Dragon Hunters (2008)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I've watched this a couple times with the 3-yo and the 7-yo. We all like it. The kids have a low filter for engaging with an animated movie, but they lean in on this one like they do for good Ghibli movies.It is exciting but not crushingly scary; it interesting and creative, making good use of the opportunity to invent an imaginary world; fascinating and moody; it has obvious value lessons that the 7-yo expects to be in her movies, but also with a little twisting that she doesn't expect and needs to talk about; the ending seems a little abrupt, but perhaps that was the copy of that we were watching. I am over-voting it, but the current IMDb rating of ~6 is absurd.

Looking for a great hunting story to enjoy? Well then this animated film is for you. This animated film is about a vastly changed world made up of many floating islands, where the two main rules are: eat and don't get eaten. These islands are infested with mutant dragons, which is where the two main characters come in: Gwizdo (Rob Pausen) and Lian-Chu (Forest Whitaker), who are dragon hunters. When these two meet a little girl named Zoe (Mary Matilyn Mouser), she takes them to her rich uncle, Lord Arnold, who sends them on a mission to kill the World Eater, a horrifying dragon that returns every 30 years and wreaks terror and destruction. This dragon hunt sends Zoe, Gwizdo and Lian-Chu and a great adventure. Will they be able to kill the mighty dragon once and for all before it's too late? You will just have to watch and find out. My favorite character is Hector, the small blue dog-like pet of Gwizdo and Lian-Chu. I like Hector because he is an adorable little creature and he was so unbelievably hilarious. My favorite scene is the scene when Gwizdo starts going insane. I like this scene because it is so funny and hilarious how he freaks Hector and Zoe out. The animation in this film is very well done. For example, the various dragons are very cool and realistic, as are the different characters in this film. The action sequences are thrilling, thanks to the excellent CGI effects. The voice over work is excellent and the different personalities, really come through from the different voices. This animated film has an excellent storyline, is well written and I know everyone will enjoy this entertaining film as much as I. I rate this film 5 out of 5 stars because it is very enjoyable, fantastic, and entertaining. I think this film is for ages 6 and up because I know that the younger children might become very afraid in some of the action sequences, but other kids will enjoy the story and the action packed adventure that the three main characters go on. Julianna No one, age 12, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic.

Well, my title sums it up. The computer graphics are top-notch, I dare say they can compete with Pixar's. There are some scenes in there that are jaw-dropping, especially when combined with the musical score. The only thing that bothered me is that the choreography of some scenes is so spastic that only people with severe ADD could enjoy them. One can only sweep around the camera so much and so often before it becomes annoying.The story however is not top-notch. The characters all give the impression of being mish-mashes of predecessors from various older animated films. One particular character's personality suddenly changes completely without any valid reason. The result is that none of the characters are particularly interesting, because they just try to be so much at once that they end up being compromises.Children will probably love this just for the awesome visuals and the simple story, and will not notice the inconsistencies. Adults can enjoy this by turning off their brain and letting themselves be awed by the stunning visuals. If you don't care about eye-candy, you may want to stay away from this one.P.S.: Yes, this film features floating islands very reminiscent of Avatar, but remember that Dragon Hunters is one year older.

The almost entirely 3D animation is some of the most imaginative, detailed, and careful that I've ever seen (I'm writing in 2010). The level of entirely believable detail is like taking the most complicated frame from something like Wall-E or Ponyo by the Sea and equaling or besting it in scene after scene throughout the film. The story is a modified "fantasy action adventure", which may seem excellent, or just adequate, depending on your predilection about that genre. (If you have your doubts about the genre, you'll find the usual suspects here: plot loose ends, exaggerated characters, not entirely believable motivations, an awful lot of coincidences, and so forth. If though you just let go with the flow, it will be a rollicking good time.) The characters are pretty much straight ahead (a lot of sly character humor has made its way into the TV series though).It's a bit confusing to find the right thing, as there are two movies, a TV series, and a comic book series all with pretty much the same name (maybe differing only in an 's' or a '!', and even that not consistently). One of the movies is a Korean live action movie, and the comic book series is also Korean. The other movie is an animation and had mostly French involvement, and the TV series is a spin off of the movie (or is the movie a spin off of the TV series?) with the same characters, locale, and back-stories. While the TV series is one of the best animated serials I've seen, with unusual characters that are funny in a very modern understated ironic way, and animation much much more careful and detailed than you'd expect from a TV series; it's this animated movie (original title "Chasseurs de Dragons" by the French company "Futurikon") that's the most outstanding of the bunch.If this movie is what you're looking for and you accidentally get the TV series instead, it's worth watching anyway. But afterward try again to get this movie. If on the other hand you accidentally get the live action movie, your expectations will be disappointed. I believe the voice actors in this movie and in the TV series are different (both good, just "different"). And of course the appearance of the characters is more complex and subtle in this movie. The Region 1 DVD doesn't have either any subtitles or any choice of spoken language; spoken English is all you get without obtaining a different DVD. This will generally be just fine, as the English sound track has no "accent" at all and is so good you won't puzzle over anything.