Who said the lives of Dragon Hunters was ever easy?
A few nights back I watched the feature length fully CG animated children’s film called Dragon Hunters.
At first I was slightly sceptical, as I seldom enjoy fully computer animated series/movies. However, this brilliant French production really blew me away. Not only did Dragon Hunters have awesome characters, but absolutely jaw dropping effects.
Dragon Hunters centres around a group of three adventurers, who wander an immense world of floating cities and continents, vanquishing a bevy of strange monsters that are simply known as dragons.
They are down on their luck and are always looking for the proverbial “big score”, so that they can settle down and have a small farm of their own.
The main characters are Lian-Chu, Gwizdo and Hector.
Lian-Chu is the muscle! He is a mountain of a man who wields a massive flail, which he uses to defeat all dragons that stand in his way.
Gwizdo stays clear of battle. He is what you would call the brains of the operation. He secures deals and does most of the sneaky work…..and boy can he run away from danger.
Hector is the group’s pet dragon. He has a sweet nature and gets involved with most confrontations. He is best described as a meat eating rabbit, although he acts like a dog.
They are approached by a strange young girl Zoe, who says that her uncle can offer them a great quest, with even grander reward, they head off to the floating palace where she lives.
When they discover the quest is to destroy the dragon called the World Gobbler, they are apprehensive to say the least. The World Gobbler is a beast of such powerful infamy, that the adventurers seem to be in an absolute no win situation.
How will they survive the trials of finding the beast, will they be victorious?
The basic storyline for the movie I watched is different from the original series, which I really want to get my hands on. The movie itself is a well executed “stand-alone” feature, which incorporates most of the characters from the series. Basically you just need to take the movie as an alternate reality or timeline.
The movie was released back in 2008 and has been crafted by a serious team of animators. The CG stands up to any American production I have seen thus far.
What is even better, it’s the kinds animated movie that may be for kids, but it still has HUGE appeal to older audiences. It’s creators Arthur Qwak and art director Guillaume Ivernel, did an absolutely epic job on this production.
This is one animated movie you really don’t want to miss.
It’s good to see that there is not just insanely good CG animation coming out of the States, but the rest of the world as well.
My absolute favourite character is the rabbit/dog/dragon Hector, who has such a memorable character and really made me laugh. Hector for President!
Don’t forget your chainmail and battleaxe for this adventure, friends.
Duncs.
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