We don’t really review dinosaur documentaries for 12 Days Of Dino Dicember, we haven’t yet, i guess the closest we did was the Walking With Dinosaurs film, but that wasn’t a documentary, and neither is today’s subject, 2004’s The Last Dragon, also known as Dragons: A Fantasy Made Reality or Dragon’s World: Fantasy Made Real, a docufiction movie made for TV (specifically for the British publicly owned Channel Four) and directed by Justin Hardy.
As to why we’re talking about a docufiction film about dragons during our dinosaur films retrospective… it’s that i feel it’s close enough in subject, dinosaurs do factor in to the argument, and the occasion is as good as any.
Also, after being duped into watching and reviewing a sub par italian cannibal flick without dinosaurs, i feel excluding this one wouldn’t quite be fair, in a way.
In terms of what it’s actually about, its what the title and the genre implies, as in, a speculative docudrama that labors on the hypothetical situation of dragons not being things of fantasy or a Pokemon type, but actual creatures that existed, speculating their evolution from the Cretaceous period up to the 15th centhury in regular scientific fashion by basing the idea on how widespread and ubiquitous was the dragon in any kind of mythology around the world, implying there was actual truth in the legends.
In fairly typical docufiction fashion, it sets out to do so by alternating between CG recreations of “dragosauruses” in their speculated natural habitat throughout history and the live action story of a modern paleontologist, Dr. Jack Tanner, whom works at a museum and believes in dragons, having his interest piqued when he learns that the frozen remains of an unknown creature have been discovered in the Carpathian Mountains, alongside many carbonized human bodies.
So, with two collagues of his, Tanner travels to Romania to examine the creature, and possibly salvage his reputation by actually finding and proving you found an actual dragon of the non-maid variety, so he can shows those miscreants that Falkor didn’t die for our sins in vain.
Of course, dragons aren’t real… well, reptiles exist, but for better or worse there aren’t djinn-dragons that slither in the sky in reality, that’s crazy talk, then again we also have humans being the impersonification of the gold hoarding drakes, yet it’s homicide when we slay them. Curious.
Regardless, depending if you’re watching the UK or US version, you get narration by Paul Hilton and Ian Holm or Patrick Stewart, telling you about – and i quote the opening narration bit – “the natural history of the most extraordinary creature that never existed”, which i feel perfectly sets up the tone that yes, this is obviously bullcrap, but you don’t care and we also do not care about the scientific credibility of the idea, because we wanna see dragons fight dinosaurs, and we’re willing to play pretend because it was awesome when we was 10 yo, and still is.
It also helps the CG work is quite good for a TV production of the era, it’s dated by now and it being better could have helped in accepting the peculiar premise, but it’s convincing enough to sell the documentary feel even though we’re seeing a T-Rex fighting a dragon for its territory and food.
It’s not for everyone, as it basically is a Venn diagram of niche interests, for the nature documentary enthusiast that’s also a LOT into dinosaurs and wondered what Pokemon battles would be like if narrated by David Attenborough. If you can’t or won’t get on board with the idea, there’s little to be said to convice you otherwise, the effects aren’t that great to make it absolutely worth for the spectacle alone, but if you can dig the docufiction speculative angle, most likely you’re gonna love this one, as the two “parts” (the dragon’s and the paleontologist’s) do synergize well to create this somewhat believable “dragon documentary story” that’s honestly quite engaging.
Educational as a SCP wikia article, but that’s not the point, never was, the acting is decent (mostly), the overall production values are quite good, the carcass effects are quite convicing, actually, and there is some progression of sorts in both parts of the narration, even when not strictly linear.
As a side note, i do find funny that for some reason the medieval knights/dragonslayers in the 15th centhury part of the “dragon side” of the story speak Italian, they recite a common catholic prayer, Pater Noster, before fighting the dragon but not in Latin, just Italian, which is odd as these scenes take place on the Carpathians Mountains in Romania, maybe i’m missing something, but mostly likely the simple explanation is that the actor playing the lead dragonslayer knight is italian.
The film did quite well for the network Channel Four, as they distributed this thing anywhere they could, and eventually the US network Animal Planet tried again with this “ mockumentary” approach for 2014’s Mermaid: The Body Found.
Justin Hardy curiously didn’t follow it up with a sequel, despite the movie’s ending with a new “dragon discovery” the paleontologist launches to, but he did work on plenty of British TV films and TV series, and still does today, with his last film being a documentary on the making of the 1973’s The Wicker Man, in occasion of the movie’s 50th anniversary.
So yeah, i do recommend The Last Dragon if you can accept its docufiction fake documentary style and subject, which i feel most dinosaur fans will be able to.
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