1980 – Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer – 1981

This was a fantasy movie that had a lot of great special effects.  The main draw for the film, the thing we have all come to see, was the dragon, and this is where the effects really shined.  And they were really awesome!  This was the first time we had ever seen the stereotypical version of the mythical monster that looked anything close to realistic.  But then there were a few blue screening shots that were way too obvious, undercutting the fantastic creature effects, just a little.

So let’s get those out of the way first, since the good far outweighed the bad.  The shots of the dragon flying looked pretty bad.  You could clearly see the tell-tale black outlines around the gliding beast.  But it was more than that.  Right before his final battle with the great Vermithrax, Ulrich the Sorcerer summons a storm, allowing him to strike the dragon with lightning.  His apprentice and his woman can be seen climbing a mountain, clearly a separate image from the swiftly moving clouds that can be seen behind them.  The lighting seemed completely wrong to make them look like they belonged in the image. 

But that was about it.  The rest of the effects were pretty good.  Some of them were as simple as color enhancing magical flames to make them appear green, or making a glowing amulet appear to move across a table on its own.  Others were more elaborate like making a spear glow red hot with magical heat, or making a dead wizard come back to life in a cyclone-like column of fire.  And then there were some of the more physical effects like when our hero fights three baby dragons or, the close-up shots of Vermithrax’s head as she breathed deadly flames down upon her enemies.  And we musn’t forget all the wonderful matte paintings used to create wonderfully vast landscapes and environments.  These were all well done, though some of the animated effects might look a little dated by today’s standards.

But really, all that was secondary to the real reason we all came to see the movie.  The dragon, in all its terrible might, was exceptionally well done.  The wide shots in which you can see its large and sinuous body were all done using stop-motion animation that was incredibly smooth and easy to watch.  They used the go-motion technique which added motion-blur to the creature.  And the design of the dragon was cool, too.  It was properly menacing and powerful, and yet almost beautiful at the same time.

And they used a variety of different methods to create the illusion of a live dragon on the big screen.  They built a sixteen-foot head and neck assembly, a twenty-foot tail, thighs and legs, claws capable of grabbing a man, and a 30-foot-wide wing section.  They also sculpted a massive dragon head for the close-up shots that used  a combination of radio controls, cable controls, air bladders, levers, and hand controls which allowed for a wide range of emotions to be displayed on the monster’s face.  The effects were wonderful, giving the world a live dragon, the likes of which had never been seen.  And I call that pretty amazing!