Review of 'Dragon Hunters (Chasseurs de dragons)'

dragon_hunters.jpg Dragon Hunters tells the story of an unlikely duo of dragon hunters: Gwizdo, and Lian-Chu. The beginning of the story sees our two heroes battling a dragon for some farmers as they make a bit of a mess…so no money as the locals chase them away. The two want nothing more than to get a bit of money and retire to a life of farming.

Lord Arnold lives in fear of the World Eater – A large dragon and, when his young niece comes across our two dragon hunters she brings them to meet her uncle. The Lord, blinded, is unable to see the two “heroes” that have been brought before him but hires them to seek out and kill the dragon. Things get a bit nasty as they approach their goal…

The computer-generated animation is truly spectacular as it brings to life a fantastic world with islands of land and buildings floating about freely (it is more spectacular considering the number of production companies and the ridiculously low amounts of money involved in making the movie). The characters are very believable and brought to life on the screen.

While watching this film I could not help think that a lot of the running time is spent on the screen rather than story as it is quite straightforward with no surprises, really, in store for the audience. I would have loved to have learned more of this mysterious land however, it is intended for younger audiences and I think that it very much hits this mark particularly with the humourous dog-like sidekick of the two adventurers who periodically adds his side-quips to what is happening around them (his posing as a statue when they are being attacked by swarms of flying beasties is particularly amusing).

A work of love on the part of the two film-makers, Dragon Hunters is a very enjoyable and impressive film.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2008-05-05


Directed by: Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak

Studio: Futurikon

Year: 2007

Length: 80 minutes

Genre: Animation

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944834/