants Gohan to attend. (Not rated: suitable for ages 8 and older: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon
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Let's face it: No one is usually checking a Jet Li movie for the verbal sparring. In Kiss of the Dragon, Chinese undercover agent Li chops his way through Paris after he's framed in some sketchily defined drug sting operation. The fight sequences are tough and quite brutal, and the over-the-top finale is arguably worth the price of admission, wherein an implacable Li takes on the entire Paris Police Bureau, working his way up toward police chief Tchéky Karyo's office through cops, a pair of peroxide-blond twin henchmen, and a whole class of kung fu cadets. Co-screenwriter Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) should know by now what makes for a nifty genre piece, but the woeful dialogue is a shame, and there aren't nearly enough action sequences to get your blood boiling. Poor Bridget Fonda gives it the old school try in a thankless role as an ex-junkie prostitute from the Midwest whose young daughter is being held captive by duplicitous police chief/drug lord/pimp Karyo (who fairly inhales the scenery). Director Chris Nolan might have pushed further the strangers-in-a-strange-land camaraderie between Li and Fonda, but the script still would've sunk him. --Steve Wiecking
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Fantasy enthusiasts and animal documentary aficionados alike are sure to get a kick from this imaginative blend of adventure and nature special that purports to investigate the discovery of a dragon’s corpse in modern-day Romania. Director Justin Hardy skillfully balances the framing story of a British scientific team that attempts to understand the creature’s unique capabilities (flight, fire breathing) with documentary-style "re-creations" (narrated by The Lord of the Rings’ Ian Holm) that explain how dragons evolved since prehistoric times. Stunning CGI effects (members of the visual effects team worked previously on the Walking with Dinosaurs series and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) help make these flashbacks as realistic as possible, but what really sells the premise is the script by Hardy and Charlie Foley (with assistance from acclaimed fantasy author Neil Gaiman), which uses real animal biology and history to present a compelling and plausible case for the existence of these mythological animals. --Paul Gaita
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These 13 episodes recount Goku's first adventures and introduce some of the main characters from the phenomenally popular comedy-adventure. A small boy from another planet, Goku commands superhuman strength, but he was raised by an old man who taught him to use his powers only to fight evildoers. Goku stumbles onto Bulma, who is trying to assemble the seven enchanted Dragon Balls so she can wish for a boyfriend. The naive boy and the hot-tempered girl join forces to collect the magic spheres. They enter into a quarrelsome alliance with Oolong, the shape-shifting pig; Yamcha, the dashing bandit (who wants the Dragon Balls to wish away his shyness around girls); and Yamcha's metamorphic familiar Pwar. The heroes don't realize they're competing for the Dragon Balls with the pint-sized Blue Meanie, Emperor Pilaf (who plans to use the Dragon Balls to rule the world), and his two ninja flunkies, Mia and Chao. The wild card in the conflict is Roshi, a lecherous old man who is a master of extraordinary martial arts techniques. This version of the comic action series has been heavily edited, which infuriates some fans, but it still offers plenty of elaborate fights and slapstick comedy. "Curse of the Blood Rubies" is a "feature" that consists of recut chunks of the first four episodes on the discs, combined with sections of the "Legend of Shenlon" adventure. The evil King Gurumes is oppressing his people and digging up his once-fertile realm to obtain the fabulous Rubies. He wants the Dragon Balls to wish himself free of the insatiable gluttony that has transformed him into a bloated monster, and will do anything to obtain them, which brings him into conflict with Goku, Bulma, and company. Although the film contains nothing but reused footage, the story doesn't fit into the overall Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z continuity. Rated 5 and older, but more appropriate for ages 8 and up: minor nudity, toilet humor, and cartoon violence. --Charles Solomon
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The last film completed by Bruce Lee before his untimely death, Enter the Dragon was his entrée into Hollywood. The American-Hong Kong coproduction, shot in Asia by American director Robert Clouse, stars Lee as a British agent sent to infiltrate the criminal empire of bloodthirsty Asian crime lord Han (Shih Kien) through his annual international martial arts tournament. Lee spends his days taking on tournament combatants and nights breaking into the heavily guarded underground fortress, kicking the living tar out of anyone who stands in his way. The mix of kung fu fighting (choreographed by Lee himself) and James Bond intrigue (the plot has more than a passing resemblance to Dr. No) is pulpy by any standard, but the generous budget and talented cast of world-class martial artists puts this film in a category well above Lee's primitive Hong Kong productions. Unfortunately he's off the screen for large chunks of time as American maverick competitors (and champion martial artists) John Saxon and Jim Kelly take center stage, but once the fighting starts Lee takes over. The tournament setting provides an ample display of martial arts mastery of many styles and climaxes with a huge free-for-all, but the highlight is Lee's brutal one-on-one with the claw-fisted Han in the dynamic hall-of-mirrors battle. Lee narrows his eyes and tenses into a wiry force of sinew, speed, and ruthless determination. --Sean Axmaker
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Toddlers who regularly tag along with Emmy and Max on their lesson-laden joyrides to Dragon Land via the PBS series DragonTales will devour Adventures in Dragon Land, a five-episode bonanza that also weaves three catchy sing- and dance-along musical segments into the mix. Gathered here are "To Kingdom Come," in which Ord gets a crash course on the benefits of sharing after accidentally cooping himself and the rest of the fire-breathing gang up in a faraway kingdom; "Baby Troubles," about the energy-sapping effects of taking care of even the sweetest infant (in this case, Cassie's little sister, Kiki); "Bad Share Day," a meditation on the sometimes tricky proposition of speaking up for oneself; "Zak Takes a Dive," a Zak- and Weezie-centered episode that exposes Zak's unwillingness to try swimming for what it is--unfounded, fun-spoiling fear; and "The Forest of Darkness," another fear dismantler in which Ord, with help from his friends, conquers the creeps deep into a foreign starlit forest. Most of these 10-minute cartoons will come as repeats for fans, but who's complaining? Kids from 2 to 6 can't get enough of this series, and given its commitment to incorporating thought-provoking predicaments into each episode, caregivers shouldn't mind either. DVD edition special features include English and Spanish audio tracks; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and several sing-along tunes. --Tammy La Gorce
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