If anyone knows anything about fantasy, it’s probably George RR Martin: after all, he wrote the saga ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, of which ‘Game Of Thrones’ is not only a gigantic fantasy epic for the small screen, but also According to In fact, the FILMSTARTS community has created the best series of all time.
Opposite The author has revealed his 10 favorite fantasy films, including cult films like ‘The Princess Bride’ and essential classics like the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy There are one or two insider tips: this definitely includes “The Dragon Slayer(1981)which was a bit of a box office flop, grossing $14.1 million (on an $18 million budget) – and has since been somewhat forgotten.
This is “The Dragon Slayer”
The film, directed by Matthew Robbins (“Miracle on 8th Street”), is set in a medieval kingdom called Urland, which is terrorized by a huge dragon. To appease the fire-breathing monster, once a year King Casiodorus (Peter Eyre) chooses a young woman through a lottery to be thrown to the dragon as a sacrifice. To finally put an end to the horror, reclusive magician Ulrich (Ralph Richardson) is asked for help, but he dies. Instead of the sorcerer, his inexperienced apprentice Galen (Peter MacNicol) must now set out to save the kingdom…
“The Dragon Slayer” was the second joint project between Walt Disney and Paramount Pictures following the live-action adaptation of “Popeye.” The Disney Studios wanted to tap into a new target group by presenting the mix of different myths and legends not as a children’s film, but as an unusually dark and realistic fairy tale for adults at that time. Unfortunately, the courage was not rewarded at the box office If you want to see the film, you’ll need to pick up the UK import disc – as the film is currently not available in streaming, nor on DVD or Blu-ray in Germany:
One can only hope that this will change one day, because even though public interest was limited at the time, many critics were impressed with the effects and dragon design – and George RR Martin does not spare his praise either: “This completely underrated fantasy film […] far surpasses most of Disney’s live-action films from this era.”, writes the creator of ‘House Of The Dragon’. “Vermithrax Perjorative is the best dragon to ever appear in a movie, and he also has the coolest dragon name. Ralph Richardson is with Frank Morgan [aus ,Der Zauberer von Oz’, Anm. d. Red.] the greatest movie magician of all time (until Ian McKellen put on the pointy hat).”
Martin continues: “Peter MacNicol plays Galen, an impressively serious but incompetent sorcerer’s apprentice. There’s also a beautiful, brave, noble princess who gets eaten by baby dragons after tricking us into believing she’s Galen’s romantic partner. The real love interest, Caitlin Clarke, pretends to be a boy for most of the film – a kind of gender reversal you wouldn’t expect from Disney. The film’s villains are painted in shades of gray. From their perspective, they are the heroes doing what needs to be done to save the country. Even Vermithrax has credible motives.” And at the end the writer gives the readers some good advice: “DO NOT confuse this movie with the much worse,Dragon Heart‘!”