History WesternAnimation / TheFlightOfDragons

* AdaptedOut: Angie, Secoh, Daffyd the Welshman, Lady Geronde Isabel de Chagny, Giles o' the Wold(His name remains but nothing of his character), Sir Hugh de Bois, and the Dark Powers.

* TheDragon: Bryagh, who is a literal dragon as well.

* EvilSorcerer: Ommadon, who is officially the evil brother of the four.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Evil Sounds Like Creator/JamesEarlJones. [[StarWars But we already knew that.]]

''The Flight of Dragons'' is a Creator/RankinBassProductions animated film, produced in 1982, but not aired until 1986. It is loosely adapted from Creator/GordonRDickson's fantasy novel ''Literature/TheDragonAndTheGeorge''. However, it replaces the main character with Creator/PeterDickinson, the real life author who wrote ''The Flight of Dragons'', an art book that proposes scientific reasons for the [[HereThereWereDragons prior existence of dragons]]. Got all that?

* AdaptationalBadass: Possibly with Bryagh. Here he's [[spoiler: a HeroKiller taking down Giles, Danielle, Aragh and ending in a mutual kill with Sir Orrin.]] However his opponents ''are'' substantially weaker than his book opponents of Smrgol and Secoh, two dragons.
* AdaptationalNameChange: Sir Brian Neville-Smythe becomes Sir ''Orrin'' Neville-Symthe. Oddly Orrin was the name of Geronde's father in the original story.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: What Peter does to Ommadon (and would probably do to Cthulhu or any other EldritchAbomination for that matter). He denounces [[OneWingedAngel the wizard's true form]], for nothing so evil or hideous can ever possibly... '''be real'''.

** For an extra layer of awesome, pay close attention to the end of Peter's speech: he lists every single scientific field ''in alphabetical order'', without missing a beat.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Ommadon at the beginning, the only EvilSorcerer among the four wizards. The ned of his presence is lampshaded and discussed by Carolinus ("As evil is a part of all things, evil is a part of our world of magic" and "the irony of all existence is that good would be totally impotent without the contrast of evil"). While he held the position for apparently centuries, early in the movie he goes renegade and becomes the BigBad.

* CatchPhrase: "_______ is the greatest magic of all!" Imagination? Or is it inevitability? Or perhaps love?
** Technically, Carolinus claims that imagination is the most ''potent'' and inevitability is the ''strongest''. He actually makes no such remark about love.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Ommadon, the only EvilSorcerer among the four wizards, which is lampshaded and discussed by Carolinus. Subverted in that while he held the position for apparently centuries, early in the movie he goes renegade and becomes the BigBad.

* EthnicMagician: The four brothers are oddly diverse. Carolinus is your typical white Merlin-type of wizard, Solarius is an AmbiguouslyBrown man whose garb suggests Arabia, Lo Tae Shao is Asian (and even has an Asian dragon). Ommadon...well, he's sort of a chalky gray...and hobgoblin-ish.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheFlightOfDragons.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Ugh, department store seersucker, all charred with dragon exhaust.]]

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: The Sandmurks, ratlike animals whose screechy noises will literally drive the listener mad.

* {{Jerkass}}: A group of commoners that laughed at Carolinus' weakening magic.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: What Peter sadly ends up becoming to the world/realm of magic. To utterly destroy [[BigBad Ommadon]], he must forsake and deny all magic. Yet somehow, he is able to interact with them, to Carolinus' amazement. Indicating part of Peter, even though he favors reality and logic, [[{{BittersweetEnding}} will always love and cherish his memories of magic and of dragons]].]]

* StraightForTheCommander: Aragh rushes straight to the queen of the Sandmirks to kill her, which disorganizes them and prompts them to retreat.
* TakeOurWordForIt: The Sandmirks' screeches are so horrible that they will drive any listener mad. The audience only hears a mild chittering sound.

* TwentyFourHourArmor: Yes and no. Sir Orrin is shown wearing his armor to bed when their camp is attacked by the sand mirks, but not when the ogre smashes through the wall of his room at the inn. Justified in the difference between being camped outside and exposed, versus being inside an inn, and thus much more safe (predicting something like the ogre would show up is asking a little much of him).

* AdaptationalVillainy: Bryagh is much nastier.

* {{Expy}}: Ommadon fills the same role as the Dark Powers do in ''The Dragon and the George.''

* AdapatationalBadass: Possibly with Bryagh. Here he's [[spoiler: a HeroKiller taking down Giles, Danielle, Aragh and ending in a mutual kill with Sir Orrin.]] However his opponents ''are'' substantially weaker than his book opponents of Smrgol and Secoh, two dragons.
* AdaptatationalNameChange: Sir Brian Neville-Smythe becomes Sir ''Orrin'' Neville-Symthe. Oddly Orrin was the name of Geronde's father in the original story.

* AdaptedOut: Angie, Secoh, Daffyd the Welshman, Lady Geronde Isabel de Chagny, Sir Hugh de Bois, and the Dark Powers.

* Expy: Omadon fills the same role as the Dark Powers do in ''The Dragon and the George.''

The film features a remarkably effective voice cast: John Ritter is highly sympathetic as Peter, Harry Morgan an amusingly eccentric Carolinus, Victor Buono (in his last role before his untimely death) a convincingly growly Aragh, James Gregory surprisingly lovable as the elderly dragon Smrgol (while also being chillingly menacing as the evil dragon Bryagh) -- and Creator/JamesEarlJones sonorous and magisterially evil as the Red Wizard Ommadon.

* IRejectYourReality: Once Peter starts applying his modern knowledge to magic, it stops working.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Or rather, evil cannot comprehend ''science welded for good''. Ommadon gets his ass royally handed to him when he and Peter confront each other in the final showdown.

* VillainHasAPoint: It's never acknowledged, because Ommadon's actions would cause a lot of suffering, but it's not like he's entirely wrong in being angry that science ''started'' the destruction of the magical world, or in wishing to actively fight against the end of his entire world and way of life.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The main character has the same name as the author of the original book and, for good measure, he mentions in the film that he's writing a book called ''The Flight of Dragons''. As well, the diagram he draws on the stone to visualize how dragonfire works is found in the book.

The film is a HeroicFantasy in which a twentieth-century "man of science", [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis named Peter Dickinson]], travels to the world of magic to defeat [[BigBad Ommadon]], an evil wizard who isn't happy that humans are [[MagicVersusScience choosing science over magic]]. Due to an accident, Peter ends up SharingABody with a dragon and he thus has to learn about how OurDragonsAreDifferent in order to survive. In the end, it turns out that the PowersThatBe selected Peter because they needed someone who ''wouldn't'' [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve clap his hands if he believed]].

* {{Animesque}}: One of the Rankin/Bass films animated by Topcraft, like ''WesternAnimation/TheLastUnicorn''.

* PinnedToTheWall: Danielle's EstablishingCharacterMoment against Giles' elves.
* PlotTailoredToTheParty: Each member of the group overcomes exactly one obstacle (not counting Danielle rescuing the party from Giles' elves).

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: When Ommadon causes Carolinus to lose the ability to track the quest through one magical means, the image of his brother Lo Tae Shao appears and reminds him that Melisande has the previously unmentioned ability to do the exact same thing by entering a trance. It's basically an excuse for Melisande to have something to do and prevent Caolinus from talking to himself when providing exposition.