Dragon Hunters Review

Dragon Hunters


Release Date: 20th March 2008 - Australia

Production Companies
Futurikon
Luxanimation
Trixter Productions

Mac Guff Ligne


Genre: Animation/Family/

Fantasy

Rating: PG

Runtime: 80 minutes

Budget: €12,000,000

Box Office Gross: $12,235,843 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary
A young girl named Zoe, an avid reader of fairy tales, decides to help her uncle, Lord Arnold, get dragon hunters. She sets out to find the dragon slayers, unaware of what she will find along the way. Fortunately, she comes across Gwizdo and Lian-Chu, and they agree to help her. Thus, the adventure begins.

Voice Cast
Forest Whitaker - Lian-Chu
Rob Paulsen - Gwizdo/Bats/

Lensflair
Mary Mouser - Zoe
Nick Jameson - Lord Arnold
Jess Harnell - Gildas
Dave Wittenberg - Hector
Frank Welker - The World Gobbler

John DiMaggio - Fat John

Crew

Writer/Storyboard/Director - Arthur Qwak

Director/Production/Background Color

Designer - Guillaume Ivernel

Writer - Frédéric Lenoir
English Adaptation - Rob Conrath

Co-Executive Producer/Music - Klaus Badelt

Co-Executive Producers - Michael Coldewey
and Robyn Klein

Producers - Philippe Delarue and
Tilo Seiffert

Co-Producer - Marcus Schöfer

Character Designer - Valérie Hadida

Background Designer - Max Braslavsky

Animation Directors: Mac Guff - Kyle Balda
and Laurent de la Chapelle

Animation Supervisor - Pierre Leduc
Animation Sequence Supervisor - Fabrice Senia
Visual Effects Supervisor - Marie-Claire Bazart
Visual Effects Supervisor/Title Sequence -
Francois Launet

Film Editor - Soline Guyonneau

Sound Designer/Effects Recordist/

Supervising Sound Editor - Jean-Marc Lentretien

Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Studio Manager/

Supervisor - Bruno Seznec

Composers: Additional Music - Ian Honeyman
and Andrew Raiher

Review

I never knew that DRAGON HUNTERS had spun off from an animated TV series after watching this movie for the first time. It seems incredible, yet it was daring and unreal and had the makings of a great animated feature. Unlike some animated features produced in Hollywood, DRAGON HUNTERS came from France. Around that time, audiences outside of Europe barely knew that the film existed. It is a mind-blowing and underrated CGI flick.

I admire the film for its beautiful floating landscapes. The negatives I found with this movie included that there are no other well-known celebrity actors except for Forest Whitaker in the voice-over role of the film's English dub. Whitaker acted as the gentle giant Lian-Chu, giving little depth to his character.

I am amazed at how this film turned out when it came out in the same year as Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E. While DRAGON HUNTERS didn't come close to these two movies in terms of story and emotion, it does have an extraordinary visual art style. Those who have never seen this lost evocative gem will have to search for it. Whether on DVD or YouTube.

Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie

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