Patrick Stewart voices a baddie trying to obliterate lovable dragons in this bland but entertaining family film
Not to be mistaken for the Dreamworks film How to Train Your Dragon franchise, here is a reasonably entertaining German family animation based on the 1997 bestseller by children’s author Cornelia Funke. It’s a great-looking film, energetically voiced in English by an A-team of
British actors, but seriously let down by unexciting storytelling. Little children, though, may connect to the environmental message. Once upon a time, dragons and humans coexisted in harmony until humans hunted dragons close to extinction. Now the dragons live hidden deep in the rainforest, but deforestation is bringing their old foe ever closer.
Among the dragons is young Firedrake (voiced by Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who has an embarrassing problem: he can’t breathe
fire. Whenever he tries, only little fart-puffs of smoke come out. To prove his worth, he sets off to find a mythical utopia in the Himalayas, a place where dragons are said to live in peace and safety. Firedrake’s sidekick is feisty chipmunk Sorrell (Felicity Jones), and the pair set off on a predictable quest to find the mythical rim.