Firebreather (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Humans vs. Kaju... But something was missing...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 6 June 2012]

Not being one to turn away from animated movies, I sat down to watch "Firebreather" with no particular expectations, as I had no idea what the story was or who did the voice acting.

My initial impression of the movie is that the graphics were fairly "sterile", in lack of better words. The animators had skipped on minute details, and there was a sense of work in progress to the background most of the time. Now, that being said, I am not saying that the movie wasn't nicely made, because the graphics did look cool, I just personally could have used more details in the backgrounds and scenery.

The story is about Duncan, who stands out in a crown because of his orange-tinted skin and scale-like texture on his skin, trying to fit into the new school and community where he just moved with his mother. Upon being bullied at school, Duncan discovers that he is able to breath forth fire, and that sets things into escalation, and Duncan finds out the truth about who his father really is.

There is a lot of action in "Firebreather", but the story is also nice in the aspect of having to find your place even when standing out in a crowd, plus there was also a side story of love and friendship. However, the main storyline, or at least what they put the most effort into, was the situation between humans and the Kaju. The subplots were skimmed only, not really given the proper attention to flesh them out in a satisfying manner.

Personally, I wasn't overly impressed with "Firebreather", as there are far better animated and far better story-driven animations available. But I am sure that "Firebreather" will appeal greatly to boys in the age 6 to 12.

Superhero for the Teen Angst Generation

[brooklynsweb · 5/10 · 18 December 2010]

Stumbled upon this flick by accident while reading reviews of other animations in a similar genre. I'll make this short and sweet. The pros of the movie is the CG graphics, the cons also include a super simplified and sometime barely evident history of each character and the under-developing of pretty much everything.

This is a good Saturday morning time killer or in general a snack for those who want some action vs. elongated dialogs between villains and heroes. Think of this analogy; Watching Firebreather is like playing Need For Speed Underground vs. Gran Turismo.

The common denominator I would say is the young superhero and the giant monsters. Fans of teen hero series such as Teen Titans, Young Justice and Batman beyond, as well as appreciators of the classics such as King Kong, Ultra Man, and (dare I say) the Power rangers may also enjoy this animation.

Nothing special but overall fun to watch.

My dream film on the small screen: Superhero + Kaiju

[kevinxirau · 7/10 · 6 March 2017]

As I was feeling nostalgic about past entertainment, one film suddenly came to mind and it was called "Firebreather". It's an animated adaptation of a comic series that premiered on Cartoon Network in 2010 which combined superhero antics with giant monster fun. Plot: The war between humans and kaiju ended thanks to the union of kind-hearted Margaret and dragon-like king Belloc, resulting in not only a truce but a hybrid child named Duncan. Duncan tries his best to fit into his new school despite his unusual traits, becoming almost an outcast but managing to make some friends as well. His peaceful life, however, gets interrupted when his dad Belloc shows up wanting him to be the heir to the throne, which causes other kaiju to attack the kid for the right to succeed their king. With tensions between the two races already tense, Duncan struggles to retain his humanity while fighting off the giant-sized foes.

For a film made for TV, the animation is actually praiseworthy with nice fluid movements with maybe one or two slight errors. Character designs look basic from a distance, but a closer look reveals minute details such as Duncan's scales. The fire effects, an essential part of the character, are especially beautiful to look at. The hero's beast form is awesome and the kaiju sport unique designs that make them stand out from other film giants like Godzilla, not to mention the animation really emphasizes their massive size. The action scenes, supported by appropriate rock music in the background, are fantastic, taking advantage of the difference in scale between characters and are not afraid to get a little brutal once in a while (seriously, quite a few people die). The characters are good for the most part with distinct motivations+backstories and are played by great voice actors; Duncan is a good protagonist being a guy trying to figure out how he fits in the world (which I can relate), his mother Margaret is loving and doesn't take crap from anyone, and father Belloc is tough and strict but ultimately does care for his family. The rest of the cast are fine by comparison. Some characters do have dilemmas that make for some interesting and well-done drama. If I have one noteworthy criticism it's that there are a couple of subplots/details that don't really go anywhere and it does feature a few high school clichés (which take a minority of the film).

It would seem that this movie came out too early and faded into obscurity, otherwise with both superhero and kaiju films now in fashion, this movie would most likely get greater recognition and perhaps spawn a larger franchise. I think it would have made a great TV series, but perhaps a remake may reignite Firebreather's spark. Bottom line, this is an entertaining, underrated film and I feel that it deserves more praise.

How to Train Your Inner Godzilla Meets the Incredibles while Meatballs Do Explode at Highschool

[pontram · 23 April 2011]

Entertaining, fast and effective, Firebreather turns out to be a Incredible's wanna-be for all of us who enjoyed the great superhero family-saga, as we are desperately waiting for a sequel. Though Firebreather isn't that sequel, it gives a taste of what could be. Of course there is the budget question, The Incredibles were made with some 92M$ for the big screen, what the little descendant took on expenses we can only assume...maybe 5-8 M$ ?

Well, it doesn't look cheap, on the contrary, the last 7 years in computer progress enabled CGI artists to produce good-looking 3d animations for a fraction of their previous cost. And this movie is an impressive showcase for decent Cartoon Networks's production abilities. If this is what we have to expect in the future, I appreciate that.

What Firebreather lacks, compared with the big predecessor, is story innovation and likable characters, its a mixture of the Movies mentioned in my Headline:

The Incredibles for some kind of family issues, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for some CGI gymnastics and the town environment, How to Train your dragon for the father/son relationship and action movements, and Godzilla for the size and speed of the monsters.

Of all comics out there - and there are many good comics - I would not expect Firebreather to manage coming to cinematic life, and the second lack is that this Comic is not exactly well-known all over the world, so it left me a bit alone puzzling about the world it takes action in. It's a bit like these Manga stories which are about a future not too far, but far enough from us for energy weapons and other gadgets, and near enough to show a very current non-changed school system. People in this world are actually afraid of those huge Kajin Dragons, but not so much that they would talk about them all the time, so, maybe they became familiar with those violent beasts.

OK, one day, 16 years ago during a war between dragons and humans, our Hero's Mother rescued a complete town by facing the King of the Kaju (not exactly Japanese, but likely) Dragons, and while she faced him, they fell both in love and the result is their son, Duncan. It seems that the 300 ft father was not really the family guy type of a father, so he may have been disappeared for political reasons, and left the mother with their son alone. Only to come 16 years later and to ruin his son's poor attempts to find a place in his new high school. It turns out that the father has some plans for his half bread descendant, and Duncan has to fight against his father's will, his nature, other Kajun and, important enough, Highschool ignorance.

These are the provisions, and the movies tries hard to add some humor and to be be all things to everyone, but in some cases it fails. For example, when a 300 ft Dragon mates with a 5 ft woman, what's like it ? - There's a little funny dialog, where Duncan's mother does want to reveal details about that, but Duncan disagrees about the necessity. So we don't hear anything about intercourse between Dragon and humans, let alone DNA compatibility. It remains a magic secret.

Besides the few minor glitches the movie is absolutely watchable, full of amazingly nice rendered action and never boring, it tries even to bring in some new insights, like killing your enemies may not be the wisest decision. All things considered - well done.

This would have been an interesting animated series

[Rectangular_businessman · 6/10 · 13 December 2012]

"Firebreather" was a decent animation.

I have to say that I never read in the comic books in which this was apparently inspired, but I found this to be worth-watching.

This animated television movie was directed by Peter Chung, the creator of "Æon Flux", and while "Firebreather" wasn't visually impressive or original as that series, it had a decent level of entertainment value, with an interesting aesthetic and likable characters.

Even when this movie had some of the typical clichés that could be expected from a teen superhero story, it was funny to watch anyway. This could have been a very interesting animated series. I would have liked to see what kind of plot and character development "Firebreather" could have.

A good animation that doesn't make any sense.

[XueHuaBingYu · 7/10 · 7 June 2019]

Firebreather can be said that a good animation. But it's not a great one. Mostly because of a fact that doesn't make sense. A child born with a dragon? I can understand that they wanted to create a character with the ability to produce fire, but it's not the perfect way to do it. If you think carefully, its not possible. How can a woman can have a child with a dragon? It entirely doesn't make any sense.

Except for this fact, Firebreather is kind of a good animation. If they could do something that makes sense, it'd be better than this.

Ehhm... Not sure what to make of this

[Micke_Eriksson · 5/10 · 1 November 2023]

I enjoy the occasional animated movie here & there. Not as often nowadays as I'm getting older and I shouldn't say wiser, but seasoned in lack of a better word - I've seen lots of movies, so you sort of expect certain things from the creators.

This movie had very little of those elements, such as a proper backstory, continuity (Lots of scenes missing, and it felt rushed) and some things left unexplained (and then some!).

The animation I think is made possible with some type of game-engine. This probably saved the budget a lot, and it shows. It lacks details and movements are very crude and unnatural in some scenes.

What kept me wondering throughout the whole movie was how he was conceived. This was almost told, but no. I kept thinking that perhaps Belloc was able to take on a human shape and size, but it would appear that wasn't able to as it wasn't neither mentioned or otherwise hinted.

I keep thinking of tent and its bag - If the tent is too big - You get where I'm going with this.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought of this, Maybe not the analogy with tents, but with the obvious proverbial elephant in the room, so to speak.

As others here mention, the action is so-so, not good, nor bad. Average, and the story in itself is not new. Boy finds out he's special, there are bad antagonist elements, long lost dad's to the rescue/aid, bada bing, a few scenes later everyone's happy, The End.

It's no Avatar, that's for sure.

Firebreather

[WeAreLive · 10/10 · 22 October 2017]

I came round to seeing this movie today when I was traveling back from with my parents Lancaster in the car but the internet froze but I managed to complete it at home.

This movie was very heartwarming and action-packed. It is very similar to Wolf Children (an anime movie) the only difference is that Duncan's dragon dad was still alive and so was the human mother. It is about how Duncan handles school life and if he had the choice would he be a human or a dragon.

My favorite scene was where they were in science class and Duncan acts awkward in the class and when Duncan defeats Troy at dodge ball.

Overall it was a great movie and it would have made a hell of a good series today if Cartoon Network had bothered instead of crap like Problem Solverz, Clarance, Uncle Grandpa and Teen Titans Go!. Don't watch those shows this movie is 2000 times better. Trust me.

great

[adeel-30222 · 8/10 · 5 February 2022]

Fire breather's story revolves around high school boy Duncan who's half kaiju and human. This is anhigh scool rom-com action where our main character is a badass! Just like animes. So like almost every fire breather fan, I watched this first time on cartoon network and I re watched it yesterday so I could write a fresh review. So this movie is just totally FIRE! I don't know how it's at 6.2 rating on imdb but imo, it's one of the best cartoon network originals. The soundrack is the heart of this movie but it's overused in the movie. Overrall, the movie's no groundbreaking thing but a absolute fun watch!