will confront it, and the adventures he undertakes and the maturation he develops along the way. Of course, the film builds towards a climactic Starting with its advertising campaign, Dragonslayer seems pitched to reach the huge audience of Star Wars. The original poster is practically a clone of the artwork for George Lucas’s first space adventure. With a major nod to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the story also bites off a huge chunk of Tolkien’s popular The Lord of the Rings. Ralph Richardson’s elderly wizard is more like Gandalf than Merlin — standing on high peaks, causing giant whirlwinds to rush around him. In the world of 500 AD magic and magicians are very much real, but in decline. The kingdom of Urland is plagued by a horrible fire-breathing flying dragon known as Vermithrax Pejorative. Urland’s King Casiodorus Rex (Peter Eyre), has made a terrible bargain with Vermithrax to keep its killings to a minimum: twice a year, it is appeased with a sacrificial virgin selected by a cruel lottery system. Apprentice sorcerer Galen (Peter MacNicol) possesses a magic amulet but hasn’t much control over its use. Encouraged to oppose the monster by his new friend, a boy named Valerian (Caitlan Clarke), Galen tries to enlist the aid of his master, the eccentric wizard Ulrich of Cragganmore (Ralph Richardson). textures and superior colors. Certainly, the Blu-ray is so good that often the UHD feels like it's improving by degrees, not by leaps and bounds,

Of course, there is a reason why Dragonslayer didn't connect with audiences as much as other '80s fantasy films have. While the acting is uniformly good, MacNicol simply doesn't have the same charm as Mark Hamill or other contemporaries. He's a good actor, but as we've seen lately, he excels in character roles that have a mean streak. (Just look at his performance on VEEP.) The dialogue also can come off a bit stuffy and overly serious. Maybe there's a reason why George Lucas likes including cute characters in his movies, after all. (Photo: Paramount Pictures) clothing, each stone, and all the wooden accents delivering world-class definition in every single frame. Grain management is spectacular. Grain is a hintAt the conclusion, early Christian peasants led by an oddly-cast Albert Salmi ( Wild River) claim the dragon’s death as a victory for their Lord. Then the scurvy King Casiodorus officially dubs himself the Dragon Slayer of record. With his amulet lost forever, Valerian and Galen exit to new adventures. But not all the magic seems to have departed .. Instead of a squeaky-clean Lucas realm, Urland is a pre- Middle Ages mud & rags kingdom, in transition from the old magical world of sorcerers and demons to religion. Did Barwood & Robbins make a basic commercial miscalculation? The genre wants fun, excitement and uplift, and Dragonslayer instead leans toward horror. Teenaged girls are sacrificed without mercy, followed by a graphic scene in which the dragon’s goblin-like offspring devour a virtuous, brave princess. Nothing in the show prepares us for that level of gore. Rosar, William H. (1987). "Notes on Dragonslayer". CinemaScore Magazine. Archived from the original on September 11, 2013. Of the finished sequences on Dragonslayer, Tippett says, “It worked so we were all very happy with the results.” a b c d e f g h i j k l m Fingeroth, Danny, 1981, The Making of Dragonslayer in Dragonslayer - The Official Marvel Comics Adaptation of the Spectacular Paramount/Disney Motion Picture, Marvel Super Special, 1, 20, Marvel Comics Group, 1981

Dragonslayer is a film that’s long deserved a fresh look by cinephiles and it’s one of those rare catalog titles that’s never even received a decent Blu-ray release until now. So it’s only fitting that this injustice has been finally corrected with a terrific 4K Ultra HD and BD debut. Hats off to Paramount for a disc that delivers both top-shelf A/V quality and great new extras. It’s highly recommended. Dragonslayer is another in what was the seemingly endless movies of the 80’s that had some sort of “Dungeons & Dragons” influence to it. It’s ironic that years later, that same sort of movie would be raking in cash hand over fist and even become nominated for Best Picture along the way (I’m referring to Lord of the Rings, of course). But comparing Dragonslayer and Lord of the Rings isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Every effect is actually done with stunts and models as opposed to computers and I’m reminded of a famous quote “Uh, these effects aren’t very special…”. Then again, that’s also the film’s saving grace and it scores very high on the “camp value” meter as well. Set during the medieval times, we’re reminded of an era in history that we didn’t really think ever existed. Was there ever such a thing as a dragon? Did we really sacrifice virgins twice a year? Can you really kill a dragon with a sword and a shield? Regardless of what philosophical questions you might have, suffice it to say that the movie won’t answer all of them, but what we have here is a mildly-entertaining movie with some cheesy special effects. But what is it all about? And Stephen has offered his take on León Klimovsky’s The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman (1971) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Vinegar Syndrome. He continued, "I was almost afraid that I would have to speak up on these very sensitive sore spots, these wounds, so to speak. They were way ahead of me. The first thing they did was show me five clips to demonstrate the kind of thing they were going to be doing. In every instance, suddenly, the grain was gone out of the night sky, and suddenly the fringing around Peter MacNicol's hair was gone. They were aware of everything." I appreciate exactly what he's talking about, but the truth is that the most difficult passages in that movie, bringing that creature to life, was the fact that it was largely impossible,” he says with candor. “We had various [built] sizes of the dragons. We had full scale pieces that were built by Disney, sent to Pinewood Studios in England. But they were almost unusable.

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Vermithrax Pejorative – The filmmakers take on the daunting task of bringing a dragon to life like never before, utilizing every ounce of movie magic available including Phil Tippett’s breakthrough go-motion animation, cutting-edge practical animatronics, visual effects, and compositing.

Now to the news... Kino Lorber Studio Classics will release Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai (1947) on Blu-ray on 1/31. The company has also set Alexander Hall’s Little Miss Marker (1934) and David Greenwalt’s Secret Admirer (1985) for release on Blu-ray on 3/7. Also announced as “coming soon” to Blu-ray from the company are Rouben Mamoulian’s High, Wide and Handsome (1937) and Dave Thomas’ The Experts (1989). The Merlin / Obi-Wan / Gandalf character Ulrich is bookended at either extreme of the script. Ralph Richardson is delightful in the limited role; everything he says carries a slightly daft, eccentric charge. Magically resurrected from the dead, Ulrich transports himself to dry land by walking on water. His first words are an amusing throwaway: “Did you bring anything to eat?” The film could use more humor elsewhere, if only because so much of what occurs is downbeat. The story is worthwhile, it’s just that audiences weren’t often expected to take such fanciful subject matter so seriously. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. The last time I saw Dragonslayer was on HBO when I was a kid in the 80s. (I don’t recall seeing it in the theater.) I remembered some of the story beats and the big moments, but it was fuzzy in my brain, like an old school standard def video, until now. Set in sixth century England, the countryside is being terrorized by a giant flying creature known as Vermithrax Perojative (otherwise known as a dragon), and forcing the king to sacrifice a young virgin every 5 years to satiate it’s appetite. The country is tired of letting their young women get eaten by the leathery beast, and send a group of peasants to the sorcerer Ulrich (Ralph Richardson) to plead with the mystic to defeat the monster once and for all. Due to some unfortunate events, Ulrich is killed, leaving his powerful amulet and legacy to his apprentice Galen (Peter MacNicol, who will forever be Larry from the TV show Numb3rs in my mind) who must take up the responsibility.healthier skin tones, deeper and more lifelike grays, and more satisfying earthen colors, all of which are the primary shades seen throughout the film. This release features one 4K Ultra HD platter for the film and the bonus features, along with a code for a digital copy. It’s a bummer a Blu-ray wasn’t included too, but I find that if I want to watch a movie and don’t have access to my 4K setup for some reason (like when I was traveling for work recently), streaming in Vudu or Movies Anywhere fills that need. A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin once ranked it the fifth-best fantasy film of all time, and called Vermithrax "the best dragon ever put on film [with] the coolest dragon name". [21] Vermithrax is mentioned as an Easter egg in a list of dragons' names in the fourth episode of that book series adaptation, Game of Thrones. [22] Fantasy author Alex Bledsoe stated: "...everyone has a 'first dragon', the one that awoke their sense of wonder about the creatures. For many it's Anne McCaffrey's elaborate world of Pern, where genetically engineered intelligent dragons bond with their riders; for others, it's Smaug in The Hobbit, guarding his hoard deep in a cave. But for me, it was the awesome Vermithrax from the 1981 film, Dragonslayer." [23] Phil Tippett built a model for the dragon's walking scenes. He did not want to use standard stop-motion animation techniques, and had his team build a dragon model that would move during each exposure, rather than in between, as was once the standard. This process, named "go motion" by Tippett, recorded the creature's movements in motion as a real animal would move, added motion blur, and removed the jerkiness common in prior stop-motion films. [3]

released every catalogue release with this level of TLC. This is one of the finest the studio has ever offered and easily one of the best looking of any You also directed literally one of my favorite movies, The Legend of Billie Jean. In the last couple years, I’ve showed that movie to probably around 10 people and they all love it. Starring: Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre, Albert Salmi, Chloe Salaman, Ian McDiarmid. Ulrich dies before the journey forcing his apprentice Galen (Peter McNicol in his first film role). Valerian(the late Caitlin Clarke) one of the group who sought out Ulrich believes that Galen can kill the beast and free them.a b Hughes, Mike (July 25, 1986). " 'C.A.T. Squad' script puts it above rest". Argus-Leader. Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Gannett News Service. p.3B. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. This is obviously before CGI, but the dragon looks amazing. It is actually an amazing-looking thing they built. Larry DiTillio reviewed Dragonslayer for Different Worlds magazine and stated, "Much imagination went into the recreation of this world and fans will revel in it when they see it." [17] if fresh out of theaters. It is essentially a buffed-up version of the concurrently released Blu-ray, which itself looks striking, here offering the same base with sharper