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Dragon Rider - Movie Review
4 years ago
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke was an extremely formative book for me, which I was given at Christmas when I was almost a teen.
Soon after beginning, I was enthralled, and I read it cover to cover by the end of the day. I loved it. The following year at school, I copied Dragon Rider illustrations into all my exercise books at school, page after page after page.
My love of dragons, which had existed from an early age, went into absolute overdrive. I ventured very much further into my otherkin dragon side. I imagined myself as a silver dragon like the ones in the book, however I became a red/yellow dragon because silver didn't look very good in the character creator for the game Istaria, where Ashtalon first came into existence.
The dragons' names in Dragon Rider are things like: Slatebeard, Firedrake, Shimmertail, Spinecrackle, etc. So you can see the influence of those names on me: Ashtalon Skyfire. Anyway, it's easy to say that Dragon Rider had an enormous influence on me, and it's kept in a treasured place on my bookshelf.
Only a few days ago, I learned that at long last, a movie adaptation of Dragon Rider had been made! I was extremely excited to go and see it, and I was lucky enough to see it with my birdie. I only arrived home a short while ago after seeing him off at the airport, as today was the end of his one-week holiday with me. We had a wonderful time together and I'm glad he's come to appreciate dragons, although I know gryphons will always be his favourite, as dragons are for me. ;3
We first learned of the movie from a poster while seeing Wonder Woman 1984, but I didn't tweak until I recognised the Sorrell the Brownie (a small, anthro, catlike character) on the poster. I was excited and made plans with my birdie to see it as soon as we could.
Onto my review of the movie itself! It's hard to think of a place to begin because I have so much to say, but I'll start with Firedrake. He was the main dragon character and his design was really on point! He was very cute, just the right size, and the right personality! Very endearing and beautiful details all around. I always loved a soft, lined kind of underside on a dragon, so I loved that spect of his design. Now that I think more carefully, his design was pretty much perfect, and very faithful to his illustrations in the book. He was also animated in such an adorable way. I wasn't quite sure if I liked Firedrake's voice at first, but it really grew on me as the movie went on. I give Constantin Film an A+ for Firedrake!
Sorrel's design was just right for this film: A bit cuter than I expected, and more endearing. In the book, she is far more grumpy, sceptical and cynical, but I like what they did with her in the movie and I really liked her character.
Ben, the main human character, was quite different to how I'd imagined him as I read the book—less wide-eyed, older, and less likeable. It seems like they tried to give him a bit of a "redemption" character arc but it didn't quite work as well as it could have. He was actually quite different to how he was in the book, and I wish he'd been a little kinder and more naïve.
Professor Greenbloom: Oi mate! He had an *Australian* voice! Crikey! As an Australian, I can hardly tell you how meaningful it is to have a local-sounding voice appear in a movie, because us Australians might as well be non-existent in basically every piece of media we watch. (I would personally love to hear more Australian voices in movies...........) So when I heard Greenbloom's voice, my eyes lit up and I clutched my birdie and we both delighted at hearing it. Thank you, Constantin Film!
Nettlebrand. He was a very imposing villain in the book! Perhaps he could have been more so in this movie, but he was great with Patrick Stewart's voice acting. I had imagined his design to be a bit more dragony, and also more imposing, but overall, I think they did a good job with him.
As for details of the plot, I could understand that they needed to cut a lot of material from the book. There were many characters and scenes cut, including some that I really liked, however the end result was good. I found it amusing to see how much influence they took from How to Train Your Dragon. The character designs of the dragons (apart from Firedrake) were very obviously inspired by Dreamworks, and there was an obvious reference to HTTYD in one scene. On the topic of references, there was a cheeky little one in the second half of the movie that made me laugh out loud. It came up so unexpectedly but it was placed just perfectly and really made me giggle!
My birdie and I remarked at how some of the animations were a bit janky. There was one scene where the main character ran in a strange way, almost as though he was floating. Sometimes when Firedrake took flight, he had no momentum before flying, and sometimes his wing flaps had a lot of time between them, given the way he was flying. However these are only small details and the rest of the animation was fine.
Seeing a movie adaptation of your favourite book will always lead to some disappointments regarding changes, however I think Dragon Rider was quite solid. I can hardly express how overjoyed I was to find out this relatively obscure book had been adapted to film. Before watching it, I was relieved to learn it was from a German company, as the norm for animated films seems for them to be quite silly and stupid. I would have been disappointed if they'd made this beloved story of mine like that, so I was relieved it was approached with care and love.
After the movie, my birdie said to me that my dragon name was like the ones from Dragon Rider. I said: YES! That was where the influence for my name came from. Just four dragony words-sounding put together. ^.=.^
Overall, I can say that it was a wonderful experience to see this film. I can forgive it for all the details I would have rather had changed because I'm very happy that they made it in the first place, and that it was arguably pretty faithful to my favourite book.
I give Dragon Rider a solid 8.5/10. I will definitely be buying a hard copy of the movie once it's available! It means so much to a dragon like me to see this treasured story brought to life.
Soon after beginning, I was enthralled, and I read it cover to cover by the end of the day. I loved it. The following year at school, I copied Dragon Rider illustrations into all my exercise books at school, page after page after page.
My love of dragons, which had existed from an early age, went into absolute overdrive. I ventured very much further into my otherkin dragon side. I imagined myself as a silver dragon like the ones in the book, however I became a red/yellow dragon because silver didn't look very good in the character creator for the game Istaria, where Ashtalon first came into existence.
The dragons' names in Dragon Rider are things like: Slatebeard, Firedrake, Shimmertail, Spinecrackle, etc. So you can see the influence of those names on me: Ashtalon Skyfire. Anyway, it's easy to say that Dragon Rider had an enormous influence on me, and it's kept in a treasured place on my bookshelf.
Only a few days ago, I learned that at long last, a movie adaptation of Dragon Rider had been made! I was extremely excited to go and see it, and I was lucky enough to see it with my birdie. I only arrived home a short while ago after seeing him off at the airport, as today was the end of his one-week holiday with me. We had a wonderful time together and I'm glad he's come to appreciate dragons, although I know gryphons will always be his favourite, as dragons are for me. ;3
We first learned of the movie from a poster while seeing Wonder Woman 1984, but I didn't tweak until I recognised the Sorrell the Brownie (a small, anthro, catlike character) on the poster. I was excited and made plans with my birdie to see it as soon as we could.
Onto my review of the movie itself! It's hard to think of a place to begin because I have so much to say, but I'll start with Firedrake. He was the main dragon character and his design was really on point! He was very cute, just the right size, and the right personality! Very endearing and beautiful details all around. I always loved a soft, lined kind of underside on a dragon, so I loved that spect of his design. Now that I think more carefully, his design was pretty much perfect, and very faithful to his illustrations in the book. He was also animated in such an adorable way. I wasn't quite sure if I liked Firedrake's voice at first, but it really grew on me as the movie went on. I give Constantin Film an A+ for Firedrake!
Sorrel's design was just right for this film: A bit cuter than I expected, and more endearing. In the book, she is far more grumpy, sceptical and cynical, but I like what they did with her in the movie and I really liked her character.
Ben, the main human character, was quite different to how I'd imagined him as I read the book—less wide-eyed, older, and less likeable. It seems like they tried to give him a bit of a "redemption" character arc but it didn't quite work as well as it could have. He was actually quite different to how he was in the book, and I wish he'd been a little kinder and more naïve.
Professor Greenbloom: Oi mate! He had an *Australian* voice! Crikey! As an Australian, I can hardly tell you how meaningful it is to have a local-sounding voice appear in a movie, because us Australians might as well be non-existent in basically every piece of media we watch. (I would personally love to hear more Australian voices in movies...........) So when I heard Greenbloom's voice, my eyes lit up and I clutched my birdie and we both delighted at hearing it. Thank you, Constantin Film!
Nettlebrand. He was a very imposing villain in the book! Perhaps he could have been more so in this movie, but he was great with Patrick Stewart's voice acting. I had imagined his design to be a bit more dragony, and also more imposing, but overall, I think they did a good job with him.
As for details of the plot, I could understand that they needed to cut a lot of material from the book. There were many characters and scenes cut, including some that I really liked, however the end result was good. I found it amusing to see how much influence they took from How to Train Your Dragon. The character designs of the dragons (apart from Firedrake) were very obviously inspired by Dreamworks, and there was an obvious reference to HTTYD in one scene. On the topic of references, there was a cheeky little one in the second half of the movie that made me laugh out loud. It came up so unexpectedly but it was placed just perfectly and really made me giggle!
My birdie and I remarked at how some of the animations were a bit janky. There was one scene where the main character ran in a strange way, almost as though he was floating. Sometimes when Firedrake took flight, he had no momentum before flying, and sometimes his wing flaps had a lot of time between them, given the way he was flying. However these are only small details and the rest of the animation was fine.
Seeing a movie adaptation of your favourite book will always lead to some disappointments regarding changes, however I think Dragon Rider was quite solid. I can hardly express how overjoyed I was to find out this relatively obscure book had been adapted to film. Before watching it, I was relieved to learn it was from a German company, as the norm for animated films seems for them to be quite silly and stupid. I would have been disappointed if they'd made this beloved story of mine like that, so I was relieved it was approached with care and love.
After the movie, my birdie said to me that my dragon name was like the ones from Dragon Rider. I said: YES! That was where the influence for my name came from. Just four dragony words-sounding put together. ^.=.^
Overall, I can say that it was a wonderful experience to see this film. I can forgive it for all the details I would have rather had changed because I'm very happy that they made it in the first place, and that it was arguably pretty faithful to my favourite book.
I give Dragon Rider a solid 8.5/10. I will definitely be buying a hard copy of the movie once it's available! It means so much to a dragon like me to see this treasured story brought to life.
Thank you for writing such a touching post. He forced me to think about his past life, and my I am now.
All that is good and happy, both of you, it was very nice to read this and feel that a modicum of warmth with which you wrote it.
I don't usually write a detailed movie review, but this one was so important to me that I had to. ^.=.^
Movies and stories with griffons as I like. I love birds and they are important companions in the other world, our world.
Where does one find movie >..> XD I tried netflix, and amazon prime.