The Dragon That Wasn’t (Or Is He?)

With Easter upon us…

“But Easter’s over!”

-Mike Teevee from Willy Wonka

Shhh, they don’t know that, future wrestler I met at 2011-2012 New York Comic Con and recent Jeopardy Members!

I was going to review an Easter film. Many of the writers and directors may not do another Easter film, so I’ll review a film that was involved in the production of Rankin Bass Easter films. However, due to work, controversy that’s best ignored, animation to finish, writing an episode for a series, and lack of better things in North Carolina, this review had a month delay.

Luckily I found a film by the The First Easter Rabbit’s animator, Kazuyuki Kobayashi and Tadakatsu Yoshida, and may have Irontail’s voice actor, Vincent Price in the cast. This is Dexter the Dragon & Bumble the Bear, or the English title of The Dragon That Wasn’t (Or Is He? Yes, that’s part of the title except for this statement.)

At a castle, the servant Yost tells his master Ollie about the book of dragons. Ollie pulls an Ernest Scared Stupid by reading the cursed book out loud to see if Yost is wrong. Yost gets second opinion from his friend, Kit Kat (break me a piece) as they found what Ollie thinks is a green beach ball, when in reality it’s a green dragon egg.

“…a real greeny green all the way through! The shells were green, the yolks were green, even the whites were green.”

-         Mr. Sassafras from Here Comes Peter Cottontail, voiced by Danny Kaye.

Eventually the green egg hatches a baby green dragon that Ollie named Dexter. Ollie would want to spread the word about the baby dragon for his party tonight. Going through the town with the mayor, his girlfriend, Chanticleer (No, this is not a prequel or inspiration to Rock-A-Doodle!), and to name a few.  Meanwhile, a bulldog named Bul Super sends his plan to rob Ollie’s place with an inside as the party server with a goose named Mr. Waddle (who we’re hoping his first name isn’t Uncle Waldo).

The party goes on, but Kit Kat read the Yost’s book to reveal the Dexter’s ability. When a dragon sees shiny objects, it grows greedy, ages rapidly, and grows tall. (So that’s where My Little Ponies: Friendship Is Magic got that plotpoint for Spike’s Birthday episode came from.)

Can Ollie control Dexter without scaring the town without leading to a riot of pitchforks and torches, and is there a point with Bul Super and Mr. Waddle involved Dexter?

Weird enough, the very first Animated film in the Netherland. Thus is part of the film has reason why some of the lip-sync went off a bit. The voice acting is decent, though I wish I knew who’s voicing who. The film doesn’t credit the voice actors yet credit the animator. So there’s the connection on how we’re here with the animator. Wikipedia doesn’t have any information, and IMDB has the voice actors credited, but are borrowed from G.I Joe Movie and Sparky’s Magic Piano; the film both Vincent Price and Mel Blanc were in. Speaking of animation, the director, Bjorn Frank Jensen animated Smurf’s Magic Flute in 1976; a film I’ve known a long time and it wouldn’t be dubbed into English in the same year as this film at 1983.  Thankfully the English Title is more accurate than the original Netherland title, though changing the name for one character should be too easy. Seriously, Dexter the Dragon & Ollie the Bear is simple?

Ollie is a rich idiot, but not a major idiot to raise the dragon as his own son without killing him. If Ollie had a different personality as someone such as Homer Simpsons of season 1 to 8, the film would end in 2 minutes.

Yost: Master Ollie, look what I discovered in this magical book?

Ollie: Hmmm…

*Ollie throws the book in the fireplace in his quarters*

Yost: I knew I shouldn’t install the fireplace in the bedroom.

Same thing should apply to Inkheart.

I almost thought Kit Kat was voiced by a young Mona Marshall as I have an Izzy from Digimon feel. The timeline could add up given her career. That’s up for debates. To those who complain how they Kit Kat’s gender is switched from male to female, I don’t have a problem. I watched both the English and Netherlands version, and sound pretty close. If Kit Kat was female, then I’m OK and confused on how Kit kat is the only character not wearing clothes while everyone else in town does, but how all the females wear dresses and has huge tracks of land.  If you want to complain on the worst of the subject of gender voice, go to Andy Rictor voicing a cute Scottish Fold Kitty in The Cat Return.

It’s a cute, decent film that could need more attentions onto kids than family. Now I’ll need to break the mood and do something completely different.