March 17, 2025

DragonHeart (1996) - Part One: Draco and Sean Connery: How Motion Capture Changed Cinema, Bringing Dragons to Life.

(PART 1) Episode Summary:
In this episode of The Fandom Portals Podcast, Aaron and Brash take a deep dive into Dragonheart (1996), the fantasy adventure that revolutionized CGI with its pioneering work on Draco, voiced by Sean Connery. They explore how motion capture technology was first used, the film’s box office success, and how Sean Connery landed the role of Draco.

Plus, they share community reactions from Threads, Instagram, and Reddit, where nostalgic fans discuss why Dragonheart remains a cult classic.

⏳ Timestamps & Topics:

03:16 - First Takes: Our First Encounters with Dragonheart
05:09 - Brash’s First Viewing – The Corner Store VHS Discovery
06:19 - Aaron’s Cinema Experience at Age 6 & Childhood Obsession
08:42 - Community Reactions: Nostalgia & Modern Viewpoints
09:35 - Does Dragonheart Still Hold Up? Reddit & Threads Discussion
12:38 - Fandom Fact Face-Off: Trivia Battle Begins
13:26 - Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Injury – What Did He Break?
14:58 - The Academy Award Nomination That Surprised Everyone
16:06 - The Lord of the Rings Connection – Hidden Scene References
17:52 - Who Almost Played Bowen? Surprising Casting Choices
19:47 - Sean Connery’s Role as Draco – Why He Was the Only Choice
22:27 - Set Secrets: The Groundbreaking CGI That Changed Hollywood
27:05 - Animating Draco – The First Fully CGI Character with Motion Capture
30:17 - Why Sean Connery’s Facial Expressions Were Key to Draco’s Success
33:16 - How Actors Performed Against Tennis Balls & Cutouts
35:25 - Jurassic Park vs. Dragonheart: Which CGI Holds Up Better?
41:46 - Why Dragonheart Was a Pioneer for Future CGI Films
42:46 - Sign-Off & What’s Coming in Part Two

Key Takeaways:

Draco was the first fully CGI character with advanced motion capture technology.
Sean Connery’s voice performance added emotional depth, making Draco feel real.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects but lost to Independence Day.
Jurassic Park’s blend of CGI and animatronics holds up better, but Dragonheart was a technical milestone.
The film’s mix of medieval adventure and humor created a cult following despite mixed reviews.

📢 Apple Podcast tags: Dragonheart, Sean Connery, Dennis Quaid, fantasy movies, medieval films, cult classics, CGI history, motion capture, movie trivia, film

Instagram: instagram.com/fandomportals/?locale=en
Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals

Chapters

03:16 - First Takes: Our First Encounters with Dragonheart

05:09 - Brash’s First Viewing – The Corner Store VHS Discovery

06:19 - Aaron’s Cinema Experience at Age 6 & Childhood Obsession

08:42 - Community Reactions: Nostalgia & Modern Viewpoints

09:35 - Does Dragonheart Still Hold Up? Reddit & Threads Discussion

12:38 - Fandom Fact Face-Off: Trivia Battle Begins

13:26 - Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Injury – What Did He Break?

14:58 - The Academy Award Nomination That Surprised Everyone

16:06 - The Lord of the Rings Connection – Hidden Scene References

17:52 - Who Almost Played Bowen? Surprising Casting Choices

19:47 - Sean Connery’s Role as Draco – Why He Was the Only Choice

22:27 - Set Secrets: The Groundbreaking CGI That Changed Hollywood

27:05 - Animating Draco – The First Fully CGI Character with Motion Capture

30:17 - Why Sean Connery’s Facial Expressions Were Key to Draco’s Success

33:16 - How Actors Performed Against Tennis Balls & Cutouts

35:25 - Jurassic Park vs. Dragonheart: Which CGI Holds Up Better?

41:46 - Why Dragonheart Was a Pioneer for Future CGI Films

42:46 - Sign-Off & What’s Coming in Part Two

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.201 --> 00:00:06.325
Hello everybody and welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms can help us learn and grow.

00:00:06.325 --> 00:00:09.153
This week we are looking at Dragonheart.

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Brash and I dive into the CGI technology that was used to bring the dragon of Draco to life back in 1996.

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This revolutionary technology was one of the first times that motion capture was used, and we also explore how they landed Sean Connery in the role of Draco.

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Make sure you also tune in to part two of this Dragonheart episode, where we go into a really deep dive on the film.

00:00:34.750 --> 00:00:39.841
Thank you so much for tuning in to the Fandom Portals podcast, as always, and we hope you enjoy.

00:00:39.841 --> 00:00:57.595
Hello everybody and welcome to the fandom portals podcast.

00:00:57.595 --> 00:00:59.637
I'm here joined by brash, as always.

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How you going brash bad yourself, not bad at all.

00:01:01.523 --> 00:01:02.725
That's to hear.

00:01:02.725 --> 00:01:03.206
That's good to hear.

00:01:03.206 --> 00:01:08.234
Today we are here to talk about a movie made in 1996, directed by Rob Cohen.

00:01:08.234 --> 00:01:09.947
It is indeed Dragonheart.

00:01:09.947 --> 00:01:15.570
It's written by Patrick Reed Johnson and Charles Edward Pogue, starring Dennis Quaid and Sean Connery.

00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:16.914
Do you like my accent?

00:01:16.914 --> 00:01:17.561
It?

00:01:17.641 --> 00:01:19.046
actually wasn't too bad actually, yeah, I do.

00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:31.706
You'll hear a bit of that through the episode, ladies and gentlemen, but before we do that, we're going to jump into our gratitudes and growth segment Now.

00:01:31.706 --> 00:01:34.115
Each week, we begin by sharing a personal gratitude for the week or something we need growth in, and I might go first.

00:01:34.115 --> 00:01:34.938
This week, I'm grateful for my mom.

00:01:34.938 --> 00:01:42.506
She came over and spent some time with the grandkids, which she does quite often, and just watching her with them is really nice to see.

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My kids adore and she's still in her late 60s and she still plays the Floor is Lava with them, which is amazing because I'm 35, and some days it's a struggle for me to do that.

00:01:53.808 --> 00:01:57.849
So shout out to mum, shout out to mum Shout out to mum.

00:01:57.890 --> 00:01:58.471
What about you, Brash?

00:02:00.063 --> 00:02:07.993
I've got a gratitude and that is for your average everyday corded vacuum cleaners.

00:02:07.993 --> 00:02:13.006
That is a good gratitude Because I had the robot vac.

00:02:13.006 --> 00:02:14.229
The battery died on it.

00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:16.587
It's getting sent away to get fixed.

00:02:16.587 --> 00:02:21.872
I also had one of the stick vacuum cleaners, like the cordless ones where you charge it up, the batteries never last.

00:02:21.872 --> 00:02:25.469
It lasts like two seconds and it's like dirt or small rocks, it just doesn't even pick them up.

00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:28.689
So and I'm like I need a vacuum cleaner because my house is full of dog fur.

00:02:28.689 --> 00:02:35.370
The cordless vacuum cleaner is just not doing it, it's just jamming up.

00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:38.253
It just sucks $100 Kmart average.

00:02:38.253 --> 00:02:41.866
But bagless bagless is also better bagless vacuum cleaner.

00:02:41.866 --> 00:02:43.308
This house has never looked cleaner.

00:02:43.308 --> 00:02:44.131
I absolutely love it.

00:02:44.131 --> 00:02:51.680
I just need to get a dog attachment now so I can brush Ace and get all these fluff off of him with the brush attachment and I think we'll be golden.

00:02:52.102 --> 00:02:55.686
We'll be good to go yeah, look at him over there waiting for his.

00:02:55.686 --> 00:02:58.844
He doesn't know what's coming, brash, he doesn't know how clean he's gonna be.

00:02:58.844 --> 00:03:00.323
But, yeah, good gratitude.

00:03:00.323 --> 00:03:03.528
That's awesome, because sometimes the simple stuff is all you need, you know.

00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:06.193
And it comes with like five different attachments.

00:03:06.193 --> 00:03:08.004
But do you know how?

00:03:08.004 --> 00:03:11.789
I know we're old, we're talking about vacuum cleaners On a podcast.

00:03:11.789 --> 00:03:15.889
And I am just smiling ear to ear talking about this vacuum cleaner.

00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:16.731
And you know what else?

00:03:16.731 --> 00:03:18.704
It has five attachments.

00:03:18.704 --> 00:03:20.710
We digress, we digress.

00:03:20.710 --> 00:03:27.439
We are indeed talking about Dragonheart today, and if you have not seen it, it was indeed made in 1999.

00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:32.026
It actually had a budget of $57 million, and do you think it was profitable, brash?

00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:41.024
I want to say, I want to say like just purely out of nostalgia, I want to say, yes, it was Because I think at the time there wasn't much more like it.

00:03:41.024 --> 00:03:50.045
Like the closest thing I could think of in the 1990s sort of range of this sort of fantasy kind of movie would be like the Dungeons and Dragons movie.

00:03:50.366 --> 00:03:51.289
Yeah, some part.

00:03:51.289 --> 00:03:54.866
I mean, there was like historically accurate, epic ones like Braveheart and things like that.

00:03:54.866 --> 00:03:58.361
But you're right, this was very unique in its genre in 1996.

00:03:58.361 --> 00:04:00.043
It actually did make a pretty good profit.

00:04:00.043 --> 00:04:00.103
It.

00:04:00.103 --> 00:04:04.747
It was $115 million, which is considered a success on a $57 million budget.

00:04:04.747 --> 00:04:10.712
Most films around that time were being made for around $60 million-ish, so it was on the cheaper side of that.

00:04:10.712 --> 00:04:11.114
What do you think?

00:04:11.114 --> 00:04:12.955
Most of the budget went to CGI.

00:04:13.235 --> 00:04:14.217
Absolutely CGI 100%.

00:04:14.537 --> 00:04:18.430
Yep, as opposed to other action blockbuster films thinking about today.

00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:27.894
But most of the time in that sort of era in the 90s, the budget of $60 or so million would go to the leading actors' salaries, because there was a massive bump during that time.

00:04:27.894 --> 00:04:34.853
But let's get into our first takes segment.

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All right, no-transcript, as we always put a post every week on our Instagram and Threads and Reddit that you can react to on what you thought of the movie.

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So, brash, you can start out first Now.

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Remember this is Dragonheart.

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It is a movie about the last dragon and a disillusioned dragon slaying knight that must unite to stop an evil king who's granted partial immortality.

00:05:09.625 --> 00:05:15.098
Well, I first came across this because I'm a nerd, first and foremost One of us, that's it.

00:05:15.098 --> 00:05:18.086
The corner store is where I came across this movie first.

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Vcr.

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Was it in the bargain bin?

00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:27.447
No, no, no, no, it was on, because this would have been back in the 1990s.

00:05:27.447 --> 00:05:27.709
It was in.

00:05:27.709 --> 00:05:40.947
We had a corner store a few corners around from where we lived in my step-by-less and we used to go there once a week and the corner store we used to buy a 50 cent bag of lollies and we used to be able to pick out I think it was two movies for the weekend from the shelf.

00:05:40.947 --> 00:05:54.572
Because the corner store had not like your selection that you used to get from like video easy and stuff like that, because there wasn't really well there was like, yeah, corner stores got the, the, the weekly releases that they'd then put on their shelves for you to to go and have a little little peruse through.

00:05:54.591 --> 00:05:57.380
It was like a little side hustle that the corner stores were going through.

00:05:57.401 --> 00:06:00.764
Yeah, they had like they'd have one you can hire for a week or one the ones you can hire for a night.

00:06:00.764 --> 00:06:01.966
So we used to.

00:06:01.966 --> 00:06:03.326
We used to get one that we'd hire for a night.

00:06:03.326 --> 00:06:06.790
So we used to get one that we'd hire for a night and one that we'd hire for a week.

00:06:06.790 --> 00:06:09.492
And yeah, Dragonheart was one of the ones that I saw and was like I want that one.

00:06:09.833 --> 00:06:10.553
Was it an overnighter?

00:06:10.553 --> 00:06:12.095
It was an overnighter At the time.

00:06:12.095 --> 00:06:16.300
Yeah, what did you think about it when you first watched it in 1996 or 97?

00:06:19.163 --> 00:06:53.800
when it came out on VCR time, like everything I know we're talking about later and all that, but like just the way, like the cgi and everything like that, just for me at that time period was amazing because we were used to like 2d mortal combat yeah, or jim henson's puppeteers, yeah, worth of monster shop and like you could compare it to, like the never-ending story in falco like you've got that sort of realism there and and that dragon also talked like draco does in this movie, but they look extremely different, yeah because you've got the CGI dragon of Draco and then you've got Falco, who looks like one of those Chinese dancing dragons.

00:06:55.406 --> 00:06:56.625
So, yeah, what do you mean?

00:06:56.625 --> 00:07:01.680
Back in 1996, when I was 6 years old, getting the video from the corner store?

00:07:02.103 --> 00:07:03.617
yeah, well, me for my first takes.

00:07:03.617 --> 00:07:25.053
I actually saw this movie in the cinema and I was six years old and it was probably the oldest movie that I'd seen for my age at the time Now we talked earlier about your first movie or when you were six years old, seven years old, you saw the Crow, I saw Dragonheart and I was like taken away by the action of it, fully immersed in the story world where it was just like a medieval night sort of setting.

00:07:25.053 --> 00:07:31.483
It was definitely my first that I can remember.

00:07:31.483 --> 00:07:51.891
I was taken by my grandma because she always used to take us to the movies every here and there with her money and, yeah, fully grateful for that because I reckon it fully installed my love of movies, but for this one in particular, my love of, like dragon and night kind of movies, and I remember it having a pretty significant impact on me because I used to get obsessed, like when I go and see a movie I'd get completely obsessed and I'd go home and I'd try and remember, scene by scene, what happened and I'd write it down.

00:07:51.891 --> 00:07:58.880
Like it was a play which is embarrassed to admit, but um, like I'd write down the character's name and then the dialogue that I remember.

00:07:58.880 --> 00:08:02.485
So even back then, it was like it was a pretty significant kind of movie for me.

00:08:02.485 --> 00:08:03.505
It held a lot of nostalgia.

00:08:03.505 --> 00:08:10.834
I cried at the end, yeah, I think for obvious reasons, but most notably the amazing score and yeah.

00:08:10.834 --> 00:08:22.483
So it definitely holds this awesome place in my heart and I loved it and I'd seen it again, probably like I don't know 10 or so years later and then 15 years later after that, and I haven't seen it for a very, very long time.

00:08:22.483 --> 00:08:27.853
And then we did it for this podcast and then, yeah, yeah, we might get into that today.

00:08:27.853 --> 00:08:31.598
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see how that.

00:08:31.598 --> 00:08:37.510
That's the thing I want to really sort of dive into today the fact of what it looks like now in a 2025 sort of atmosphere.

00:08:37.510 --> 00:08:42.427
But, yeah, we'll flick to our social medias because this one we put up on Reddit and it actually kind of blew up.

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There's a lot of people that feel pretty powerfully about this one.

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We've got 317 upvotes and 130 commenters.

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One person said Ludic Bath.

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I loved this film as a kid.

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I suspect it's one of those films that if you watched it now, I'd think it was foolish, or I would think that I was a tasteless check trick.

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Ned replied to them and said nah, man, go and watch it.

00:09:00.802 --> 00:09:01.725
I and said nah, man, go and watch it.

00:09:01.725 --> 00:09:08.519
I feared the same thing until I watched it last year and I had a genuinely great time Having Sean Connery as the dragon was a masterstroke in casting.

00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:12.048
And then they went on to say that they hope that they gave it a chance.

00:09:12.048 --> 00:09:18.125
Check yourself on Reddit, said I'm in my 40s and I recently watched it with my 11 year old daughter.

00:09:18.125 --> 00:09:19.565
I echo the above comments.

00:09:19.565 --> 00:09:24.727
It 100% holds up and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the entire movie was, not just the effects.

00:09:24.727 --> 00:09:28.854
What's more is I watched it with my daughter, who absolutely loved it, so I highly recommend it.

00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:40.840
And that's kind of something that I would like to do when my kids get older is watch it and see it through the lens of a child again, Just to see, like look on their face on certain parts and be like, ooh yeah.

00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.124
It still brings joy Exactly.

00:09:43.124 --> 00:09:52.299
Ooh, yeah, it still brings joy Exactly Because then I think if it doesn't hold up like if that's the verdict we come to, whether that's just an effect of growing up and the magic of movie going is like a childhood experience.

00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:58.720
It's really funny to see that people all over the world would kind of experience it the same way that you did, which is like the communal thing about movies that I like.

00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:04.327
We also had Enlowski who said I remember when it came out it was revolutionary for the CGI that they used.

00:10:04.327 --> 00:10:08.173
I haven't seen it recently, but I remember being amazed by how realistic the dragon looked.

00:10:08.173 --> 00:10:14.625
When I was a kid we had Frank on our threads from Geek Freaks that said I cannot tell you how many times I rewatched this movie.

00:10:14.625 --> 00:10:19.871
Billy D915 from Threads said this was my introduction to David Thouless.

00:10:19.871 --> 00:10:21.764
He played Aynan.

00:10:21.764 --> 00:10:23.299
He did play Aynan we're going to get into.

00:10:28.447 --> 00:10:29.571
I love him as an actor.

00:10:29.571 --> 00:10:32.751
Him in Harry Potter, just him in anything is just amazing.

00:10:32.751 --> 00:10:37.395
However, I have to point out this it's just who he is.

00:10:37.395 --> 00:10:39.784
There's no stabbing him or anything like that.

00:10:39.784 --> 00:10:52.995
He's still amazing and everything like that, but his voice is very whiny, yes, very whiny voice, which is incredibly suited to this character, absolutely it suits this character to a T oh man.

00:10:52.905 --> 00:10:54.596
Maybe that was a conscious choice which incredibly suited this character, Absolutely Suited this character to a T yeah and then oh man.

00:10:54.596 --> 00:10:59.530
Maybe that was a conscious choice, I don't know, because we're definitely meant to feel like we hate Iron in this movie.

00:10:59.530 --> 00:11:03.630
It's not a hidden fact, but yes, I definitely agree.

00:11:03.630 --> 00:11:06.530
I think he does have a very significant or a very noticeable voice.

00:11:06.611 --> 00:11:11.106
Yeah, and like, don't get me wrong, I love him, don't get me wrong, I love him and I love him as an actor.

00:11:11.106 --> 00:11:13.908
He's a phenomenal actor, just the voice.

00:11:13.908 --> 00:11:23.052
When he was playing Iron man I was like, oh, it just made the fact that he's a Prince Turn King always Bratty as well.

00:11:23.052 --> 00:11:24.152
Yeah, bratty.

00:11:24.312 --> 00:11:26.212
Yeah, and he is a brat.

00:11:26.212 --> 00:11:27.734
Nope, I 100% agree.

00:11:27.734 --> 00:11:31.716
Oh man, we have some other people in our threads community.

00:11:31.716 --> 00:11:38.778
We had mbrawly88 that said this movie was such a staple of my childhood, I loved it so much and always cried at the end.

00:11:38.778 --> 00:11:39.678
Same M same.

00:11:39.678 --> 00:11:50.423
We also had Benjamin Raffi who said I was obsessed with this movie but now it looks weird but also it has dragons in it, and I stand by my child's opinion.

00:11:50.423 --> 00:11:57.696
So your younger self's opinion, so me too, benjamin Raffi, thank you very much for all of our threads and Redditors for commenting on our podcast.

00:11:58.384 --> 00:12:04.408
So just to get a bit of a scope on what this movie and a bit of a scale on what this movie means to some people, it seems like it definitely.

00:12:04.408 --> 00:12:14.427
The word nostalgia hits me brash when I'm sort of thinking about this one and looking at it through a modern lens, all right.

00:12:14.427 --> 00:12:18.553
And um, looking at it through a modern lens, all right, we might jump into our fandom fact face-off.

00:12:18.553 --> 00:12:26.633
All right, our fandom fact face-off is where one hosts ask the other a series of trivia questions associated with the movie.

00:12:26.633 --> 00:12:32.994
The host with the most collected points from the fandom fact face-off segment will shout their opposing co-host to to an all-expenses paid trip to the movie cinema.

00:12:32.994 --> 00:12:35.160
Now, last time, brash, you won.

00:12:35.160 --> 00:12:38.192
You've won two times in a row and we're starting a new round right now.

00:12:38.232 --> 00:12:46.405
We went and saw sonic and then last time we haven't done an episode on it, but we saw captain america, the brave new world, and while we were there the movie was okay, it wasn't too bad.

00:12:46.405 --> 00:12:48.629
But there was an earthquake.

00:12:48.629 --> 00:12:51.514
Like we were, all was all okay, everything was fine.

00:12:51.514 --> 00:13:00.437
It was like a 4.3 magnitude earthquake in our town and it happened while Harrison Ford was riding on an elliptical, yeah, and then the earthquake happened.

00:13:00.437 --> 00:13:02.594
I was like man, he's really riding that thing.

00:13:02.644 --> 00:13:04.390
I was like well, did this theater become 4D?

00:13:04.390 --> 00:13:07.110
Are we getting effects?

00:13:07.110 --> 00:13:08.927
Is it like if you get sprayed with water?

00:13:08.927 --> 00:13:09.047
Do?

00:13:09.086 --> 00:13:09.508
we actually get wet.

00:13:09.508 --> 00:13:10.948
If you get sprayed with water, you actually get wet.

00:13:10.948 --> 00:13:11.490
Yep, exactly, yeah.

00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:14.072
So just so everybody knows that did take place.

00:13:14.072 --> 00:13:16.996
We may do an episode on it this month or, you know, it depends on how much time we have.

00:13:16.996 --> 00:13:20.120
But we are starting a brand new fandom fact face-off scoring card.

00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:23.544
So scores are currently 0-0.

00:13:23.544 --> 00:13:25.647
Brash, do you want to kick us off with the first question?

00:13:26.388 --> 00:13:36.956
Okay, so in a duel between David Quaid's character Bowen and David's character Einan Quaid broke something.

00:13:37.716 --> 00:13:38.076
What was it?

00:13:38.076 --> 00:13:42.760
Dennis Quaid, while fighting David Lewis, they had a couple of sword fights.

00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:44.241
I know they probably did some choreography for it.

00:13:46.466 --> 00:13:47.688
They probably broke about a million swords.

00:13:47.889 --> 00:13:53.267
David broke something on his body in a duel, oh, like Aragorn broke his toe.

00:13:53.267 --> 00:13:58.913
Well, I know, when I was sword fighting with my brothers we'd always hit knuckles, so I'm going to go finger David broke something on his body in a duel, oh like.

00:13:58.932 --> 00:13:59.474
Aragorn broke his toe.

00:13:59.474 --> 00:14:02.116
Let's go Well, I know when I was sword fighting with my brothers.

00:14:02.136 --> 00:14:03.639
We'd always hit knuckles so I'm going to go finger.

00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:06.802
It was his finger and he spent the last two weeks of filming in a plaster cast.

00:14:06.802 --> 00:14:07.764
Oh man, I didn't even notice.

00:14:07.764 --> 00:14:08.865
I think it was filmed out of order.

00:14:08.865 --> 00:14:14.288
Yeah, so picking up those scenes might be hard to do do.

00:14:14.288 --> 00:14:16.477
But yeah, I did notice a lot of sword fighting scenes in this, this movie, and you know, especially at the start.

00:14:16.477 --> 00:14:20.389
I don't know how many movies start with a master dueling an apprentice with play swords in an area that has lots of rock formations.

00:14:20.389 --> 00:14:21.591
I can think of at least.

00:14:21.591 --> 00:14:23.336
Troy is one.

00:14:23.336 --> 00:14:25.328
Yeah, this movie is another.

00:14:25.328 --> 00:14:26.655
Yeah, it's amazing how common.

00:14:26.655 --> 00:14:30.809
You know, if I had a nickel, for every time it happened I'd have two to three nickels and that's not a lot.

00:14:30.850 --> 00:14:38.511
I mean a lot of people fight and like just look at law of the rings, how many times they fight in like broken down places, like in nearly every single movie.

00:14:38.511 --> 00:14:42.626
Pretty much, yeah, there's a ruin that they fight in all right, let's go to my question.

00:14:42.767 --> 00:14:43.809
Yes, so it is one.

00:14:43.809 --> 00:14:45.414
Nil brash, this is your question.

00:14:45.414 --> 00:14:53.839
We know that this movie for the time had some pretty revolutionary cgi to it, some animation and some creature design.

00:14:53.839 --> 00:14:57.313
This movie was celebrated for that in this manner.

00:14:57.313 --> 00:14:57.836
What was it?

00:14:57.836 --> 00:14:58.505
Did it win?

00:14:58.986 --> 00:15:01.111
an Emmy Award Close.

00:15:02.134 --> 00:15:02.875
Academy Award.

00:15:02.875 --> 00:15:05.408
Yes, there, it is Okay.

00:15:05.408 --> 00:15:08.116
So this movie was nominated for an Academy Award.

00:15:08.116 --> 00:15:11.375
It was nominated for an Oscar in 1996.

00:15:11.375 --> 00:15:13.517
It was nominated for Best Visual Effects.

00:15:13.517 --> 00:15:14.442
It did was nominated for best visual effects.

00:15:14.442 --> 00:15:14.745
It did not win.

00:15:14.745 --> 00:15:21.437
It was beaten by independence day I mean for its large-scale destruction scenes and um.

00:15:21.437 --> 00:15:29.591
But it's funny to say, you know if you introduce the movie dragonheart to people and you say I'm just watching the academy award nominated movie dragonheart imagine that.

00:15:30.552 --> 00:15:32.596
Oh yeah, saying that now yeah.

00:15:33.017 --> 00:15:37.664
So I thought that was interesting to bring up because you know you've got to look at it through the lens of the time, in 1996.

00:15:37.664 --> 00:15:41.610
When you're looking at this it's actually like a really revolutionary piece of work, 100%.

00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:52.375
But you know, I'm glad that we're reviewing the Academy Award nominated movie Dragonheart today I thought that would be an interesting one to go.

00:15:52.414 --> 00:16:06.289
So the scene where Bowen shoots an arrow the ballista arrow at Draco and he falls in the river is an homage to another scene from a very popular novel series no, I'm thinking Moby Dick.

00:16:06.845 --> 00:16:11.250
There's harpoons that shoot a big whale, that go into the water there when he's flying through the sky.

00:16:11.250 --> 00:16:15.264
That's like yeah, and you can tell that when it happened twice.

00:16:15.264 --> 00:16:16.831
The first time he moved over and he got shot.

00:16:16.831 --> 00:16:23.731
He caught the ballista and then fell into the water, and then the second time they literally just flipped the CGI footage and he was flying the other way.

00:16:23.731 --> 00:16:24.755
Is it the Lord of the Rings?

00:16:25.037 --> 00:16:27.326
It is the Lord of the Rings when Bard shoots.

00:16:27.365 --> 00:16:27.767
Smaug.

00:16:27.767 --> 00:16:30.730
Oh, bard, the bowman from Smaug, yes, in the Hobbit Perfect, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16:30.750 --> 00:16:35.657
Because I think in the books Smaug pretends to get hit and falls into the water.

00:16:35.657 --> 00:16:38.441
It does the same thing and then comes back out afterwards.

00:16:39.004 --> 00:16:40.184
Yep, yep, but they don't show that in the actual movies.

00:16:40.184 --> 00:16:41.264
In the movies he just gets shot.

00:16:41.264 --> 00:16:46.850
He just gets shot in the direct right spot for the black arrows to pierce his amazing dragon scales.

00:16:46.889 --> 00:16:53.556
Yes, so yeah, on shooting an arrow at Draco above the lake and is in homage to Bard shooting the arrow at Smug in the Hobbit.

00:16:54.076 --> 00:16:54.535
Very nice.

00:16:54.535 --> 00:16:55.336
Do I get the points for that?

00:16:55.336 --> 00:16:56.498
I can't get it.

00:16:56.498 --> 00:16:57.958
Very good, yes, I'll take it.

00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.120
Draco yeah, Draco even falls into the lake and plays dead.

00:17:00.301 --> 00:17:09.794
Yeah, I love that scene because especially when he doesn't sink and he's watching all the people fucking.

00:17:09.814 --> 00:17:10.595
Yeah, it's like a swamp.

00:17:10.615 --> 00:17:12.317
Yeah, you think they'd test that beforehand.

00:17:12.317 --> 00:17:15.773
But yeah, funny thing, and then you know those cannibals go and try to eat the people.

00:17:15.773 --> 00:17:16.798
So, yeah, all right.

00:17:16.798 --> 00:17:32.173
So the movie dragonheart was, uh, originally pitched to be directed by someone called richard donner uh, you might know them because they're famous for directing superman, the original movie, and Lethal Weapon in 1987.

00:17:32.173 --> 00:17:38.200
However, he departed the project due to a particular reason.

00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:39.441
What do you think that was?

00:17:39.441 --> 00:17:40.828
Why would he depart the project?

00:17:40.828 --> 00:17:44.509
And then Rob Cohen, the director, came onto the project.

00:17:45.306 --> 00:17:46.250
I have no idea.

00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:48.172
Why would he leave?

00:17:48.172 --> 00:17:49.509
Would it appear to go on?

00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:51.335
Because he had another project that he had to do?

00:17:52.126 --> 00:17:52.729
Not quite.

00:17:52.729 --> 00:17:54.247
No, I'll give you a clue.

00:17:54.247 --> 00:18:03.632
So Richard Donner had done Superman the movie, which was pretty light-hearted and comedic, and then he'd done Lethal Weapon a little bit after.

00:18:03.632 --> 00:18:08.046
So he'd done a light-hearted movie and then a really sort of serious, sort of toned movie oh, was it meant to be more serious?

00:18:08.046 --> 00:18:13.518
And it wasn't Exactly right so and it wasn't Exactly right so he wanted to perform it as a little bit more of an epic.

00:18:13.518 --> 00:18:17.131
Yeah, which actually I probably would have maybe even preferred.

00:18:17.131 --> 00:18:20.213
Yeah, yeah, well, he definitely would have.

00:18:20.213 --> 00:18:33.299
And the studio Universal Studio was holding out on the budget of like they weren't going to give them the budget, unless you know, it hit a certain sort of benchmark in terms of it has to be suited for kids or something.

00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:34.027
Well, yeah, yeah.

00:18:34.027 --> 00:18:48.185
So because of that reason, because it was those creative differences and those challenges, he, he left the project respectfully and then rob cohen took over and directed a brighter and lighter and more comedic sort of fantasy like tone that was more suited for a family-friendly sort of audience.

00:18:48.185 --> 00:18:56.471
So two for two is the score right now, two to me and two for you, and there's one question for you remaining and one question for me remaining okay.

00:18:56.611 --> 00:19:08.407
So my question now there's so many of them and they're actually all really well known, so I'll just get you to name three of them out of I think there's like 12.

00:19:08.407 --> 00:19:20.272
So the lead role of bowen was it was rejected by one famous actor but also had a considerable part was a whole bunch of other famous actors.

00:19:20.835 --> 00:19:21.656
He named three of them.

00:19:21.656 --> 00:19:23.188
Three of them, okay.

00:19:23.188 --> 00:19:30.672
So I did read that possibly Liam Neeson was in the running, so Liam Neeson was the one who was offered the role and rejected it, declined.

00:19:30.672 --> 00:19:31.011
Yeah.

00:19:31.011 --> 00:19:41.845
So the others in that sort of vein during this time let's go with, I mean, sylvester Stallone.

00:19:43.407 --> 00:19:46.472
No, but close to like there's someone who's close to that vein.

00:19:47.153 --> 00:19:47.654
Not Arnie.

00:19:47.654 --> 00:19:50.519
No way, arnie, yep Arnold Schwarzenegger.

00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:54.003
I'm assuming because he played Hercules, and he played Conan as well.

00:19:54.003 --> 00:19:55.770
Yep, and then Christopher Reeve.

00:19:55.770 --> 00:19:57.910
Was that one of them who played Superman?

00:19:57.910 --> 00:20:01.159
Ah, no, no, hmm here's another hint.

00:20:01.502 --> 00:20:03.909
Okay, you've got a friend in me, tom.

00:20:03.990 --> 00:20:10.048
Hanks, tom Hanks, wow, I couldn't imagine him with that wig on yeah, yep, well, that's three.

00:20:10.228 --> 00:20:12.574
So you got three Arnie, liam and Tom.

00:20:12.574 --> 00:20:13.455
What were some of the others?

00:20:13.455 --> 00:20:13.938
Some of the other ones?

00:20:13.938 --> 00:20:15.308
So we had Pierce Brosnan.

00:20:15.308 --> 00:20:16.954
I'd see that, kevin.

00:20:16.974 --> 00:20:19.790
Bacon Look, I love Kevin Bacon in anything.

00:20:19.790 --> 00:20:22.450
Harrison Ford I could also see that.

00:20:22.450 --> 00:20:25.907
Mel Gibson Well, look after Braveheart.

00:20:25.907 --> 00:20:27.451
Probably not, but I could see that definitely.

00:20:27.451 --> 00:20:30.678
And Patrick Swayze, and Patrick Swayze.

00:20:30.979 --> 00:20:31.799
All of them seem okay to me.

00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:35.336
All of them seem like, really, and they're all fairly big actors along with Dennis Quaid.

00:20:35.585 --> 00:20:40.711
It's funny how they had a whole plethora of actors ready to play or pitched to play Bowen.

00:20:40.711 --> 00:20:49.175
To me, in my unprofessional opinion, that kind of screams like they're throwing a cast net out and whoever will take the script, they'll take.

00:20:49.175 --> 00:20:49.817
You know what I mean.

00:20:49.817 --> 00:20:55.300
You know how some people write a screenplay and they're like it is written specifically for for this intended person.

00:20:55.300 --> 00:21:11.056
I did watch the the making of this movie, and the director, rob cohen, actually said, you know, when he was talking about the dragon of draco and the voice, and he knew that it had to be an a-list kind of actor and somebody whose voice was recognizable, he said he considered one actor and one actor only for that, and that actor was sean, sean Connery.

00:21:11.056 --> 00:21:11.497
Yeah.

00:21:11.537 --> 00:21:25.627
So, um, to be fair, all the dragons in all the series is not quite all, but pretty much like in another, another, another, two of the movies the dragons voice played by, like big stars, really, yeah, ben Kingsley is one.

00:21:25.627 --> 00:21:27.775
No, he plays.

00:21:27.775 --> 00:21:31.971
He plays it in the second movie, mate, and in the third movie.

00:21:31.971 --> 00:21:36.298
Third or the fourth movie I think it might be the fourth movie it's played by Patrick Stewart.

00:21:36.298 --> 00:21:45.736
Oh my gosh, in these low-budget movies you'll find that the voice actors, like the people who do voice acting especially for dragons, like even in the Merlin TV show, yeah, john Hurt, john Hurt.

00:21:45.736 --> 00:21:52.381
Yeah, these low-budget movies they get these really well known actors that voice the dragons.

00:21:52.421 --> 00:22:00.141
There must be something really appealing to actors to come in and play such a majestic creature like a dragon like you got like come back for Smough, smough yeah it just, yeah, it seems like.

00:22:00.201 --> 00:22:05.621
It just seems like a thing where, like creatures that are voiced by people, it's only someone like sort of famous.

00:22:05.621 --> 00:22:08.608
I don't know how many times Patrick Stewart's voiced Something.

00:22:08.608 --> 00:22:10.172
That is mythological too.

00:22:10.593 --> 00:22:17.790
Yeah exactly right, and Sean Connery actually did say as well this is probably his easiest role that he's done because he didn't have to do hair and makeup.

00:22:17.790 --> 00:22:19.270
He sat in a studio delivered his lines.

00:22:19.270 --> 00:22:25.964
They did do some capturing stuff on him but yeah, pretty easy payday for him, which is very appealing for voice actors.

00:22:27.028 --> 00:22:34.498
So keep it going in that vein, I think, because, yeah, he was definitely a drawcard for this movie, dragonheart, and I think also Dennis Quaid would have been a drawcard as well.

00:22:34.498 --> 00:22:37.011
Might talk about his performance a little bit later on.

00:22:37.011 --> 00:22:43.153
All right, so the current score is three to two, with my question to Brash left to go.

00:22:43.153 --> 00:22:50.315
All right, so there are quite a few real-world elements in this and also some mythological elements in this movie of Dragonheart.

00:22:50.315 --> 00:23:00.919
What mythological tales were the inspiration of some of the elements in dragon heart, in terms of, in particular, bowen and the knights of the old code?

00:23:01.867 --> 00:23:03.373
uh I don't come a lot, surely?

00:23:03.373 --> 00:23:05.419
Yep, yep, absolutely so.

00:23:05.419 --> 00:23:07.486
It's king arthur and the knights of the round table.

00:23:07.486 --> 00:23:12.135
Uh, they even go to sit at his resting place or his spire.

00:23:12.135 --> 00:23:13.157
That's right In the movie.

00:23:13.525 --> 00:23:18.477
That's the Avalon we're going to find is yeah, is based off it, yeah, yep.

00:23:19.047 --> 00:23:26.296
And then you know that awesome scene which tugs on the heartstrings, where Bowen goes and recites his new oath and he thinks he's doing it absolutely alone.

00:23:26.296 --> 00:23:29.527
And you know, out of the shadows comes this 25-foot dragon.

00:23:29.527 --> 00:23:41.516
That was completely hidden and he just absolutely comes and, just you know, puts the wing over him to shelter him from the rain, and you know that's worded as you know, the dragon hug, I guess you could say Apparently.

00:23:41.516 --> 00:23:49.301
That was storyboarded in the screenplay and there's actually a novelization as well of this book and it said that in that sort of moment.

00:23:49.301 --> 00:23:56.933
That scene was in there too and it sort of plays on that timeless fairy tale quality and it resonates with those fantasy fans where it sort of ties it to the real world.

00:23:57.506 --> 00:24:10.871
One thing that I did notice that also tied it to the real world, if you notice what happened at the very start of the movie, that it said when the king was raiding the initial village, just across the bottom of the screen, randomly, it just said, you know, 1934, ad.

00:24:10.871 --> 00:24:12.294
Like why do we need to know that?

00:24:12.294 --> 00:24:12.894
Sure, why not?

00:24:12.894 --> 00:24:18.989
Yeah, okay, but yeah, that was just another, another sort of element that tied it into to the realism for people.

00:24:18.989 --> 00:24:19.992
But yeah, I really liked that.

00:24:20.065 --> 00:24:47.750
It was that that sort of honor and discovering moral redemption was central for those Arthurian legends and that sort of brought it back into this with Bowen's character too well, I do, like later on, where they start they bring in in the new, because I haven't watched them yet, because, yeah, I'm probably gonna watch them because I've been reading up the synopsis but one of the movies I'm not sure if it's the second one or the third one actually brings druids in which, like Merlin all that was famously meant like now because called them.

00:24:47.750 --> 00:25:11.474
But like, say, if you've watched the King Arthur movie with Clive Owen where Merlin and his faction are actually like druids and stuff like that, and even in the Merlin TV show I think they were called druids and stuff like that- yeah, Well, even Aynan's mother sort of has a connection to dragons in this movie and you can see she's got like some accoutrement and various different sort of symbology of dragons in her space at the start.

00:25:11.515 --> 00:25:14.464
So you can kind of tell of symbology of dragons in her space at the start.

00:25:14.464 --> 00:25:18.770
So you can kind of tell and Draco also mentions the Kelts are people who believed in the dragons and people that sort of held their kind in esteem.

00:25:18.790 --> 00:25:19.815
Yeah, and druids are a big thing in there.

00:25:19.815 --> 00:25:21.369
And yeah, druids are very sort of.

00:25:21.390 --> 00:25:22.734
Celtic in nature and origin too.

00:25:22.734 --> 00:25:53.329
So yeah, one thing I'm very worried about with those sequels because I'm interested in watching them too, having never watched them before is I don't want them to go too mystical, because I kind of like the, the realism nature of these movies as much as dragons aren't quote aren't real yeah, I understand in saying like there's druids, I don't really suspect it being much of like too magic involved, though I believe the one with the druids in there, the evil king curses the dragon, there's curses at least well, those curses at least.

00:25:53.711 --> 00:25:57.913
Well, I guess in this one, you know we say it's grounded, but you know a dragon shares a heart with a man and brings him back to life.

00:25:57.913 --> 00:26:03.073
So that's kind of you know, a little bit of magical sort of you know who do magician hospital stuff in there too.

00:26:03.073 --> 00:26:04.570
So all right.

00:26:04.570 --> 00:26:08.772
So with that, I all yeah.

00:26:08.772 --> 00:26:13.135
So we're all tied up, which means that the next time we do the fandom fact face off, we will be.

00:26:13.155 --> 00:26:20.101
So no more clues, no more clues, yeah, no more clues all right, if we're gonna do it, give a clue maybe to make it so easy.

00:26:20.381 --> 00:26:22.883
All right, let's move on to our set secrets segment.

00:26:22.883 --> 00:26:36.705
All right, the set secrets segment, which is hard to say, is where hosts take a look behind the scenes of our focus movie to give you all the information on what went right and what went wrong and what was interesting about the way that the movie was made.

00:26:36.705 --> 00:26:41.525
This is where we kind of look at some behind the scenes and some technical aspects of the movie.

00:26:41.525 --> 00:26:45.576
So you guys can, you know, tell some facts to all your friends about the movies that you love to see.

00:26:45.576 --> 00:26:55.519
So this time, brash, I specifically want to kind of talk about the revolution that was dragon bringing Draco to life and bringing Draco to the screen.

00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:03.699
So when we're talking about this, it was actually the first time that a fully CGI character was on screen.

00:27:03.699 --> 00:27:05.329
How do you think the CGI held up?

00:27:05.444 --> 00:27:08.865
To be honest, I didn't mind it, like I've seen movies nowadays that are worse.

00:27:08.865 --> 00:27:09.547
Absolutely 100%.

00:27:09.547 --> 00:27:09.906
I fully agree.

00:27:09.926 --> 00:27:11.008
I've seen movies nowadays that are worse, absolutely.

00:27:11.028 --> 00:27:11.509
A hundred percent.

00:27:11.509 --> 00:27:12.529
I fully agree.

00:27:12.529 --> 00:27:23.721
And you know, when this script was initially pitched, when it was first created, they thought it was amazing story, fully heartfelt, great characters, good relationship between dragon and you know night.

00:27:23.721 --> 00:27:32.396
The only thing that held a lot of people back from jumping onto it was obviously the technology hadn't been invented to fully realize that dragon character in a meaningful and very visual kind of way.

00:27:32.396 --> 00:27:39.673
So they were actually doing things in this movie using technology that hadn't really been invented yet, and even things like face mapping.

00:27:40.054 --> 00:27:56.338
So when you're looking at Draco and he's doing some very expressive scenes with eyebrows and lip syncing and the movement of his tongue and the movement of his jaw and things while he's speaking, it's actually the first time that that's ever been done and those motions and movements were modeled off of Sir Sean Connery himself.

00:27:56.338 --> 00:28:03.638
But the amazing part for me was that they also had to be all done manually on the computer.

00:28:03.638 --> 00:28:13.510
So they actually had to physically move the eyebrow muscle and they had to move the lips to match the words, because the dots that they'd put on people's faces to do face mapping that technology hadn't been invented yet.

00:28:13.510 --> 00:28:13.853
Yeah, yeah.

00:28:15.155 --> 00:28:48.090
So they used this software called Elias Power and they really tried to focus on real life textures and the structure of his body, and the most amazing part for me, though, was that facial muscle and expression when he would be talking, and making him almost like a human kind of character, because I think that if you were going to portray a relationship between Bowen and a dragon, him being a dragon slayer, if the dragon was too monstrous, the audience wouldn't be able to connect as well as they did.

00:28:48.090 --> 00:28:56.882
That being coupled with the fact that the dragon's voice is Sean Connery, who is, you know, very honorable His Scottish heritage plays well into the legendary mythos of dragons.

00:28:56.882 --> 00:29:03.717
He sounds like he belongs in the part and the way that he can convey anger, but also gravity and compassion.

00:29:03.717 --> 00:29:09.219
He does an amazing performance, I think, in this, and it's mirrored on Draco's face very, very well.

00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:17.778
So, for me, it's a double-edged sword, because I don't know if we're going to talk about this later, but for me the story wasn't quite how I remembered it, Mm-hmm.

00:29:17.778 --> 00:29:33.384
So there was parts there like spoiler alert, when the female dragon's killed and Bowen tells Draco that ah, that was me, and Draco gets upset about it, and then two seconds later he's like hey, let's be friends.

00:29:34.983 --> 00:29:47.509
But like that initial anger and the facial expressions coming from Draco Sean Conner, like is just like you feel it like reverberate through your body when you like, you feel like you're in trouble.

00:29:47.509 --> 00:29:49.961
Almost it's like damn.

00:29:49.961 --> 00:29:51.465
I'd hate for Sean Connery to be angry at me.

00:29:52.175 --> 00:29:59.414
Yeah, you can see it as well, because they use that downward facing shot, so you feel powerless as he is like talking and roaring down to you shot.

00:29:59.414 --> 00:30:00.861
So you feel powerless as he is like talking and roaring down to you.

00:30:00.861 --> 00:30:03.653
But also the way that they animate his eyebrows, and you know the expression on his jaw as he does that as well.

00:30:03.653 --> 00:30:06.259
You know, using those early sculpting and 3d modelings.

00:30:06.259 --> 00:30:15.875
Yeah, I thought it was really sort of awesome how they could portray so many emotions, because it would have taken so many, oh, so long, so many hours of manpower.

00:30:15.875 --> 00:30:17.539
Yeah, that's probably why it's so expensive, though.

00:30:17.921 --> 00:30:19.826
Absolutely yeah, and that's why it still is so expensive.

00:30:20.688 --> 00:30:36.019
Yeah, and I think you know, even in moments in the movie where he was being like sarcastic for example, where they're sitting by the campfire and Bowen talks about his trauma with Draco and he says, you know, a long time ago there was a dragon he's like why do you hate us so much?

00:30:36.019 --> 00:30:47.205
And he says, well, long time ago a dragon gave his heart to my friend iron and poisoned him basically and corrupted him and drake, who got really angry and reactive and then he pulled it back and you can see all of those emotions on this dragon's face.

00:30:47.205 --> 00:30:50.814
And you know, in this day and age when you see that kind of thing we kind of take it for granted.

00:30:50.814 --> 00:30:59.730
But this was the first time people saw on screen, on camera, an actual, imaginary creature doing those kinds of things and reacting in those kinds of ways.

00:30:59.730 --> 00:31:09.836
Another scene that I really like that shows a lot of emotion and loyalty from sean connery is like the absolute charisma that he shows when he meets cara and she's sitting on the rocks and he's singing her a song

00:31:10.318 --> 00:31:20.269
and then you know, you see, that sean connery bond kind of like, that kind of like seemed like, like I wouldn't be surprised if that was ablib from sean doing that.

00:31:20.269 --> 00:31:33.239
Yep, yep, I would not be surprised as well that like because we, when there's a singing to it on the rock, I'm like drake actually be doing that with serenading a few of the song, and then I'm like that just seems like something sean connery would do.

00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:44.696
Yeah, I think, for that part at least, they would have probably been trying to play on that, that mythological element where dragons are really enamored by maidens, yeah, uh, and that sort of uh connection through that.

00:31:44.696 --> 00:32:00.748
But what I really loved about that sort of aspect was I I read through the um, through some of the articles that were created at the time, and the the director, rob cohen, during post production he still had 13 months of post-production after filming Wrapped because he obviously had so much work to do with CGI.

00:32:00.748 --> 00:32:19.422
So he actually went to work on another movie called Daylight, which starred Sylvester Stallone, and he would actually satellite conference call into his animators in Los Angeles which was also revolutionary at the time and he would try to talk them through how he wanted them to animate the scene and he found it really difficult to do.

00:32:19.422 --> 00:32:32.520
So what he did was he hired an editor and he got that editor to go through like 40 of Sean Connery's films and he said what I want you to do is find all the times that there is a close up on Sean's face and edit those little clips out.

00:32:32.520 --> 00:32:44.371
So the editor did that and he said OK, now that you've done that, put all of these clips into groups where Sean is happy, he's angry, whether he is surprised, whether he's being suave, put them all together as little sort of clips and videos.

00:32:44.371 --> 00:32:57.865
So then when he would talk to his animators and he said, okay, in this scene Draco is going to be angry, so they'd pull out the angry group of clips and they'd play those clips and then they could use Sean Connery's face to actually map how Draco would look in those kinds of emotions.

00:32:57.884 --> 00:33:12.526
So I think from listening to Rob Cohen talk about that, this was like his baby, his film that he was so impassioned with and I think that sort of shows on the screen in terms of how much care was taken in Draco and how much emotional resonance the story has as well.

00:33:12.526 --> 00:33:15.884
But I think without his dedication it definitely would have.

00:33:15.884 --> 00:33:19.601
He knew at the time as well he was working on a revolutionary piece of cinema.

00:33:19.601 --> 00:33:30.678
Another really awesome thing about the production of this movie in terms of draco was a lot of the actors were actually performing against cutouts and silhouette heads and two tennis balls that look like eyes.

00:33:31.159 --> 00:33:45.119
You can imagine how difficult that would be and you hear that in any movie where they've had to, that, where they're like that's the most difficult part is trying to like act against something that's not there and try and portray the emotions when you're just looking at nothing that's exactly it.

00:33:45.801 --> 00:34:01.460
Yeah, because some of the scenes, especially with dennis quaid and bow and he gets a bad rap for his acting sometimes, but he has to deliver some of the most emotional scenes in this to like two tennis balls and sometimes that can be extremely difficult for him to do and he also said he found it pretty difficult as well.

00:34:01.460 --> 00:34:12.416
I think that, um, in terms of how dragons have been animated from here on out, like dragonheart was the first cgi creature that had that facial expressions and those personalities.

00:34:12.416 --> 00:34:25.326

DragonHeart (1996) - Part One: Draco and Sean Connery: How Motion Capture Changed Cinema, Bringing Dragons to Life.

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