The Flight of Dragons (Essay)

Released 1982 (Direct to video); August 3, 1986 (TV)

Studio(s): Warner Bros, ABC

Directed by: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.

Long-time producing and directing partners Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass created some of the most memorable films from my childhood. Although they are most well-known for their Christmas fare (namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman), they also produced and directed The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn, both of which were childhood favorites. Another staple of my younger years were mythical creatures, especially dragons. I loved anything and everything with dragons and still do today. In fact, pretty much everything in my life up to this point has been because of my love for and interest in them (loved Hobbit because of them, which lead to Lord of the Rings, which lead eventually to where I am today).

Flight of Dragons is the most dragon-filled movie I can think of. It is absolutely steeped in dragon lore. Loosely based on a fictional natural history book of the same name and Gordon Dickson’s novel “Dragon and the George”, Flight of Dragons follows Peter Dickinson as he tries to protect magic itself from extinction.


The story goes: about a thousand years ago, magic is real but it is dying out in favor of science. People believe less in magical things and more in mathematics, biology, astronomy, and the like, and that is weakening all the fantastical things that very much do exist. This is felt mostly by the wizards, and there are four, each corresponding with an element or part of the world. Carolinus, the Green Wizard of Nature’s Realm calls his three brothers to meet at the Temple of All Antiquity to discuss the matter. His brothers being:
Solarius, Lord of Deapths and Heights, he controlls the waters; Lo Tae Shao, Master of Light and Air; and Ommadon, the Red Wizard, Lord of Black Magic (wonder if he’s the bad guy).

At the gathering, Carolinus asks his brothers to help him create the “Last Realm of Magic” where magic can stay safe from a changing world. Ommadon, shockingly, refuses, because his plan is to dominate man through greed and conquor both worlds. For some reason or another, he says the only way to stop him is to take his red crown, the source off all his power. Genius move if you ask me, “I’m gonna rule the wooooorld. Oh by the way, here’s how to kill me.”


After Ommadon’s threat it’s obvious he needs to be stopped. Lo Tae Shao says than he cannot, for he is a wizard of peace and has no weapons, but he lends a flute of healing. His brother Solarius offers all the help he can give, which at the time is a golden shield, but he also aids later on. Here the brothers’ elements come into play: earth, fire, air, water; good, evil, peace, war. It doesn’t quite match up correctly given earth’s counter-element is air, not fire, but the movie’s about dragons, not elemental balance. Antiquity, however, will not allow the four brothers to war on one another, so Carolinus asks who can help them. The answer is Peter Dickinson, a scientist/inventor from 20th century Boston. Carolinus uses a great deal of his remaining magic to transport Peter back to his time to lead the quest to capture the crown.

Peter is voiced by John Ritter, and isn’t the most dashing or charming hero-type. He spends his time fantasizing about mythical things and making board games from them. He’s also trying to write a definitive book on dragons entitled “Flight of Dragons”, which, oddly enough, a man named Peter Dickinson did. It’s his book the film is loosley based on. A “flight” of dragons, by the way, is a term for a large number of dragons, like herd of elephants or pod of whales.


Shortly before the quest is about to begin, a magical accident occurs and Peter is left in the body of Carolinus’ house dragon Gorbash. It’s hard to get used to being a dragon, and one certainly can’t lead a quest knowing nothing, so Peter-Gorbash gets a crash course in being a dragon from Carloinus’ old dragon friend Smrgol. Here is where Peter learns much of the details for his book and the dragon lore really gets going. We learn all kinds of things about dragons: how they fly, how the breathe fire, why the have gold hordes (they sleep on it because it’s comfortable and it can’t ignite like hay, I’m also fairly certain - and this detail isn’t in the film - that it has something to do with their armoured undersides, makes them stronger, Smaug brags about it in Hobbit).

The quest then continues wherein various frightening creatures are battled and heroic characters are introduced. There is a fair amount of deaths in the movie for a kids flick, and only one of the eventual five journeyers is really developed (other than Peter-Gorbash). In the final battle with Ommadon (did I mention James Earl Jones is the voice of the villain?), Peter uses science and logic to defeat the wizard’s magic, proving whcih is more powerful. The three remaining wizards are left to create their realm that will stay magical and safe, and Peter is returned to Boston to write his book and make his games.

Filght of Dragons was probably one of the worst movies I could have chosen to write about if I wanted discussion to happen. Very few people have even heard of it let alone seen it. My own brother, who I watched it with many years ago, took some time to get his memory going and remember it. It is a more memorable film than Once Upon a Forest because there are so few films like it, but it’s so ridiculously rare no one has been able to get their hands on it (a DVD is out but is incredibly hard ot find, I watched a poor-quality version on Google Video). However, continuing the theme of movies I forgot from my childhood and rediscovered, I felt this fitting.