How to Train Your Dragon is only the latest piece in a cultural puzzle that dates back thousands of years. How realistic are dragons, anyway?

“While other places have ponies or parrots, we have…dragons.”

When you think of modern day animated classics, the first projects that people tend to think of are the titans of Disney/Pixar. But under no circumstances should you sleep on the brilliant people at Dreamworks Animation who have their own share of legitimate masterpieces in the form of the Shrek franchise, last year’s brilliant The Wild Robot, and the endlessly impressive How to Train Your Dragon franchise. And when it comes to the central concept of that franchise, dragons, well…the folks at Dreamworks have done it about as well as anybody ever has!

Think about it. The use of dragons in storytelling far transcends the “pop culture” label. Forget movies, TV, and animation, there’s literature, mythology, and something in our collective unconscious that compels us to keep returning to the familiar imagery associated with them. While we usually associate dragons with a particularly European flavor of fantasy, if you pick any culture or society, you’ll probably find a dragon myth or story. That’s how pervasive they are.

Not only that, but they’re timeless! Some of the biggest franchises of not just the last century, but this century, prominently feature dragons. Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Game of Thrones, and yes, How to Train Your Dragon are proof that some old-fashioned concepts never really go out of style. Is it possible that with a slight evolutionary shift we could have ended up with dragons crowding our skies? And why IS the dragon concept so universal, anyway?

All this and more in the latest episode of Does it Fly? right here…

https://youtu.be/Ww84E8udLrA

SUGGESTED VIEWING

We based much of our discussion in this episode on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, specifically How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. We hadn’t seen the live action remake that’s currently in theaters at the time of recording.

But while we have your attention, we’d like to direct you to a nearly forgotten piece of dragon-related media. 1981’s Dragonslayer is a remarkably dark piece of fantasy from a forgotten period where Disney was experimenting with more adult themes in its work. It’s not quite Game of Thrones but there’s plenty of gore and some sexy themes that you wouldn’t expect. It’s also the rare dragon flick that’s genuinely scary at times!