'My Father's Dragon' Review: Cartoon Saloon's Latest is a Beautifully Animated Wonder
My Father’s Dragon
PG: Some peril
Runtime: 1 Hour and 32 Minutes
Production Companies: Netflix Animation, Cartoon Saloon, Mockingbird Pictures, Parallel Films
Distributor: Netflix
Director: Nora Twomey
Writers: Meg LeFauve
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Whoopi Goldberg, Ian McShane, Golshifteh Farahani, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno, Chris O'Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming. Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, Mary Kay Place, Leighton Meester, Spence Moore II, Adam Brody, Charlyne Yi
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Netflix
Struggling to cope after a move to the city with his mother, Elmer runs away in search of Wild Island and a young dragon who waits to be rescued. Elmer's adventures introduce him to ferocious beasts, a mysterious island, and the friendship of a lifetime.
Cartoon Saloon has had an exciting winning streak that’s lasted over a decade. Since 2009’s The Secret of Kells, each feature the Kilkenny-based animation studio has produced is infused with hand-drawn 2D Celtic animation for top-notch fables. Their last feature, Wolfwalkers, sat at the top of my 2020 favorite movies list. Cartoon Saloon is one of the few animation studios that keep the spirit of 2D animation alive in a crowd of CG features. Their latest, My Father’s Dragon, may not hit the height of their last movie, yet it’s still another endearing banger.
Based on the 1948 children’s novel of the same name by Ruth Stiles Gannett, My Father’s Dragon centers on a young boy named Elmer (Jacob Tremblay) who once lived happily with his mom and the store they ran in their hometown. His world turns upside down when his mom unexpectedly moves them to an urban city where they go back to square one in a dingy apartment. A wedge is set between mother and son as Elmer’s unemployed mother is hanging on by a thread and Elmer wants things to be the way they once were. Unfortunately, they’re completely broke and he runs off after a big argument.
He meets a talking cat who tells him of an island where a mystical dragon and creatures reside. He plans to bring the dragon to the city and use it to generate some funds for his family. When he arrives at the mysterious island, he learns it’s full of talking animals that are stressed out because their home is sinking. The titular dragon, Boris, is young, sweet, and optimistic. The pair form a charming bond as they try to save the island.
Cartoon Saloon’s animation quality stands in a league of its own and My Father’s Dragon is no exception. Filmmaker Nora Twomey, who helped kickstart the studio, continues the trademark Celtic artistry of rounded shapes and symmetrical features to make its unique world-building pop. The backgrounds, primarily on the mystical island, are vibrant. My Father’s Dragon is so visually mesmerizing that I wanted to jump right into the screen. That’s how I feel about every Cartoon Saloon feature besides The Breadwinner, which is a bit too bleak for my liking. As far as character designs go, the array of animals who inhabit the island have a unique, welcoming appearance. Boris the dragon is the most wholesome and adorable character who might as well be ripped straight out of something like Dragon Tales.
Since I’m unfamiliar with the source material, My Father’s Dragon is heavily reminiscent of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are where a kid escapes to a whimsical land of creatures when life gets overwhelmingly rough. That said, I found myself more endeared to Dragon than the adaptation of WTWTA. The falling out that Elmer and his mom experience is heartbreaking and you find yourself empathizing with him.
The narrative is your standard animated movie plot—two characters must get from point A to point B while being broken up into set pieces and encountering different animals on the island—but it’s carried by the budding friendship between Elmer and Boris. They share my favorite character dynamic in media: an optimist and a pessimist being forced to work together. Elmer is young, but he’s placed in an adult position for most of their journey while Boris either goofs off or gets distracted. The voice performances by Jacob Tremblay and Gaten Matarazzo bring heart and sincerity to their roles, making their relationship shine. Their interactions make for some good comedy and hard-hitting emotional beats.
Though it’s meant to appeal to a younger audience, My Father’s Dragon elaborates well on the themes of fear and anxiety. Throughout the film, Elmer and Boris are chased by the gorilla Saiwa (a darn impressive Ian McShane), and his group of animals and they’re never painted to be antagonistic. They’re not rational by any means but their motivation is led by their united fear. Their island is on a ticking time clock, so everything they do is for the sake of survival. It’s one of the most nuanced aspects of the film that took me by surprise. Heck, I found myself stressed out alongside them.
As aforementioned, My Father’s Dragon is overly familiar. It hits every beat you’d expect a fable like this to hit. While it features a resounding maturity that helps it stand out, it doesn’t completely hit the heights of the studio’s previous entries. And that’s okay because it’s still a darn good family movie. Wolfwalkers was dark, so this time they took a lighter route.
Vibrant, endearing, and bolstered by strong voice performances from Jacob Tremblay and Gaten Matarazzo, My Father’s Dragon is yet another hit from Cartoon Saloon. Even though it’s geared towards a younger audience—more so than their previous projects—this Celtic fable is a gorgeously animated and earnest story about growing up and embracing the uncertainty of the future. It may not hit the heights of the studio’s past features, yet it’s one of the best animated films this year has to offer.
