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.
