Dragon and Slipper (originally Sárkány és Papucs) is a Hungarian animated film from 1990, produced by Pannonia Film Studio. Created by Hernádi Tibor, Dargay Attila (Lúdas Matyi, Vuk the Little Fox, Treasure of Swamp Castle) and Nepp József (Cat City), the film is a parody of the Love Triangle stories between King Arthur, Queen Guinevra and Lancelot.
Arthur and Guinevra had been married for seven years, but throughout the years the king completely ignored his beautiful wife, favoring "sportmanship" over wedged life, throwing tourneys for his knights every day, which are so loud, they're driving the already stressed out queen insane. To regain Arthur's love, she follows the advice of her servant Peggy, and asks for a Love Potion from Merlin, the Druid. He creates one, and gives her the instructions, to cook plum pie/pudding for Arthur, add one drop of the potion to it, and repeat this treatment every day for one year. Guinevra however pours the entire bottle into the first pudding. To make things worse, Arthur refuses to eat it, because he can't stand plums and offers it to his favorite knight Lancelot (who also happens to be Peggy's gallant), who becomes completely obsessed with Guinevra from it.
Compare Süsü, a sárkány, a Lighter and Softer Puppet Show, also from Hungary, featuring kings, knights and a reluctant, one-headed dragon.
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Matildka the witch becomes as madly attracted to Goliath the dragon, as Lancelot was to Guinevra.
- The Ace: Lancelot is the best amongst the knights, winning practically every one of the tourneys.
- Amusing Injuries: Mostly suffered by Guinevra.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Near the end, as he's pestered by Matildka, Goliath looks straight at the viewers and asks if there's an environmentalist among them, hoping to invoke animal cruelty to keep the witch away.
- One of the last lines in the outro song by the jester is "Here I am the fool, and so are you all, for watching the movie to the end!"
- The Chew Toy: Poor Guinevra. First she's been ignored by her husband for seven years (so much so, that she's not even surprised to find a gold horse-shoe between her Christmas presents, simply remarking that "Arthur has switched up my present with his horse's. Again."), then Lancelot becomes obsessed with her, and puts her through hell with his advances, culminating in setting her room on fire at New Year's Eve.
- Creative Closing Credits: The jester returns and sings a reprise of the opening song, interspersed with Take Thats towards the audience and the director, and complaining about being forcefully silenced when the credits attempt to push him out of frame.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Every single game of every single tourney ends in this in Lancelot's favor.
- Lancelot himself ends up on the receiving end of one, once Goliath gets fed-up, and kicks Lancelot in the buttocks so hard, he spits out the pie, he ate months ago.
- Deadpan Snarker: Oliver, Lancelot's horse, often snarks at his owner's idiocy.
- Delayed Reaction: When Peggy tells Guinevra that "Arthur gave the pie to Lancelot", the queen's first reaction is to scold her for referring to the king by his first name before the realisation hits her.
- Feather Fingers: The delivery-pelican has them.
- Felony Misdemeanor: After Guinevra confesses the Love potion screw up to Arthur, they decide to send Lancelot to slay the dragon who attacked the queen, and stole one of her slippers. Subverted in that there was no dragon attack, nor slipper theft at all.
- Idiot Hero: Lancelot may be a brave knight, but he's not very smart even before he drinks the love potion. After drinking it, he loses what little common sense he had.
- Lethal Chef: According to Arthur, Guinevra's cooking is terrible, even if she doesn't add magic potions to it. He even claimed that when he first tasted Guinevra's pie, the world darkened before his eyes.
- Made of Iron: Lancelot gets a wardrobe dropped on him from a tower, but it doesn't even phase him, while his opponents at the tourneys are usually knocked out from much less.
- Madness Mantra: Guinevra and Goliath for Lancelot and Matildka respectively, after consuming the potion.
- Love Potion: Guinevra asks one from Merlin. It doesn't end well.
- Ms. Fanservice: Guinevra is the only character not drawn in an obviously cartoonish way, and she spends most of the first act in her nightgown, baring her legs, neck and shoulders, and even a bit of cleavage for a few scenes. It gets subverted due to the numerous Amusing Injuries that give her a black eye, missing teeth and messy hair, among others.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Goliath uses the "Dr." title, which stands not for "Doctor", but for "Dragon".
- Oblivious to Love: Arthur remains completely unaware of Lancelot being bonkers with love for his wife, even though the entire castles figure it out the first night.
- Only Sane Man: Two of them:
- The jester, whose only role is to point out how wacky the entire cast is. He even Lampshades it in the movie's theme song:Jester:" I swear that in this giant castle,
I am the sanest person." - Oliver, Lancelot's horse. When Lancelot is under the influence of the love potion, his eccentric behaviour makes Oliver constantly call him a moron.Oliver: "He's an idiot. But what can a horse do..."
- The jester, whose only role is to point out how wacky the entire cast is. He even Lampshades it in the movie's theme song:
- Our Dragons Are Different: Goliath is a retired dragon, who no longer kidnaps princesses, and just wants to be left alone fishing. However, he admits that in his active years, he was just like the other dragons in folklore.
- Pun-Based Title: The dragon and the slipper both became a plot point, but the title also refers to the relationship of Guinevra and Arthur, as in Hungarian a headstrong/aggressive wife is often called a "house dragon", while the equvivalent Hungarian slang term for Henpecked Husband is "slipper husband". It also refers to Goliath, the actual dragon's personality, who's a pushover.
- Reluctant Monster: Goliath the dragon.
- Sapient Steed: Oliver, Lancelot's horse can talk, and he's quite a Deadpan Snarker.
- Say My Name: After eating the pie, Lancelot spends the night shouting Guinevra's name to the sky, while crawling on the walls of the castle.
- Serenade Your Lover: Parodied by Lancelot's first attempt to gain Guinevra's love. Not only he was singing a love poem, written by Oliver, his horse (which contained compliments like "your golden mane" and "I'd love to kiss your hooves") but he sang it so terribly, even Oliver had to cover his ears!
- Show With In A Show: Matildka the witch watches a parody of the apple-eating scene of Snow Whitenote through her Crystal Ball. When Snow White dies, Matildka exclaims about her love of documentary movies.
- Smart Animal, Average Human: Oliver, the smart and snarky horse, is paired up with Lancelot, the Idiot Hero knight.
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Oliver the horse is this to the Idiot Hero Lancelot, often making sarcastic remarks on his master's tomfoolery.
- Snipe Hunt: Lancelot is forbidden to return to Camelot without the slipper the dragon has stolen. Problem? There wasn't any dragon attack, nor slipper theft at all.
- Stalker with a Crush: Lancelot from the overdosed Love Potion.
- Stock Ness Monster: At the end of the film, Goliath hides in Loch Ness, and it's implied, that he becomes the Loch Ness Monster.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Two instances:
- First the Love Potion in the pie meant for Arthur.
- The ring in the cookie from Lancelot to Guinevra.
