Dragonslayer

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It required really rethinking the animation process,” he continues. “But what you can do very easily is change the speed on it. We had one of the very first, little tiny Mac computers attached to something like 16 stopper motors. And the way that the stepper motors work is they have pulses that go out. And so Bess figured out what the relationship was between the pulses and the frames. When I'm animating the thing, it's happening in real time. You would count out 6, 12, 18, 24 so I knew where I was in time, I could see where I was in space. And that's how we did it.” The Slayer of All Dragons (HD, 1:03:24) –This is a rather deep dive journey into the production of Dragonslayer, a majority of it being from the ILM special effects angle of the film with bringing the dragon to life. Director Matthew Robbins and ILM legends Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren guide us through this incredible journey that features a lot of production design, sketh work, behind the scenes footage and photos as well as plenty of documented ILM stuff in the form of photos and videos. If you enjoyed the documentary from last year that was on Disney+, The 5-part “Slayer of Dragons” is a fantastic extension. The parts are titled: With fresh eyes and ears, Robbin says, “I was proud of it because I had been out of touch with it for so long. It reminded me that whenever it was operating at its best, it was a very classy, very accomplished film. And I thought some of the work with the actors was good. It was an interesting story. It had a lot of odd [things] like this whole gender thing that [Caitlin Clarke’s character Valerian] goes through; I was very proud of that. It's a very odd experience, because it's been over 40 years. [At the time], Sir Ralph was this doddering senior. Well, I'm 79… the exact age he was! There's a lot of Through the Looking Glass/Lewis Carroll stuff going on here.” Dragonslayer’s Legacy

The 4K restoration was a 40-year dream come true for the director and more emotional than anticipated. 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. NEW A Long Way to Urland - Pre-production begins in England as the film takes shape. The young filmmakers seek gritty medieval realism through the production design, cinematography, and costumes.Vermithrax Pejorative (17:48): An in-depth look at the dragon seen in the film, from inspirations to final design on the screen. Firm color gives potent energy to flames, of which Dragonslayer has plenty of. Primaries thrive over previous home video releases, the flesh tones pure and costumes bold. Greenery in forests carries brilliant zest. Audio Paramount is also releasing Leslie Harris’ Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992) on Blu-ray on 2/14 as a new Paramount Presents title.

In the feature-length commentary, Robbins is joined by del Toro who waxes poetic about many aspects of Dragonslayer that influenced his choices with his own film Pan’s Labyrinth. Robbins says it was humbling to hear del Toro’s take on the handcrafted elements of the film, but he still remembers the toll it took to get to the finished film. The studio also included nearly 16 minutes of screen tests of Peter MacNicol with Caitlin Clarke and Maureen Teefy for the role of Valerian and William Squire for the role of Ulrich. Robbins gets into his casting choices in the documentary, so this is a chance to see some of what he was working with when making decisions. I could see how Teefy and Squire weren’t quite right for their roles, despite how well they played them. In addition to the standard 4K Blu-ray release, the studio will issue a Limited 4K Blu-ray SteelBook Edition. The Final Battle (13:45): As the title suggests, this piece looks at the complex making of the film's final 15 minutes.There was a big mob in the lobby afterwards, and I got to speak to him for like, all of 30 seconds. I introduced myself and he said, ‘Oh, Dragonslayer? Great dragon! Great dragon!’ But that was it,” Robbins laughs. complementary manner. They cover external filmmaking details but also break down the picture's themes, structure, cast, score, and much more. healthier skin tones, deeper and more lifelike grays, and more satisfying earthen colors, all of which are the primary shades seen throughout the film.

The fact that she led her rebellion and was a rebellion of young people, it’s kind of a romantic impulse on the part of all of us when we were making that movie to bring that to life. According to Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins and he got the inspiration for Dragonslayer from The Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence in Fantasia. They later came up with a story after researching St. George and the Dragon. Barwood and Robbins rejected the traditional conceptions of the medieval world to give the film more realism: "Our film has no knights in shining armor, no pennants streaming in the breeze, no delicate ladies with diaphanous veils waving from turreted castles, no courtly love, no holy grail. Instead, they set out to create a very strange world with a lot of weird values and customs, steeped in superstition, where the clothes and manners of the people were rough, their homes and villages primitive, and their countryside almost primeval, so that the idea of magic would be a natural part of their existence." For this reason, they chose to set the film after the end of Roman rule in Britain, prior to the arrival of Christianity. Barwood and Robins began to hastily work on the story outline on June 25, 1979, and completed it in early August. They received numerous refusals from various film studios, due to their inexperience in budget negotiations. The screenplay was eventually accepted by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, becoming the two studios' second joint effort after Popeye (1980). [3] Dragon [ edit ] According to Barwood, the dragon's basic body plan was based on that of the Jurassic pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus. [4] And Stephen has delivered his in-depth take on AGFA and Something Weird Video’s nine-film, three-disc The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years Blu-ray box set, distributed by Vinegar Syndrome. The expedition is followed by Tyrian, the brutal and cynical captain of Casiodorus's Royal Guard. His lieutenant Jerbul and he openly intimidate the wizard, doubtful of his abilities. Ulrich invites Tyrian to stab him to prove his magical powers. Tyrian does so and Ulrich dies instantly, to the horror of his young apprentice Galen Bradwarden and his elderly servant Hodge, who cremates Ulrich's body and places the ashes in a leather pouch. 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.

Watch 'Dragonslayer' on Paramount+

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. will confront it, and the adventures he undertakes and the maturation he develops along the way. Of course, the film builds towards a climactic

Dragonslayer's story bares several similarities to the first Star Wars film. But Star Wars itself is similar to the countless hero's journey stories that preceded it. Peter MacNichol stars as Galen Bradwarden, a young sorcerer apprentice to the old wizard Ulrich of Gragganmore (Ralph Richardson). After Ulrich is killed, Galen takes it upon himself to save Urland from the 400-year-old dragon named Vermithrax Pejorative. Caitlin Clarke co-stars as Valerian, who asked Ulrich to help her people. Valerian insists on going with Galen on his journey, which is made more troublesome by Urland guards who don't want Vermithrax killed because it would upset the status quo. (Photo: Paramount Pictures) It is the second joint production between Paramount and Disney, after Popeye (1980), and is more mature than most contemporary Disney films. Because the audience expected the Disney name to be solely children's entertainment, the film's violence, adult themes and brief nudity were somewhat controversial, though Disney did not hold the US distribution rights. The film was rated PG in the U.S. Alex Keneas of Newsday criticized the focus on superstition, and for being "bereft of any sense of medieval time, place and society". [13]

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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. Without buying a fully 4K blu-ray player (which will only play 4K movies and do NOTHING else), I basically have a disc that is useless. With Dragonslayer finally restored to its release quality, ready to be seen and appreciated by a new generation, Robbins says he’s been able to assess the piece with new appreciation too. The layers in the plot come from the characters’ motivations, which go beyond basic good versus evil dynamics, and within the environment, we learn that this is a world changing from an era of magic and monsters to a more rational one. One interesting note about the latter comes in the form of the arrival of a holy man who espouses Christianity and believes God will protect the kingdom from the dragon, which he believes is a manifestation of Satan. And pay close attention to who assumes that role when the holy man is killed.