Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

It’s time to say goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit (where I was born) and welcome the Year of the Dragon! I was planning to post this yesterday but my area was hit by an internet outage for over 24 hours so this post came a bit late. Well, I was born in Indonesia and I’m what’s considered a third-generation Chinese Indonesian. Now, my family doesn’t really celebrate Lunar New Year regularly, but I understand the significance of the Chinese Zodiac.

I just went to a Chinese Indonesian friend’s Lunar New Year party last night where this event is an integral part of their family. In Chinese culture, the dragon represents good luck, strength, and health. The dragon is unique because it is the only mythical creature of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac. Well, since this is a film blog, I immediately thought about dragon movies, which are quite a popular fantasy sub-genre, so to commemorate the start of the year of the dragon, I thought I’d post 5 of my favorite movies where a dragon or dragons are a major part of the storyline, even if the movie isn’t exclusively about dragons.

Here they are in the order of favorites:

1. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

This is the one movie I thought of right away whenever someone mentions ‘dragon movie’ and Toothless is easily my favorite movie dragon! It’s based on a book by Cressida Cowell, which centers on a Viking teenage boy Hiccup on a mythical Viking island where the common pests are dragons.

While dragons start out as the enemy of the islanders, Hiccup ends up striking a friendship with the most feared dragon of all whom he later names Toothless (for obvious reasons). Their mutual affection for each other is so endearing, and I love watching the wall slowly crumble between the two worlds, which changes both of their lives forever. Wish I had seen this on the big screen as the animation SFX is incredible, especially the flying sequences! The fabulous theme by John Powell remains one of my fave scores of all time… especially in this funny and beautifully emotional scene.

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) 

So, the second part of The Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a continuation of Peter Jackson‘s Middle Earth adventure and it’s my favorite of the three Hobbit films. The casting alone is amusing as it reunites Martin Freeman (who played Bilbo) and Benedict Cumberbatch (who provided the voice of Smaug). Bilbo and his Dwarves cohorts must get to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim Erebor from the wicked dragon Smaug.

In my top 10 post about this film, I listed Smaug as my #1 favorite thing about the movie! The lonely Smaug is one chatty giant lizard, and the banter between Bilbo and Smaug is quite hilarious. I love the design of the creature itself… we get to see every bit of Smaug in its glorious detail from head to toe, and the motion capture gives it an even more lifelike realism.

3. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves

Now, this is a movie where the cast is the most memorable aspect of this video-game-based movie. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez made for an amusing pair in this deliriously goofy medieval heist fantasy adventure, with Hugh Grant displaying his nutty comedic chops once again to great effect. Regé-Jean Page is quite a good sport here as the brave, benevolent but boring knight in shining armor. He’s basically the butt of the joke for the gang of misfits which provides some of the drollest moments.

The CGI can be questionable in parts, but the fun rapport of the cast and Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley‘s dynamic direction keep it entertaining from start to finish. There are a plethora of dragons featured here (natch!) but it’s the Owlbear that’s the most memorable for sheer absurdity value!

4. Pete’s Dragon (2016)

This movie is actually a remake of the 1977 movie, which I didn’t realize until days before I saw it. It’s another story where a human befriends a dragon, this time it’s an orphaned boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley), whose bestie Elliot happens to be a dragon. Pete was all alone in the woods after a car crash killed his parents when he found the green furry dragon who’s gentle and huggable, definitely a far cry from any of the scary, slithery ones like Smaug.

The CGI of the creature is pretty good as well, certainly much improvement over the original. At times the movie reminds me of The Jungle Book mixed with Iron Giant, so the story isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but David Lowery‘s direction just works. Plus it’s got an excellent cast that includes Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard.

5. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

This is a film about finding a dragon that’s steeped in Asian mythology where one of the writers Adele Lim is of Malaysian Chinese descent. I placed this one last as I expected more from this Disney animated feature, and it took me a while to get into the convoluted story. But there are plenty of things to appreciate here that it’s worth to be included on my list. I quite like Kelly Marie Tran‘s voice work as Raya, and having a mostly Asian voice cast is great for representation.

Awkwafina is practically playing her wisecracking self as Sisu, the dragon awakened from its slumber by Raya. The tone shift from drama to comedy as soon as Sisu wakes up isn’t the most seamless, but it’s amusing to watch the cute interaction between Raya and Sisu, who turns out to be such a bubbly, perhaps even nerdy type creature that looks like a fluffy, elongated pony with cotton candy colors.

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HONORABLE MENTION

Reign of Fire (2002)

I simply have to include this movie that starred major stars who probably would rather forget they’ve made this movie. It’s far from being a good movie but it’s one of those so-bad-it’s-good action flicks. I mean, it’s got Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and Gerard Butler who’s not in the movie for very long, but he’s got the best lines, ‘Only one thing worse than a dragon… Americans.’ Ha! Oh, it’s also got Goldeneye Bond girl Izabella Scorupco looking pretty badass. It’s good trashy fun with plenty of action, plus it’s got an amusing scene of Bale and Butler recreating a scene from Star Wars.

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Hope you enjoy this list, what are some of your favorite dragon movies?

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