Movie Review: Dragon Hunters

When I watched this movie I had no idea that it was originally a French-language film called Chasseurs de dragons. Even looking back I can't say that there was anything inherently 'Frenchy' about it. It's based on a television series, also called Chasseurs de dragons/Dragon Hunters. Both the film and the television series are set in a world where innumerable chunks of earth float around. It is never explained why the world is like that nor what it's exact nature is. Are there infinite floating planetoids in all directions? Or are they all floating over a larger, Earth-like planet. And if so, why does no one go down to it? I wish these questions had been addressed by the film. (Maybe they are in the television series.)

My verdict: Despite my confusion, the world is quite interesting and well-animated. The dragons were interesting, though I would've liked to see more varieties, like in How to Train Your Dragon.[1] None of the characters (except maybe the pet dragon, Hector) are endearing and the way they were stylized kind of bugged me. Zoe was particularly annoying—and the filmmakers (and voice actress) went above and beyond the call of duty to make her so. Nonetheless the main characters do experience some satisfying personal growth. The way that Lian Chu figured out how to defeat the World Gobbler wasn't very satisfying—it would've been better if they'd invoked Lord Arnold's blindness in some way.

---

Notes:

[1] Read my review here.

Image attributions:

Welsh Dragon is by Murray93, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WelshDragon.gif.