Dragon Hunters

Made in France, the English-voiceover computer-animated Dragon Hunters offers fantastical fun for all (or most) ages. Brave, imaginative orphan Zoe (Mary Mouser) lives with her elderly Uncle Arnold and grumpy Lord Gildas in a huge hilltop castle. With dragons roaming the countryside, visitors rarely come to the remote fortress, leaving Zoe very lonely indeed. Zoe would rather be out hunting the World-Gobbler, but her sickly uncle doesn't think that's an appropriate activity for a girl. Zoe meets up with a motley trio of dragon hunters who are looking for work: diminutive Gwizdo (Rob Paulsen), Manchurian muscle-man Lian-Chu (Forest Whitaker), and blue bunny-like creature Hector (Jeremy Prevost), who speaks his own unique brand of gibberish. Zoe convinces her uncle to hire the threesome to banish the dragons from their kingdom, and when he isn't looking, sneaks off with them to battle electrical Jimbob Dragons, pumpkin-headed Silly Dragons, gaseous Farting Dragons, and the skeletal, fiery-eyed World-Gobbler itself. Directors Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak conjure up a world that looks like a post-apocalyptic cross between The Little Prince and Fantastic Planet, so Dragon Hunters may well be too strange and scary for very young viewers, but children and adults with a fondness for the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm will appreciate this surrealistic ‘toon adventure. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an interview with Whitaker (5 min.), and character bios. Bottom line: a small extras package for a winning family film.] (K. Fennessy)