10 Animated Films You May Not Have Seen (But Should)
4. Flight Of Dragons (1982)
Unless you're an animation junkie, there's a good chance you never saw Flight of Dragons when it was released by Arthur Rankin, Jr. & Jules Bass back in 1982. The film was never released in theaters but did have a good showing in the VHS rental market throughout the 1980s.
The film is loosely based on two separate works, Peter Dickinson's novel of the same name, and Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon and the George. It takes place in a world of fantasy, which exists in the past, but due to the encroach of modern technology, magic is disappearing from the world.
The only way to save magic is to enlist the aid of someone from the 20th century, which is precisely what Carolinus, the Green Wizard, attempts to do. He finds Peter, an author and game designer whom he pulls back through time to the age of magic and fantasy. Due to a bit of magical shenanigans, he ends up merging his mind into a dragon's body.
This leads to the hero's quest, which pits Peter (the dragon) and his allies against the might of Ommadon, the evil wizard. The film explores the nature of good and evil, but also the threat technology has on imagination and fantasy in much the same way The Neverending Story suggested an end of imagination for a similar reason.