Rental: Dragon Hunters
AKA (Chasseurs de dragons) French Title
Release Date: DVD US – June 2009
Rating: G – Fantasy action, a few scary images and a tiny bit of langauge
Starring: Voices of Forest Whitaker, Patrick Timsit and Marie Drion
Directed by: Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak (Writer also)
Official Website Here (English)
(Also a French TV Cartoon by Futurikon)
Here in the states Hollywood production companies are really proud of their computer animated family films and when one comes out it’s hard to not have seen dozens of commercials or toys for sale all over the world. Somehow Dragon Hunter’s managed to fly under the kid’s movie radar last year and I only happened upon it accidentally while browsing Netflix last week. It is a French made film that has an English voice over with the amazing Forest Whitaker as the big and brave Lian-Chu. I can totally admit that although I am most of the time a hardened horror movie fanatic every now and then I enjoy a great kid’s movie. Don’t judge me.
I really enjoyed this film which has absolutely beautiful visuals, a creative world and charming characters. The sto
ry revolves around Lian-Chu and Giwizdo who are “dragon-hunters” in a vast floating world of islands and mutant creatures. These two are always looking for a way to make money in order to fulfill their dream of settling down on a quiet farm one day. They get lucky when they save the young and daring Zoe from some shocking little monsters. Zoe happens to be the niece of the wealthy but afflicted Lord Arnold who has been searching for two such “heroes” to fight the horrible world-gobbler dragon that is on his way to destroy their world. The three (or four including the cute little Hector who reminded me of a dog-like Jar Jar Binks) set out to conquer the terrible dragon across the vastly disintegrating world.
The basic themes in the film with misfit knights fighting baddies isn’t necessarily a new idea but everything else from the dialogue to the landscape in this film is highly original. Little Hector was probably my favorite part because he reminded me a lot of my Boston terrier Mya, if she could take of course. I would be interested to see more animated films from France like this one and would recommend it to just about anyone.
Bottom Line: DELIGHTFUL FAMILY FILM WITH BREATHTAKING VISUALS
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