Top Ten Tuesday: How to Film Your Dragon

DreamWorks’ newest animated adventure HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON opens this week in theaters nationwide, so We Are Movie Geeks decided to mark the occasion with our own Top Ten list of movies that best depict dragons. These films may or may not be strictly about dragons, but all of them feature the ancient, often scary, but always cool creatures of fantasy. Whether you’re into fearsome and fiery or cute and cuddly, we’ve got dragons for you!

10. ENCHANTED

This wonderful modern take on a fairy tale features an awesome climactic ending with the main villain turning into a dragon and chasing Patrick Dempsey up the side of the Woolworth Building in New York. Not only does the sequence feature a dazzling transformation from human to dragon form, but it then escalates into an extremely satisfying chase/battle sequence! If you haven’t scene ENCHANTED, this finale dragon-filled sequence definitely tops off a wonderful gem of a film!

09. Q: THE WINGED SERPENT

What more do you want from a Larry Cohen movie set in the sleazy New York City of the early ’80s? How about a giant, flying, friggin’ lizard that has a tendency to eat people? Still not enough? How about having Richard Roundtree and David Carradine in on the game as a couple of guys going after the winged creature/early afternoon snack for the winged creature. It’s all hammy fun that, evidently, stemmed from Cohen thinking to himself that the Chrysler Building looked like a good place to have a nest. Now, if that isn’t one for the Corman style of film making, I don’t know what is.

08. THE HOBBIT (1977)

Smawg was a fearsome, but lethargic dragon from Tolkien’s classic novel THE HOBBIT, made into an animated film in 1977. He guarded great treasure, but despite Bilbo Baggins’ diminutive size and cowardly appearance, he bravely outsmarted the great dragon. Smaug, like the rest of the film, was somewhat crudely drawn, but for the time our imaginations filled in the flaws and allow us to remember him as the frightening fantasy beast he was. His eyes were like beacons from a light house, the strike of his tale like thunder, the flap of his wings like hurricanes, teeth like swords, claws like spears and his breath was death. Smawg was not a dragon to be fooled with.

07. SHREK

Oh, you’re a giiiiiiirl dragon.  Love it or hate it (and most people seem to hate it as part of their revisionist view on movies), SHREK did much to shirk the typical stereotypes that come from most fairy tales.  Case in point, the lovable talking donkey falls in love with a purple dragon who wears lipstick.  That’s love, right there, if ever it’s been felt.  The dragon in SHREK begins as the keeper of Princess Fiona, but quickly becomes an integral part of the story as a whole.  Hell, she even gets to kill off the main villain of the film.  Now, that’s breaking stereotypes.  And, to think, she did it all for love.

06. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

The dragons of GOBLET OF FIRE didn’t have a sustaining role in the film, but we’re glad the creatures did make an appearance in the franchise. The Dragon Challenge was an exhilarating, action-packed scene in the movie, pitting Harry Potter against the dreaded fire-breathing dragon in the arena-like venue, whereas Harry must successfully nab the egg without perishing. The horned, lizard-like creature stalks and lunges at Harry, agile and limber, deadly in a heartbeat if not respected, but not necessarily the intelligent, sentient being that other incarnations of the dragon would suggest. In many respects, the dragons in Harry Potter’s world are more like wild beasts than cunning foes.

05. SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959)

Maleficent, “The Mistress of All Evil”, in SLEEPING BEAUTY is the Queen of all Disney villains. After many attempts to take down the fair Princess Aurora, she finally uses “all the powers of hell” to become one nasty, enormous purple and black dragon. The hero, Prince Phillip, becomes entwined in an epic battle to slay the dragon, thereby releasing all the sleeping inhabitants of King Stefan’s kingdom. Disney animators outdid themselves with the dragon’s sharp, dagger-like teeth that look eerily familiar to the ones used for the Queen in James Cameron’s ALIENS, while Maleficient’s fiery wrath comes from sound effects man Jim Macdonald who used U.S. Army training films on flame throwing to replicate her blazing roar. Maleficent’s dragon is one the quintessential cinematic dragons to ever hit the screen.

04. REIGN OF FIRE

Despite its flaws, REIGN OF FIRE is easily one of the coolest movies about dragons ever made. Incredible CGI special effects, high-octane action to match the fire breathing dragons and Christian Bale with his high-octane temper… all adds up to one helluva movie. (We also get to see a pre-stardom Gerard Butler.) Few dragons depicted on screen have had as much menacing charisma, producing such an adrenaline rush as what may be considered Rob Bowman’s best flick… then again, that says a lot when the only other movies you’ve made are X-FILES, its sequel and ELEKTRA.

03. PETE’S DRAGON

In the seaside village of Passamaquoddy, an abused orphan named Pete finds a friend in the invisible, lovable dragon called Elliot… thus the film’s title PETE’S DRAGON. Elliot helps Pete to avoid the Gogans, his abusive adoptive family and finds help from the local lighthouse keeper, Nora (Helen Reddy) and her father (Mickey Rooney). Animated by Don Bluth (THE SECRET OF NIMH, TITAN A.E.) with comedian Charlie Callas providing the voice of Elliot, it was pure magic to kids in 1977. A combination of live action and animation, PETE’S DRAGON wasn’t exactly a Disney hit when it was released, however it did see 2 Oscar nominations for Best Score and Helen Reddy’s cheesy ‘Candle on the Water.’

02. DRAGONSLAYER

Some may look back on this film and laugh. Go ahead and mock us who still love this classic from the 80’s, but we’re sticking by our guns… or, swords. Sure, the effects aren’t up to today’s standards, but the dragon in Matthew Robbins’ epic tale of an assuming and frail young man, thrown into the role of Dragon Slayer was truly magical and exciting for us, we lads (and lasses), at the time. Despite the relatively rigid design, this dragon was scary and mean, especially with its awesome fire-breathing display which I still marvel at to this day. When its all said and done, DRAGONSLAYER is the movie that we youthful geeks were drawn to, hypnotized by and driven to dream of being slayers ourselves.

01. DRAGONHEART

Rob Cohen’s 1996 entry into fantasy fare may be slightly more family friendly than pure hardcore awesomeness, but DRAGONHEART is still a cool movie with some really cool dragon special effects. Starring everybody’s favorite Dennis Quaid as a down and out dragon slayer and featuring none other than Sean Connery as the voice of Draco the last surviving dragon, the movie has a good story and dragon detail to boot, and plenty of dragon screen time. There may be plenty of films that include dragons in their stories, but few touch DRAGONHEART as a movie all about the dragon.