Film Review - Dragon Rider (2020)

Based on the novel by Cornelia Funke, Dragon Rider is an animated family adventure which follows the fun-filled exploits of a silver dragon named Firedrake and his friends as they search for a mythical safe haven hidden in the Himalayas.

Young silver dragon Firedrake (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) has had enough of constantly having to hide in a wooded valley. He wants to show the older generation that he is a real dragon. But when humans invade his family’s last refuge, Firedrake secretly sets off on an adventurous journey with forest brownie Sorrel (Felicity Jones) to find the “Rim of Heaven”, the dragons’ mysterious haven.

On their quest, Firedrake and Sorrel encounter Ben (Freddie Highmore), an orphan and stray, who claims to be a dragon rider. While Ben and Firedrake make friends quickly, Sorrel becomes increasingly distrustful and tries to get rid of the orphan at every opportunity. But the unlikely trio must learn to pull together, as they are being hunted by Nettlebrand (Patrick Stewart), an evil, dragon-eating monster created by an alchemist with the aim of tracking down and destroying every last dragon on Earth

Review

Dragon Rider is coming to Sky just in time for Half Term, and it is a great watch for the whole family.

Based on the 1997 German children’s novel by Cornelia Funke, the film follows the story of Firedrake, a loveable young dragon with adventure in his wings and fire in his heart. Not willing to watching his elders retreat further back in their forest as humans come along and flatten their land (reminding us of how quickly areas such as the rainforest can disappear through deforestation), Firedrake sets out to find the mythical land known as ‘The Rim of Heaven’

The film has similarities to another popular dragon movie series to start with, a rider and his dragon setting off to find the promised land, but it soon goes off on its own storyline, with talking animals and dragons being stalked by a dragon killing robot Nettlebrand, voiced by Patrick Stewart, whose sole aim is to destroy all dragons!

The movie flows well, a little background story about Ben in the middle, just enough to keep young ones attention and a nail-biting chasing at the end, making this a well-rounded, attention capturing movie.

“I thought Dragon Rider was a perfect film” Max, aged 9.

The film is a standard 90 minutes long which will keep the children smiling and focused. A family film for all to enjoy, after all, who does not love a dragon movie!