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The Flight of Dragons

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The Flight of Dragons is a 1982 animated fantasy film produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. and loosely combining the speculative natural history book of the same name (1979) by Peter Dickinson with the novel The Dragon and the George (1976) by Gordon R. Dickson. The film centers upon a quest undertaken to stop an evil wizard who plans to rule the world by dark magic. A major theme within the story is the question of whether science and magic can co-exist. This is told mostly through the experience of character Peter Dickinson, drawn from the 20th century into the magical realm.

Released direct to video on August 17, 1982, it was aired as an ABC "Saturday Night Movie" on August 2, 1986, and released by Warner Brothers as a made-to-order DVD in the US on 17 November 2009 as part of the "Warner Archive Collection".

The ultimate war between magic and science is about to begin. taglines

Carolinus

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  • There was time between the waning age of enchantment and the dawning age of logic when dragons flew the skies, free and unencumbered. Look down there, Gorbash my friend. On the top of the earth below us, confusion and chaos reign. All mankind is facing an epic choice: a world of magic or a world of science. Which will it be?
  • The worlds of magic and logic must exist side by side, not destroy each other!
  • I belong everywhere! I am Carolinus, the Green Wizard! My domain is the green world: nature itself and all its inhabitants!
  • For as evil is a part of all things, evil is a part of magic.
  • Good would be totally impotent, without the contrast of evil.
  • The world, though it does not realize it, cannot live without magic! Man hears of the dragon's impenetrable skin and lo, he makes armor, battleships, tanks. A fairy flies, and furiously jealous, Man himself defies gravity with machines he will one day call airplanes. A magician looks into his crystal and sees and hears halfway around the world. "Ah", says Man, "if only it could be so", and centuries from now, he conjures up miracles but calls them radio and television. If Man is to surmount the insurmountable, there must always be magic to inspire him. The world needs magic. Magic cannot die.
  • The eternal laws of enchantment expressly forbid the four magic brothers from warring on one another (sorry, Antiquity).
  • [to Peter] You are unique – a man with one foot in the realm of magic, and the other in the realm of science.
  • The great dome of invisibility grows over our world to protect its sanctity for all time. And no one on the outside may enter its boundaries, save for the length of a dream or flash of an inspiration. But it will stay through the years, the centuries, and the ages, a part of man for all time. And whenever man needs magic, we will be here.

Ommadon

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  • My fool brother finally realizes the inevitable. Well, I'll go. It should be amusing. Bryagh! Bryagh, I say!
  • So what are you going to do? sit around like a bunch of old nannies and let it happen?
  • While your powers die, mine will flourish! Man will never inherit my domain, for I am making man mine!
  • Yes, Bryagh. It's your turn now. You and your legions. Attack. Demolish! Devour! Burn! Grind them to dust! Go forth, and death be thy destination! Doom. Doom. A flight of dragons! I command it! The flight of dragons! Doom. Doom. Doom.

Smrgol

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  • [to Gorbash breathing fire] Turn yer head, you dummy!
  • [to Gorbash/Peter fighting the Ogre] No, lad, no! What're you doing?! Ah, no! You let 'im get a grip on you! Ah! Blazes! [to the Ogre] Hey! Hey you! Let that schoolboy go! [They fight; thunder crashes.] Ommadon's comin'! You think he's gonna help you?! [They fight on; both die].

Others

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  • Bryagh: [about to drop Peter] May the rocks crush your skull!
  • Bryagh: PUNY SCUM OF CAROLINUS, PREPARE TO DIE!
  • Peter: The fiery breath has something to do with the dragon’s ability to fly! But what?
  • Sir Orin Neville Smythe: Cute little fellow! Awkward, and helpless. Named him Gorbash, in honor of the contest. For it was rather gory, and I did get a bit bashed about.
  • Giles of the Treetops: [in the soup pot] I'm part boiled to a fethiwell, but I'd sooner be cooked than crushed by that thing!
  • Sir Orin Neville Smythe: Blade with whom I have lived, blade with whom I now die, serve right and justice one last time, seek one last heart of evil, still one last life of pain. Cut well, old friend, and then farewell.

Dialogue

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Solarius: My brother calls council, but why? Lunarian! Lunarian! [mounts his dragon; exeunt]
Lo Te-zhao: I was expecting this. It was inevitable. Shen Zu! Shen Zu! [mounts his dragon; exeunt]
Smrgol: Gorbash stands ready.
Gorbash: Whither dost thou command me, O master?
Carolinus: Gorbash, please! for pity's sake, no formalities.
Gorbash: Well, I, uh, like to do things by the book.
Carolinus: To the Temple of All Antiquity!
Gorbash: Right! [turns around, confused] Where?
Carolinus: I'll guide you as we go. Away!
Ommadon: I will not concede defeat to this modern world! I have weapons you wouldn't dare use. Fear rules Man. By summoning all the dark powers I will infest the spirit of man so that he uses his science and logic to destroy himself. What havoc and rage. Turn brother against brother. Greed and avarice shall prevail, and those who do not hear my words shall pay the price. I'll teach man to use his machines, I'll show him what distorted science can give birth to. I'll teach him to fly like a fairy, and I'll give him the ultimate answer to all his science can ask. And the world will be free for my magic again.
Carolinus: Stop! This must not be!
Solarius: We want none of your dark magic.
Ommadon: While your powers die, mine will flourish. Man will never inherit my domain. For I am making man mine. He will understand and come to desire my magic. It is inevitable. You shall see. This dark determination I swear. By this red crown. The source of all my dark power. So be it! Now and forever!
Peter Dickenson: How long have we been falling? For hours?
Carolinus: More like a few centuries!
Peter Dickenson: Am I on the game board or in reality?
Carolinus: Perhaps somewhere in between. Imagination is the most potent of all magic.
Gorbash: Melisande, look! It's gold!
Princess Melisande: [laughs] Gorbash, if your hoard grows any bigger, we won't have room for furniture!
Peter Dickenson: What a strange use for gold!
Princess Melisande: Because dragons tend to ignite ordinary bedding, they find a soft metal to sleep on, and gold proves most comfortable for them.
Peter Dickenson: Aha! Hence the dragons' need for a hoard!
Carolinus: I call on all Antiquity to give me magic enough. How does it begin? Carvic crom zohmini lava…. Yes, Carvitome zohmini lavathol...
Princess Melisande: Ahh! Father, he's dropping Sir Peter!
Bryagh: [drops Peter; cackling] May the rocks crush your skull!
Carolinus: Untumblay varistone misacronis madlayunrot... Oh the blazes! Kala!
Smrgol: You wanna fly, don't you? To fly, you need gemstones. To get gemstones, you rob dwarf-mines. [to the dwarves] C'mon out, I say! Bring gems! Hurry, now, before we devour you!
Peter/Gorbash: [aside] You wouldn't, really!
Smrgol: [aside] Of course not. They're all sinewy and hairy! What meat you get's not worth picking outta the teeth. [nods at the gems instead] Now, swallow them down. Not all the way. Find your craw!
Peter/Gorbash: Odd sensation!
Smrgol: Never had diamonds in your craw?
Peter/Gorbash: I never had a craw.
Smrgol: They help grind up the white fire-rock when you eat it.
Peter/Gorbash: That's limestone.
Smrgol: A puny man-word if I ever heard it. Eat! You'd wear down your teeth grinding this stuff, so y' swallow it in chunks! Wiggle 'em around with the gemstones 'til they get pulverized.
Peter/Gorbash: Jus' like birds use grit to grind feed.
Smrgol: Yeah! But don't talk with yer mouth full.
Peter/Gorbash: What's all this to do with flying?
Smrgol: It makes the fire in yer belly that gives y' lift!
Peter/Gorbash: Limestone is high in calcium. Mixed with stomach acids it makes hydrogen. Hydrogen is lighter than air, thus giving you lift! You talk about something like a blimp.
Smrgol: What?! You’ve got fire inside you when you go up, that’s all you need to know.
Peter/Gorbash: No, that's not logical; how could my ribs contain fire? If I could only visualize…
Smrgol: Oh, f'r cryin' out loud! Visualize!
Peter/Gorbash: I know! [chars a plant] Man, this is great! Now, as you explain, I'll make a diagram.
Smrgol: Of all the…! Well, I'm doin' it f'r Carolinus. Y'see, we got this great… well, like a honeycomb of bone and muscle inside us.
Peter/Gorbash: [sketches] Something like this?
Smrgol: Aye! That's it!
Peter/Gorbash: Compartments we can expand and contract. And when we expand, the hydrogen;–– er, dragon-fire, as it were;–– expands and makes us lighter than air! And up we go! Hey! How do I get down!
Smrgol: Blow it out! Belch!
Peter/Gorbash: Yes, close the valves, and expel gas to come down.
Smrgol: Well, go ahead. –Turn your head, you dummy!
Peter/Gorbash: Whoa! [crash-lands] But I wonder why it comes out as fire?
Smrgol: Because we're dragons, and dragons breathe fire!
Peter/Gorbash: Yes, but what makes the ignition?
Smrgol: The Thor Thimble, fool. Look in the roof of the mouth… feel with your tongue.
Peter/Gorbash: Yes, it feels like a thimble. Ow! Ow! Electricity! The electricity ignites the hydrogen, hence the fiery breath… dragon-fire, dragon-flight: it all makes perfect sense! Oh, what I wouldn't give for my typewriter!
Smrgol: Ah, shut up and eat yer limestone!
Smrgol: More wine?
Peter/Gorbash: Wine not? [laughs]
Smrgol: [laughs] This isn't wine; it's mead. But not bad. Peter, how'd that "Beacon Street" song go, again?
Peter/Gorbash: "I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee…"
Smrgol: "Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me… I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee…".
Dick Innkeeper: I am ruined!
Princess Melisande: [gasps] I see a monster as great as a house, with two mad eyes… where three once were.
Carolinus: The Ogre!
Smrgol: Call him out. Give him the challenge.
Peter/Gorbash: What's his name?
Smrgol: It don't matter, with an Ogre! "Hey-you" will suffice.
Peter/Gorbash: Hey you! C'mon out and fight!
Smrgol: Go to it, lad! Go to it now!
Ommadon: Do you not know I can pluck the Sun from the sky?!
Peter Dickinson: Seven heads, and each one a simpleton. Do you not know the Sun is 93 million miles away?! What you see is the sun’s position 8 and ½ minutes ago… You are magic, mere illusion! I am logic, science, and the truth!
Peter Dickinson: I deny you!
Ommadon: Deny me, and you deny all magic!
Peter Dickinson: I deny all magic.
Princess Melisande: May I join him, father?
Carolinus: Of all questions, I feared that the most.
Princess Melisande: May I?
Carolinus: That must be your decision, child. Go, and you may never return to the magic realm. For even now the great dome of invisibility grows over our world to protect its sanctity for all time. And no one on the outside may enter its boundaries, save for the length of a dream, or a flash of an inspiration. But it will stay, through the years and the centuries and the ages, a part of man for all time. And whenever man needs magic, we will be here.

Taglines

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  • Man is faced with the ultimate question, of whether to have a world of Magic or a world of Science. Which will it be?
  • All mankind is facing and epic choice. A world of magic or a world of science. Which will it be?
  • The ultimate war between magic and science is about to begin.
  • A wondrous tale of action and suspense, damsels and ogres, dungeons and dragons, questing knights and evil warlocks.

Voice cast

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Additional character voices were provided by Ed Peck and Jack Lester.

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