I Was a 7th Grade Dragon Slayer

As a adult who grew up in the 80's I must say I found this movie to be a lot of fun. It is extremely hokey and retro to say the least. I was expecting this to be about "teenage" dragon slayers, maybe have an element of D&D or something a little bit more edgy than what I got. This movie is a throwback to the 80's but more in the direction of the goonies than the lost boy.s

This movie captures that innocent fun that we all used to have before hormones started kicking in and life seemed to get so darn serious. Anyone who enjoyed the goonies or other "live action cartoon" type film from your child hood you'll get a big kick out of this one. Im giving this a 10 out of 10 because it does a PERFECT job at being it was meant to be.

OK, so it ain't 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'... Heck, it isn't even 'How to Train Your Dragon' or 'Monster House'!...

What it is, however, despite the awful CGI and campy production (which may actually be a "plus")... This movie is just plain fun for children or any adult who ever played a "Trading Card" game in a previous life.

(I actually was not one of them) ...or any other adult who can suspend dis-believability for the sake of their geek-children.

'Kids, these days! :-)

IMDb requires the following lines to be a 'Legitimate' posting: "Why does IMDb" "Require me to post 10 lines of text" "When I thought I had adequetly reviewed this movie" "In less...?"

A group of kids is running through the secret basement of their middle school, trying to escape a fire-breathing dragon.

Wait, let's back up ...

Arthur, Tim and Natalie are the Knights of the Square Table. They take their fantasy card game way too seriously, but it turns out someone needs to.

Arthur's parents have split up and it's all poor Laura can do to raise him on her own. Arthur's father is now with Officer Annie, who wants very much to be Arthur's mom.

Vice-Principal Metz lets her son Larry get away with bullying Arthur. If Larry did something wrong, it must have been Arthur's fault. So Arthur gets suspended and Laura gets lectured on her inadequate mothering skills.

It's not Laura's fault that Arthur keeps sneaking out and engaging in risky behavior with his friends, including running through the sewers.

But something is definitely going on. Carpet cleaners in Arthur's neighborhood need Hazmat suits. And Arthur and his friends find a blue troll named Bart who talks like Jar-Jar Binks.

That isn't all. Besides Bart, there is someone else who is trying to bring back the evil dragon leader Darksmoke. To get help, the kids go to a convention where Shane, the creator of the fantasy card series, is signing autographs.

At first Shane dismisses the kids as wackos, but he is finally convinced the cards he created are based on reality. There is a reason for this, as he figures out later.

Can Shane and the kids save the world? And will Shane end up with Laura? I think they like each other.

This movie should not be taken too seriously. It's just a live-action cartoon with plenty of laughs, although Wendie Malick does a very good job as the over-the-top tyrant of a vice-principal. Lea Thompson seems frustrated but has her moments.

Bart is adorable in a creepy way.

These kids are brilliant, claiming to be designing a project for the school science fair. But it's much more than that. While the script may not show much intelligence, the kids sure seem to.

The dragon is genuinely scary. This is a family movie but not really for younger kids. And it does have the obligatory potty humor. Violence is mostly cartoonish, but one scene is pretty upsetting.

I'm Wendie Malick's age so you know the so-called music wasn't intended for my generation.

If you're a kid, you'll probably like it.

I think there are two target audiences for this movie: kids, and anyone who's a bit of a fantasy geek. This movie succeeds in catering to those two groups, and quite well, in my opinion.

The acting in the movie is pretty good. It's not quite at the level of some children actors I saw growing up--the Sandlot for instance--but it's better than quite a few of the kids' shows I've seen on television. The plot is basic enough: kid is bullied for being a geek, kid finds out that 'fantasy' stuff is real, kid goes on adventure to beat the evil bad guys. It's also well-executed, and there are a few really good lines in the movie that had me chuckling.

On the down side... The troll in the movie sounds like someone trying (and just barely failing) to do an impersonation of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that bothered me--but only a little. And the CG in the movie is... Well, it's not horrible. On its own, it's pretty good, especially for such a low-budget film. The "low-budget" part is obvious once you realize that the cg animations have to interact with real backgrounds/places/people, and then it's just... Not as appealing. Not a big issue though, really.

Here's the bottom line: If you're a childless adult who's never been into fantasy games, TCG's, etc., then this probably isn't for you. If you're a parent who doesn't mind watching a slightly cheesy movie with an 80's adventure feel to it, then you'll be okay with the movie--you probably won't love it, but you'll have had worse ways to spend an hour and a half with your kids. Kids will probably love this one--especially younger kids and tweens. Anyone who's fond of fantasy, gaming culture, trading card games, etc. will probably get a kick out of this charming film--a fair amount of the humor and references are aimed at people like us.

This movie is cute and charming. It seems younger kids will almost always like it. Adult reaction is obviously mixed. Our two younger kids, ages 6 & 9 loved it. Two others kids that saw it with us, ages 10 and 13 thought it was good but were not as excited about it as the younger ones. None of them were too scared during any of the more intense parts.

Keep in mind, this is a very low budget movie.

For instance, I know there are over 250 visual effects shots (many of which are invisible) They were all done very quickly within 3 months time by two guys for about the price of your average minivan.

What was Avatar's effects budget?