DragonHeart (1996) User Reviews

pretty good...

[Erik G. · 7/10 · 22 February 1999]

Like others, I rate Dragonheart far above most mindless summer blockbusters, loaded with hip witticisms and sarcastic heroes. Dragonheart is not cynical at all, and is lots of fun for kids of all ages (why is this movie PG13?). If you're looking for a really ferocious dragon, Draco isn't it. Draco is much more human than most movie dragons (if you want a scary dragon, watch Dragonslayer), but he is very realistic. In fact, the scenes without him tend to drag, but Dennis Quaid's Bowen is strong as the disillusioned knight. If you are looking for a deep plot, you won't find it, but that's no big deal. Dragonheart is more about adventure and dragons than about plot twists and in depth characterizations. Edelman's music is great for the most part, especially in the final scenes, which I think are the best in the movie. Check it out.

The Dragon Of Our Hearts

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 5 December 2006]

The film Dragonheart answers the question whatever happened to those mythical beasts of legend. Or at least how the last of the breed nobly met his fate.

Dennis Quaid is a knight true to the old code of chivalry as set down by King Arthur for his posse at the Round Table. But it's some three to four hundred years later and we're just entering another millennium. Dennis tries to teach a young prince the right way of things, but the kid is just plain no good. He grows up to be David Thewlis and one nasty tyrant of a king.

This is after his life was saved by transplanting half a dragon's heart into his wounded body on the condition he mend his evil ways and trod the straight, narrow, and just as a king. Thewlis has no intention of living up to that.

Dragonheart would be a nice kid's story, but for the presence of one thing, the voice of Sean Connery coming out of the mouth of the animated dragon. To me it is absolutely inspired how the animation folks managed to invest so much of Sean Connery's personality into their work. Connery is droll and witty as the last of his kind and I love just listening to him.

Even though Dragonheart is recommended for kids, it's also recommended for Sean Connery's fans even though you only get to hear his voice coming out of a dragon.

But what a voice.

Silly but nice

[Niller-2 · 7/10 · 14 February 2000]

I watched this movie sitting in a bus on the way home from a day of skiing. I didn't expect anything, and to begin with I thought it was one of the silliest "sword and ruin" movies ever made.

That changed somehow when the dragon appeared - they sure did a wonderful job creating 'him'. I was impressed by the way he spoke, and the facial expressions that followed. Still the movie can't get more than 7 out of 10, being so cliche-heavy and not-so-thrilling when it comes to the human characters (though I have to agree with some of the other reviewers, that this movie is decent in the way it avoids splatter-effects and is remarkably un-blood-thirsty).

good movie

[JohRM79 · 7/10 · 29 March 1999]

This movie was rather good. It used technology to its fullest extent to make the Dragon realistic. However, this was one movie that should have used more character development, instead of relying just on special effects. the story was good, but it could have used a little more development. All in all, it was a good movie, and I enjoyed it.

Has a Soul of Its Own Due to Its Dominant Musical Score.

[tfrizzell · 14 August 2002]

Warrior Dennis Quaid and the last dragon on Earth (voiced by the excellent Sean Connery) try to take down evil Middle-Age ruler David Thewlis in this fun and impressive action flick. Dina Meyer, Pete Postlethwaite and Julie Christie all do good jobs in supporting turns. The greatest thing about "Dragonheart" however is its amazing score which is arguably the finest a film has ever experienced. The production's music raises what could have been a mediocre outing for all involved. 4 stars out of 5.

Entertaining fantasy movie with thrills , emotion and state-of-art special effects bringing the fabulous dragon to life

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 8 October 2018]

¨Dragonheart¨ by Rob Cohen boasts a fine cast as Dennis Quaid , Dina Meyer , Jason Isaacs and Julie Christie . Spellbound Dragon picture with overwhelming fights and sensational scenarios . This film blends witchcraft and wizardry , adventures , battles and is extremely fun and amusing . It is set in the 10th century , A.D. An upright knight , Bowen (Dennis Quaid), is the mentor of a rockie prince . Many years later , the young prince becomes a nasty King . Then , the one-time preceptor Bowen spontaneously meets a dragon named Drake (voice by Sean Connery) and joins forces a feisty girl called Kara (Dina Meyer) to vanquish the dictator King . Both of them unite a free-breathing dragon to defeat the villain King . As Bowen and Draco carry out a set-up to get money and collect a reward from the town or village that he protects , as he supposedly slays Draco and then by hunting the dragon who had been terrorizing them. From there, Bowen and Draco have to save the entire kingdom from the rule of the now evil King . They inspire the people to fight for their freedom and taking on a tyrannical ruler. All of them get together to battle and protect themselves from a ruthless King .

This is a big budget film with sympathetic performances , great characters and gorgeous scenarios .There's some slow spots but the enjoyable relationship between Bowen and Draco make for a fun pairing . The huge dragon does seem , well , real , thanks to the splendid work carried out by Industrial , Light and Magic's expertices as Phil Tippet , along with Kit Weist .This fantasy movie packs noisy action , witchery , fantastic events , sorcery , impressive battles and a little bit of humor . Likable performance by Dennis Quaid and a young David Thwelis as the villainous , evil-hearted King .The story has many familiar dragon motifs found throughout Western culture , in particular Saint George and the Dragon, in which maiden sacrifices were made to appease a harassing dragon. Saint George's tale also includes a sacrificial lottery resulting in the surprise condemnation of a princess , Saint George is also frequently depicted with a magic blessed lance or a sword . Smart screenplay by Charles Pogue dealing with fantasy medieval , dragons , necromancy , fantastic kingdoms and many other things . Entertaining and fun movie with acceptable special effects bringing the dragon to life . Work on dragons made by CG sometimes seem authentic , but is also noted its computer realization . It is entertaining and funny and with decent computer generator special effects bringing the dragon to life . The movie was produced in enough by Raffaella De Laurentiis (Dino's daughter) . Musical score by Randy Edelman is excellent and memorable . As well as a colorful and glimmering cinematography by David Eggby . The motion picture was well directed by Rob Cohen . It's a familiar film but is specially appointed to kids .

The picture belongs to Fantasy/Dragon sub-genre ; other important films dealing with Dragons are the following ones : the sequel ¨Dragonheart , a new beginning¨ 2000 by Doug Lelfer , a regular follow-up with little budget and average FX , including unlikely premise from the first part to be continued in a similar plot , there is also a last dragon and a young knight that dreams of becoming a brave knight in shining armor with Chris Marterson , voice by Robby Benson , Figueroa and Harry Von Gorkum ; ¨Dragonheart 3 The sorcerer's curse¨ 2015 by Colin Teague with Ben Kingsley , Julian Morris , Jake Curran ; ¨Dragonheart 4 Battle for the heartfire¨ 2017 by Patrick Syversen with Patrick Stewart , Andre Eriksen , Tom Rhys ;¨Dragom Storm¨ (2004) by Stephen Furst with Maxwell Caufield , Angel Boris , Tony Amendola and John Rhys Davies ; and other latter day movies and belonging to this Dragons sub-genre are ¨Reign of fire¨ (2002) by Rob Bowman with Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey , Izabella Scorupco , and Gerard Butler ; ¨Eragon¨ (2006) by Stephen Fangmeier with Edward Speleers , Robert Carlyle , Sienna Gullory and John Malkovich .

Great family flick

[Laitue_Gonflable · 7/10 · 7 September 2003]

Dragonheart is the sort of film you can watch over and over again because it's fun, it's well-made, it's even quite moving at times. It is such a winner because of the great fantasy storyline and the great fantasy characters.

The principle character is Draco, the last dragon alive following the massacre of the knight Bowen who turned to dragon slaying after a dragon gave half of its heart to then heir to the throne, Einen, to save his life. Unfortunately to Bowen it seems that the heart turned Einen from a good, brave kid into a remorseless, evil lord like his father.

It's your standard formulaic fantasy plot, essentially. Bowen is our brave hero, Einen our evil plotting king, and David Thewlis does a great job as the latter, he's extremely unlikeable. The twist is the characters along the way. Bowen joins forces with Draco the dragon and this is his 'heavy muscle' for the final battle. He is also joined by Brother Gilbert, a poetic monk who turns out to be a natural at firing a bow and arrow, and Kara, a peasant girl who has her own personal vendetta against Einen after he blinded and murdered her father.

Dragonheart is an excellent film for all the great characters it brings together, and its basically simple plot makes for basic simple entertainment. It's hard not to leave this film without a warm feeling inside.

Overall rating - ***1/2 / *****

Under-rated Dragons

[NathanWhite1981 · 7/10 · 14 October 2015]

As a child I'd go to my grandmother's house during the summer. She had bought this movie on VHS and my cousins and I would watch it. Then watch it some more and more. I'm amazed we never broke the tape. Dragonheart is, in my humble opinion, one of the best-ever dragon movies I have seen. So what if some of the plot is not 'believable'. It's a fairytale. So, when and if you watch/re-watch this movie, do so with an open heart. Top-notch special effects of the time and the inclusion of Sean Connery and Dennis Quaid, who performed their roles of noble dragon and despairing knight incredibly well. In my view, an amazing film, an amazing cast and an amazing result. This is a must watch and under-rated film in my opinion.

One of my all-time favorites

[SdrolionGM · 10/10 · 3 March 2001]

Ah, Dragonheart. I still love this film... I could talk about the top-notch special effects of the time and the inclusion of Sean Connery and Dennis Quaid, who performed their roles of noble dragon and despairing knight incredibly well...I guess I just did...but I think there's something else about this film that needs mentioning.

Dragonheart is an incredibly uplifting film. In a day when a lot of movies are chilling visions of the world around us, we need something to show us hope. Dragonheart, with its tale of a knight who lost his faith and a dragon who was trying to restore his honor, paints a beautiful picture of kindness, friendship, love, and sacrifice that never fails to inspire me. I am not a man given to displays of emotion, really...but the film makes me laugh and cry throughout everything.

And the soundtrack certainly helps. It is a textbook example of the proper use of a soundtrack to emphasize the plot and emotion. The beautiful "To the Stars" remains one of my absolute favorite songs. I can never listen to the soundtrack without seeing the movie happening again before my eyes.

Get the movie. And get the soundtrack. You'll love them both.

Not a lot of heart in this.

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 6/10 · 11 October 2007]

There was so much potential in the premise for Dragonheart. It could have been taken many steps further if the production team and writers genuinely cared about the film that they were making. Unfortunately, they weren't and could only be bothered in hashing together a quick and easy movie with no substance. I'm not sure what the pitch was to Universal but it seems like a bunch of C-list producers and writers felt like making Braveheart...for kids. Only with a Dragon instead of William Wallace.

The plot is so simplistic that it really could be accurately summed up as 'bad king nasty to villagers, knight and dragon help'. Whoa, slow down, man. I don't think I can comprehend so much in a small space of time. Rob Cohen is hardly an artistic director but the action and framing are below even his meagre standards. There are some nice shots here and there but the rest of the film looks incredibly fake thanks to the truly terrible production design.

When you take away all of that, all you are left with is a film with a CGI dragon. But in the 11 years since this was released the standard of such effects has improved drastically. Draco the Dragon looks just a little bit too dated, though he is still as cute and lovable as he always was.

The problems with the film extend even to the extras. It's bad enough that such talented actors are given such rotten dialogue to work with (why none of them requested to tweak it a little bit is beyond me) but I am assuming that no one bothered to give the villagers in the background any instructions before rolling. You have no idea how distracting it is.

Another potential thrown away is the religious element. I guess that no one involved in making the film wanted to offend any kind of faith and erased as much religion from the film as possible. It doesn't even clarify that it's set in Britain either. There are some flippant remarks to Camelot (conviniently just a few miles down the road from any point on the map) but almost the whole film was shot in Romania and the accents are all over the place, as usual.

The one, major, plus-point of the movie is Randy Edelman's glorious score. It's the only decent score he's ever composed in his entire career but it's simply amazing. Well worth hunting down the CD for, I assure you.

Dragonheart is just too tame and tepid to make any kind of lasting impression. There too many faults to forgive. It's better than Eragon, but nowhere near the beauty of Dragonslayer.

A tough one

[kipo05 · 5/10 · 29 September 2007]

This is a hard movie for me to rate, because when i was small I loved this movie, it was my favourite in fact but now that I am older and have watched it again it just wasn't the same.

I used to be amazed by the special effects and the acting but upon reflection there is very little to really like in this movie, that being said Sean Connery does some very nice voice acting here

So basically what I am saying is its brilliant when you are small so it is a good movie to watch with kids but its not very good on your own, this may be a good movie to buy just for a cheap thrill if you like medieval era stuff

A Film of Fantasy!

[angelsinjeans · 10/10 · 1 November 2003]

There are many fantasy films around today that show how far some people's imagination can be stretched. Loads of these films have the good idea, but the bad production making it a very poor film. This is NOT the case in Dragonheart.

For a film to be a success, you need to show as much goodness you have as well as badness. You need to have the equal balance of a nasty character that contains the exact amount of evil to comply with this.

In the case of Dragonheart, we have the evil King Einon, demonstrated by David Thewlis. A fine performance to show how much evil can be inflicted by the control of one heartless man.

Yet, in every film we have a hero, or in this case, 2. Dennis Quaid plays Bowen, a strong and faithful knight who lives in the service to protect others. Our other hero is the unlikely character of a dragon (Sean Connery and his lovely voice) named Draco. Between these 2 hero's, an alliance is made and they work together in hope of making peoples lives better.

The direction, the acting, the costume and the characters all fit together to make this film be, what I believe, an amazing success. I know not many may agree to this, but I think, when you look deep into this film, you can see the true magic that is brought alive by the relationship between these two characters.

In my view, an amazing film, an amazing cast and an amazing result.

A nice movie

[Bryan-15 · 7/10 · 19 August 1998]

Dennis Quaid seems like an odd choice for a knight who follows the strict code of chivalry but he does rather well. The dragon looked so real. Best movie dragon ever, better than any dinosaur of mutated iguana.

I thought when this was release it was a nice change for summer movies. We need more like this as they all provide great fun and well at some point have pictured ourselves as gallant warriors.

A Dragon's Loyalty

[peapulation · 5/10 · 4 April 2005]

This is another movie I cried for, because the ending is very effective but also emotional.

Now I have to say I'm not very fond of fantasy movies and yet there was something in this one that differed it from any other fantasy movie.

This movie also shows the loyalty of a dragon. Dragons in fact were meant to be pictured as very loyal creatures and the fact that in this movie they even shared their hearts with humans shows this.

This movie also displays beautiful sceneries, almost mystic, matching perfectly the plot of this movie.

There's something magic about this movie that definitely deserves a look.

Thubs up.

Go for the dragon, endure the rest

[Oorag · 18 January 2000]

In all, the movie spends its entire length saying "Stop watching for plot, or listening for good lines, or paying attention to the humans, just watch the dragon and wait patiently for him to return when he's not onscreen. We'll keep him visible as long as money allows, and tease you with off-screen cop-outs when we run out of money. In the end, when asked how the movie was, you'll say 'The dragon was way-cool!' and in doing so give it a favorable review."

So that's basically all you can do. The movie is just burning time with everything else besides the dragon. They take a super generic and flat script about a last dragon and something about half a heart and fill it with semi-name actors and vaguely familiar faces saying unchallenging and easy-to-swallow lines of dialogue in an effort not to offend you before the next dragon scene. The sword-fighting was of the "Swing at Each Other's Swords" school, but you aren't there for sword fighting anyway. The red-haired chick from Starship Troopers beats up the big blonde guy from the X-Files, David Thewlis sneers, Quaide grimaces. All you're left to do is wait patiently for Big Sean's voice to start booming, saying all the best lines of course, since he's the dragon and the audience is paying attention when he talks, and he does some dragonish things and generally shows off his computer-generated freedom. We're not expected to be interested in anything else, so everything else is uninteresting.

Needs more dragon, less annoying king.

[Aaron1375 · 6/10 · 10 July 2005]

Here is a case where they got good actors in Dennis Quaid as the dragon slayer and Sean Connery doing the voice of the main dragon, but the story really was not very good. It has its high points, but to many low as well. The story of a really annoying prince turned king who is evil and the knight who blames the evil portion of him on a dragon that gave part of his heart to save him is just not all that good. The highlight of this movie comes in the form of the fight between the knight and dragon and their subsequent teaming to help the dragon slayer make a little money. Then the movie goes south again as the dragon is captured and we have just a typical movie without the title character the dragon which makes for a very anti-climatic last portion of the film that ended about how you would expect it to. The effects are okay, not quite on par with a movie such as Jurassic Park, but the dragon looks real enough. I am guessing they tried to keep him out of the movie as much as possible to keep the costs down, unfortunately this hinders the film and it is not as good as it could have been. Still it is worth a look.

To the Point!

[CoolHand-4 · 7/10 · 24 March 1999]

This is a well made and very entertaining movie. Dennis Quaid does a very good job job at playing a "noble" knight and Sean Connery matches him with his voice as the last dragon alive, Draco. This is one of the few CGG movies that actually look like the graphic (in this case the dragon) is actually a living breathing part of the set. An outstanding job by ILM, and very good movie to boot. A solid 7 out of 10 rating.

This movie is 7 years old?! Still looking good!

[reelcrazed · 7/10 · 1 August 2003]

Saw this movie in the theater back in '96 and was highly impressed by the SFX. Rented it recently for my son who is into swords, knights and dragons and am still pleasantly surprised at how well Drago's animation has held up (especially with the major advancement of CGI and Digital animation these last couple of years). Kudos to Rob Coleman at ILM for his work!

I appreciated the friendship forged between Bowen and Drago. I also find it interesting that Bowen is a dying breed as well, just like Drago being the last of the dragons, even though he doesn't realize it.

Yes, the Americans acting in this movie have British accents that come and go at times, but I found them still pretty believable and real. I also found the humor in Drago's character refreshing and fun.

***SPOILER***

I had totally forgotten the part when he snatches up Dina Myer and is found later serenading her by a waterfall. And the "I only chewed, but I didn't swallow." comment (aimed at the Bill Clinton line about his marijuana use) had me rolling on the floor laughing!

***END SPOILER***

It is also fun to see David Thewlis and Jason Isaacs acting side-by-side, before their rise to notoriety (especially here in the USA) in the Harry Potter films as of late.

Rent this one or if you see it on the markdown shelf, pick it up, it's a definite keeper!

Nice movie

[sam_nas · 7/10 · 6 March 2002]

Here's my Dragonheart story. I had bought the Jurassic Park III dvd, and in it they had a free dvd offer and a list of 20 dvds to choose from. I picked Dragonheart even though I hadn't seen it, mainly because it had a dragon and I like special effects.

Anyways, so I received the dvd about 2 months later and I was very pleased. The movie is a combination of great special effects, funny moments, great dialogue and great action. I also found myself enjoying it even more when I watch it again. The visuals are outstanding. I think that the fact that they made it not as serious as let's say The Lord Of The Ring helped it. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously and I liked that.

Draco (the dragon) has a great personality, he's just cool. Overall I would say that there is more dialogue then action, so for those who are looking for simply action maybe this movie isn't for you. But personally I was never bored. Dragonheart is not a masterpiece but it is very well done and deserves to be watched. 8/10.

An entirely enjoyable movie by any standards!

[piacathrin · 10/10 · 27 May 2004]

Dragonheart is, in my humble opinion, one of the best-ever dragon movies I have seen. And believe me, I have seen a lot of them. Most are poorly made with lagging stories and characters you cannot get into. I found that was not the case for Dragonheart. Draco, the dragon, was in my opinion a gorgeous creature and it didn't make it worse that he sounded like Sean Connery. :) Dennis Quaid is always enjoyable, a gorgeous man with an infectious smile. Dina Meyer is lovely as Kara. So what if some of the plot is not 'believable'. It's a fairytale. Anything goes in fairy tales. Heck, that's what fairy tales are all about. Fantasy, imagination. So, when and if you watch/re-watch this movie, do so with an open heart and suspend your disbelief and analytical minds. This is fantasy in the truest sense.

Better than expected

[bgar-80932 · 7/10 · 14 November 2018]

I may have gave this one an extra star or so just because I thought it was going to suck. It didn't suck. It was pretty good. With this kind of film you have to expect some kind of cheese and it was there but still it was good. I thought I wouldn't be able to get past the dragon talking but Sean Connory (sp?) was actually pretty charming and you get over it fast. I certainly had some complaints but overall it was a good experience. I'd say the fighting wasn't great, some of the lines were a little more cheesy than they should have been, and the villain wasn't great. That said it was a good story of a former dragon hunter teaming up with a dragon to fight tyranny. It's no Lord of the Rings but it's worth a watch. Oh also the red hot was really pretty in this and that helped because she didn't give a great performance.

It has 'Dragon', but it lacks more 'Heart'.

[vip_ebriega · 5/10 · 15 May 2008]

My Take: Special effects are the driving force of this pedestrian, workmanlike Medieval adventure.

DRAGONHEART is a big budget, special effects-laden epic with some very neat CG the likes of those in JURASSIC PARK, perhaps even better. Thanks to CGI, the dragon here is no longer a clumsy puppet or a stop-motion animated character. The special effects creation here shows how fast special effects can progress over years and years of development. In terms of plot and characters, DRAGONHEART is only partial developed. The characters here lack more interest and the whole plot can't make it all good in the 103 min. running time.

Ironically, the most interesting character in the film isn't any of the human characters. It is the character of Draco, the CGI dragon which also features another great leap in special effects, it's voiced by Sean Connery. Given Connery's voice, the character is very interesting and screenplay gives him more interest than any of his human counterparts. His sparing with the human character Bowen (played by Dennis Quaid) is amusing, even if his counterpart isn't exactly as interesting as he is.

Other than Draco, the humans aren't very fancy. The hero, Bowen the dragon hunter, although played finely by Quaid (planting his tongue firmly in cheek), the script has not much to offer to him. The villain, played with a sly tongue by Brit David Thewlis, is practically an interesting character, but the script gives him less to do later. The great cast also includes Julie Christie, Jason Isaacs, Dina Meyer (from STARSHIP TROOPERS) and Pete Postlethwaite, all pretty good. The story didn't hold my attention for the entire running time. Perhaps its my lack of interest in the story that prevents it from getting into me.

DRAGONHEART isn't unwatchable, not to the very least, but I must say I didn't actually enjoy most of it. It has a number of fun scenes with Connery's voicing of Draco as well as some pretty neat action scenes, but it ain't perfection.

Rating: **1/2 out of 5.

For those who love dragons

[burgan6203 · 8/10 · 7 April 2005]

I have read innumerable reviews stating emphatically how "stupid" or "unrealistic" "Dragonheart" is. And, I suppose the largest fault this movie has is not going as in-depth into its own mythology as it could have(Draco being able to share his heart, and the like). But for me, it is great, for one big reason: I love dragons. I always have. I hate how they are always depicted as evil monsters in most fantasy stories(this would be Tolkien's biggest flaw in my opinion). And here is one where the dragon is noble and kind! Sean Connery, by the way, has just about the best dragon voice there is(Gregory Peck might be a close second).

"Dragonheart" may strike casual viewers(or the terminally unimaginative)as a silly, special-effects extravaganza; but, for people who love dragons, it provides something more.

A decent fantasy movie

[Matt256 · 6/10 · 16 October 2006]

If you like knights, dragons, kings and the occasional monk chances are you'll like Dragonheart. But the story is fairly diverse from the usual food chain.

A knight played by Dennis Quaid teams up with a dragon, (voiced by the ever notable Sean Connery) a poetic monk, and a wild peasant girl name Kara, to fight corrupted young King Einon.

The result is is a standard yet engaging fantasy flick with above-average special effects and a great musical score. Although its far from a masterpiece, and the acting isn't always completely convincing, that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching.

Poor Script and Lack of Consistent Tone Let Dragonheart Down

[ninjawaiter · 3/10 · 10 December 2018]

I adore fantasy, and I'm always happy when anyone takes a stab at it (pun intended), especially before the Lord of the Rings films and Game of Thrones TV show brought fantasy more into the mainstream.

That having been said, Dragonheart deserves credit for being a big-budget production with an excellent leading cast and (for their time) absolutely stunning special effects. It was also well-served by a brilliant and well-employed musical score.

Unfortunately, in my opinion the special effects don't really hold up that well. This movie was made 3 years after Jurassic Park, and rewatching JP I doubt you could make better effects today. With Dragonheart they did a decent job of making the dragon seem tactile (which is usually the biggest challenge), but the balance was that it came out rather cartoonish. It's possible this was intentional, but if so, it's another element of the film's inconsistent tone problem (discussed below).

I can overlook outdated or even bad special effects. I have a much harder time with poor scripting. I'm aware that they were trying to tell a big story in a short span, but some of the elements they try to rush through are really narrative-breaking. SPOILERS: In the beginning Prince Einon (Lee Oakes/David Thewlis) is summoned to witness his father's great victory over a peasant rebellion, and his teacher Bowen (Dennis Quaid) says there's no greatness in slaughtering helpless peasants. But when we actually see the fight, it's obvious that this is anything but an easy slaughter. The king has few men, they are completely disorganized, and the upshot is that this supposed 'easy slaughter' ends with the king being killed in the fighting. And then there's the 'great knight' Bowen, who forbids the prince to go down to the fight but isn't even competent enough to stop him from running off, or even to follow along and protect him so he doesn't end up nearly killed. Some knight! But further on in the movie (basically any time they're interacting with Kara (Dina Meyer)), they refer to the rebellion as a doomed slaughter. It's as if everyone has forgotten that even if the peasant's didn't ultimately "win," they did succeed in killing the evil king and nearly killing his heir! That's far from the complete failure it's presented as. These sorts of narrative-breaking things continue throughout the story.

MORE SPOILERS: Even though the audience is never shown Draco (voiced by Sean Connery), the characters are clearly looking him right in the face during the entire scene in which he gives the prince half his heart. Given that this appears to be the first dragon Bowen has ever seen, and that it moves him so greatly that he pledges his undying loyalty, one would think he wouldn't immediately forget what Draco looks like, to the point that after years of trying to hunt him down, when he finally finds him he recognizes neither the dragon nor his very distinctive voice. Better writing would have provided a reason for this, but Dragonheart simply expects us to accept that because they didn't show Draco to the audience, Bowen shouldn't remember what he saw either.

Even worse is the film's lack of consistent tone. It obviously wasn't intended to be grimdark, which is good. They're telling an uplifting narrative of redemption and heroism and idealism and friendship, and that's all to the good. But they're also trying to present a serious struggle, with evil bad guys we're supposed to take seriously and heroic good guys risking life and limb, which is why the film does itself such a disservice when it resorts to slapstick comedy, especially during what ought to be a dramatic fight between the dragon slayer and the last dragon, instead dissolving into a slapstick jokefest.

All in all, the story is over-simplistic, rushed, and inconsistent in details and tone, which unfortunately makes it rather disappointing.