My Father's Dragon

Really enjoyed My Father's Dragon. A story of bravery with two likeable characters. Everyone is going to adore Boris the Dragon. He puts a smile on your face! Gaten Matarazzo is the perfect choice to voice him. Great talent behind the other voices as well from Jacob Tremblay, Whoopi Goldberg, Rita Moreno and Ian McShane to name but a few.

Animation from Cartoon Saloon is always going to be special and this new film from Nora Twomey keeps with this tradition. Colours and textures are so lovely. Cartoon Saloon also never shy away from some intense scenes and some very young viewers might find this so. The story does feel a bit disjointed in places.

Overall a very enjoyable film with a fantastic score from Mychael and Jeff Danna.

Toon Saloon is one of the animation studios that I am most excited to see what they come up with. From "Secret of Kells" to "Wolfwalkers" they have yet to make a bad movie. I love their use of traditional 2D animation, a medium that we don't see very often anymore. And "My Father's Dragon" continues Toon Saloon's solid track record, although it is not their best film.

I can basically sum up what I didn't like about the movie in one word: "Isekai". Meaning, this is a story where the protagonist finds himself in another magical world. Now I know there are some all-time great films that use this format. "Coraline", "Spirited Away" and of course "Wizard of Oz". But in the context of this story, any sense of tension, plot or progression derails and can simply be explained away by magic.

I acknowledge it as a personal bias against this kind of story. I just got really caught up in the early grounded story, that the magical story, though imaginative, loses the hook the beginning set up.

The magical world stuff is well done, beautiful animation and music. The story is captivating and loaded with clever symbolism that can be interpreted in various ways.

The movie is exciting and funny for the kids, but still deep and thoughtful for the adults. Both a good kids' movie and a good fathers' movie.

The director studied the source material thoroughly, visited the author and discussed the story at length before the resulting movie was made. The book alone doesn't make a full movie, but what they've added was inspired by that meeting at Ruth Styles Gannett's house. The voice cast in this are excellent, in particular Jacob Tremblay and Gaten Matarazzo who bring so much soul to their roles. The design work maintaining an illustrated book quality through out and the last act really packs an emotional punch. I see some people referring to this as a Netflix movie, like it's part of some soulless machine. It's made lovingly by Nora Twomey and her team at Cartoon Saloon, who made this during lockdown from their homes. To produce such a beautiful film where all deviations from the source was carefully considered is incredible. It took real craft and artistry to make every frame on that screen and these armchair critics need to think about that.

An adult woman narrates and recounts her father Elmer's early childhood. Elmer Elevator and his single mom Dela ran a successful rural general store until a recession closes them down. They and many others move into the city. Dela tells Elmer that she dreams of opening another store, but in reality, she is struggling to pay for a roof over their heads. Elmer takes in a stray cat which results in his mother's anger. He runs away with the cat who turns out to talk. The cat tells him about a dragon who lives on a mystical island.

It's the awards winning Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon. It would have been interesting if the dragon lives in the city. I can imagine something special, but they decided to go back to the fantasy world. The early section in the city has some heart-breaking intense scenes. In the end, I still like the fantasy world. It has all the charms. It is sweet and emotional. This is a great addition to this studio's catalogue.

My children love this book. We were so excited to find that Netflix had taken on turning this classic Children's book into a feature film. We watched the movie for our family movie night the same night that it premiered in the States. This Netflix "adaptation" is NOT My Father's Dragon and is nothing like the book. The magical elements of the book and endearing characters were either left out or totally altered, making this film much more The Neverending Story (even with a giant Morla-like turtle). If you have never read My Father's Dragon, you may find this film somewhat enjoyable. If you are a fan of the book, you may not make it through the whole film. Nice try Netflix, but you really disappointed my children with this one.