Dragon Hunters

January 1, 2012 4:35 PM

Dragon Hunters is a french made CGI animated movie that had a limited US release. Scott Mendelson says "It is a visually rich and emotionally satisfying adventure movie that deserves to get noticed."
posted by garlic (16 comments total)

Dragon Hunters was a marvelous cartoon series before it was a movie. Both the movie and the series are available for streaming from Netflix.
posted by not that girl at 4:53 PM on January 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

Saw it on Netflix, and assumed it was a poor quality rip-off of "How to train your Dragon". Obviously not. Very cool. Added to queue.
posted by idb at 5:00 PM on January 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

My kids (4.5 and 3) are transfixed by this movie. I can't figure out why it hasn't received more attention.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 5:06 PM on January 1, 2012

Hey, and it's got an intro that even Ptolemy could appreciate.
posted by Blue_Villain at 5:32 PM on January 1, 2012

The cartoon series was my boys' first exposure to The Cure:

Oh they can run
They can hide
But we will hunt
And we will find them
They can crawl
And then they die
Until our work is done
posted by bpm140 at 5:59 PM on January 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Theme song by The Cure-- and the wonderful animation it plays to-- is part of why I like the show so much.
posted by not that girl at 6:07 PM on January 1, 2012

The floating islands of the movie make it seem like the world is disintegrating, and will eventually crumble away altogether. They also suggest a multi-dimensional platformer (and I think this is a movie that would make a super game, if it hasn't been made into a game already). Not until the end is there a moment of security for the characters, who pursue dragons and are pursued by them and whose earth is untethered and breaking constantly. The movie is pretty somber, compared to the show.
posted by Francolin at 7:32 PM on January 1, 2012

I watched this on Netflix on a whim a while ago and I was really pleasantly surprised. I had also mistakenly assumed it was a poor quality "How to Train Your Dragon" ripoff, but as far as I'm concerned it's just as good. I loved what was displayed of the world and the floating islands. <3
posted by General Crespin at 8:15 PM on January 1, 2012

I saw this a while back, and was blown away by the quality of the backgrounds. Oh, and the bunnies.

And I have an immense respect for anything that features a shiny knight named Sir Lensflare.

Tremendously imaginative movie, even if the one main character's voice is memorably grating.
posted by MrVisible at 8:17 PM on January 1, 2012

so... should I watch the movie or the TV series first?
posted by luvcraft at 10:17 PM on January 1, 2012

I watched the movie without knowing about the tv series. They're in the same world, but not really the same timeline from what my research tells me. Animation is also done differently (CGI 3D models vs a more typical cartoon animation.)
posted by garlic at 11:05 PM on January 1, 2012

Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you!
posted by erebora at 12:01 AM on January 2, 2012

This was one of the world's happiest preschooler's (my son) picks from the library. This is one of the few kids movies that left me wanting more world building. It also left my kid hunting dragons instead of antelope for a week.

Sir Lensflare was brilliant.
posted by Gygesringtone at 8:19 AM on January 2, 2012

Gorgeous. Thank you!
posted by egypturnash at 12:33 PM on January 2, 2012

Just wanted to check it out, see if it was worth watching at some point or other.

Ended up watching te whole thing on my phone.
posted by Sourisnoire at 2:55 PM on January 2, 2012

"I can't figure out why it hasn't received more attention."

Ok Hollywood, we've got you now!
posted by sneebler at 4:48 AM on January 3, 2012