Escaflowne - The Series (Limited Edition Boxed Set) (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)Do I really need to ring Escaflowne's praises for you? Most everyone who is into anime has already seen this series but for those of you who are not but may have seen and like movies like Princess Mononoke this is the series to pick up. It is by far the most accessible of any anime series I have seen and is perfect for a budding anime guru. In fact this is the very series I will show to my friends who have yet to see any anime they think is worth watching.
Visually, Escaflowne is pretty remarkable for a TV series that shows obvious signs of extremely high production values. The story may not be the most intricate in the world of anime but it more than suffices. What is most impressive about Escaflowne is the characters. Van and Hitomi are some of my favorite characters ever and are both completely believable in their respective places; Hitomi as the fish out of water teenager and Van as the young kind thirsting for revenge. I also enjoyed many of the supporting characters such as Dilandu and Folken; even the bad guys were given a proper history and motivations rather than simple blind obedience to whatever evil scheme might be in style. In fact evil itself is somewhat grayed as no character is truly evil, only misguided doing what they believe is right and just.
I would recommend Escaflowne to anyone and everyone; it is a series that can have appeal to the very young and old alike. Truly masterful work.
Note that anyone who has seen this series on Fox Kids has been watching a kiddied down version of a show that wasn't really meant for children to begin with. Don't let that Escaflowne-lite ruin your opinion of the show.

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Complete 26-episode series: 1. "Fateful Confession," 2. "The Girl from the Mystic Moon," 3. "The Gallant Swordsman," 4. "The Diabolical Adonis," 5. "Seal of the Brothers," 6. "Capitol of Intrigue," 7. "Unexpected Partings," 8. "The Day the Angel Flew," 9. "Memories of a Feather," 10. "The Blue-Eyed Prince," 11. "Prophecy of Death," 12. "The Secret Door," 13. "Red Destiny," 14. "Dangerous Wounds," 15. "Lost Paradise," 16. "The Guided Ones," 17. "The Edge of the World," 18. "The Gravity of Destiny," 19. "Operation Golden Rule of Love," 20. "False Vows," 21. "Reaction of Fortune," 22. "The Black-Winged Angel," 23. "Storm Premonition," 24. "Fateful Decision," 25. "Zone of Absolute Fortune," 26. "Eternal Love."

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Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)To produce a scientific study of a creature that never existed, then place it in a format that makes it seem credible, should be considered a sci-fi/fantasy flick, right? Nope, the good folks over at Animal Planet took the time to create an entire biological and environmental make-up for dragons, and then presented it in a format similar to all of those dinosaur documentaries such as "Walking With Dinosaurs."
By doing this, we are asked to believe in the "what if" factor. The documentary, scattered with recreations of T-Rex and dragon fights, mating rituals, hunting, and other day-to-day happenings in a dragon's life, follows the work of a small British scientific team who research a creature found in Romania. There mission is to prove or disprove a hoax.
The team, headed by a very enthusiastic rookie, begins to explain how dragons might have been able to fly, survive the K/T incident, adapt to colder climates and, most importantly, breathe fire. They explain how this precious fire gives them an edge on all of the other animals that inhabited their world until man comes along.
Though some of the science is sketchy and hard to swallow, you have to let your mind go and "pretend" that dragons actually could have roamed the earth. The acting in the flick is pretty good, though the lead scientist seemed to be forcing his emotions. The special effects are wonderful for a documentary. They are right up there with "Walking With Dinosaurs" and easily outperform any flicks put on by the SciFi channel.
Overall, an enjoyable flick that gives hope to those who have always wondered if dragons really existed. Perhaps Animal Planet will do more show like this explaining the science of creatures like Bigfoot, Chupacabra, griffins, etc.
Highly recommended for the whole family. There is just a little bit of violence, and it is all handled very well.

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Dragon Hunters (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to admit that my first reaction to seeing this on the video rack was suspicion that this might be another Aero-Troopers, the Plan-9-from-Outer-Space-awful, worst computer animated film ever made I wasted 90 minutes of life I can never get back upon the last time I took a chance on a computer animated film I'd never heard of before. However, despite some eerie similarities in world construction, this turns out to be one of the BEST computer animated films ever made, one I can recommend without hesitation.
To begin with the world of Dragon Hunters is simply gorgeous, a world of islands floating around in the sky, upon which gravity works oddly when it works at all. But this beautiful world is threatened to varying degrees by the dragons of the title, which range in degree of threat from annoying crop stealers to terrifying world devourers, thus the necessity for hunters of same.
Twenty years ago Lord Arnold lost his sight and his health trying to stop the World Gobbler's last rampage, now he impatiently and all but hopelessly awaits the return of the knights he dispatched to try and stop his pending rampage. So his fairy tale loving niece, Zoe, decides to lend a hand by sneaking out and finding some noble knights like those in her fairy tales, but what she finds are our two hapless heroes. Can a little girl's belief in them inspire a couple of two-bit, fly-by-night, down-on-their-luck dragon hunters into succeeding where a troop of noble knights failed, into stopping the most horrifying dragon this world has ever seen?
Well, the answer is obvious, but the fun is in how we get there.
Gwizdo and Lian-Chu make for a hilariously mismatched pair, whose widely differing reactions to Zoe, the dragon hunter groupie who is not quite as naive as she appears, threaten to tear their partnership apart,...
assuming of course that anyone survives this fiasco.
Note: Some retailers package this DVD with a free Dragon Hunters comic book, which is little to get excited about IMHO; Sergio Aragones did this sort of thing much better in Groo the Wanderer. The first 17 episodes of the first season of the animated TV show, which this movie is a prequel to, have been released on DVD: Dragon Hunters: Vol. 1 It's A Dragon's Life (ep. 1-4), Dragon Hunters: Vol. 2 Dead Dragon Walking (ep. 5-8), Dragon Hunters: Vol. 3 There's No Place Like Home! (ep. 9-11), Dragon Hunters: Vol. 4 Don't Look Now (ep. 12-14), and Dragon Hunters: Vol. 5 Unwelcome Guests (ep. 15-17).

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Zoe is a little girl who believes in fairy tales. In order to help her uncle Lord Arnold get rid of a terrible dragon, Zoe decides she has to find some heroes. When she meets Gwizdo and Lian-Chu, a couple of two-bit, fly-by-night dragon hunters, she decides that she s going to believe in them and set out on an adventure to bring peace to the land.

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