Review: My Father's Dragon
Elmer, who is having trouble adjusting to his new life, decides to set out to find a wild island and rescue a young dragon. His adventures will lead him to encounter ferocious beasts, discover a mysterious place and make a new friendship.
Jacob Tremblay & Gaten Matarazzo
My Father's Dragon is a film that went under my radar and I wasn't even aware was releasing today. While it's more aimed towards kids this film contains great storytelling and a lot of heart.
Starting off I just want to say how beautiful this film looks. The animation style is amazing, the colors pop, and there is some amazing cinematography. There's so much you can do with animation that just isn't possible with other medias and this film really takes hold of that.
Looking more at the characters, Elmer starts off very very unlikable. He has this ego, does not show a lot of respect towards his mother and just doesn't understand life outside of his point of view. Thankfully overtime you really get to see him grow and his arc is actually quite beautiful when it finally wraps up. Our other main character Boris goes on a parallel arc which is just as great. He gets to find his purpose in life and the two characters go hand and hand in fulfilling their goals.
Without going into to many story spoilers it's just overall very emotional and heartfelt. You meet so many interesting characters along the way and you build a great ensemble cast at the end. Every character has their moment to shine and everyone feels valued in the adventure not just wasted and thrown to the side.
As the film concludes you get what appears to be a massive final act with so much weight that at the end of the day is really just two characters realizing what they were brought together to do. Every emotion is felt and every character is understood. The final scene is just overall beautiful and really makes the ending feel perfect.
The only slight flaw I have is that the beginning was quite rushed as it was a very hard task to make Elmer an enjoyable character watch. Along with that the conflict in the first act felt very forced but that all fades away with a perfect conclusion to an overall amazing film.
