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Its much-awaited sequel, Dragonheart: A New Beginning,
takes a completely different view of the world and is aimed
fairly and squarely at youngsters.
This will annoy a lot of adult fans but, for those of us
with young nippers, it will be just the sort of film you can
sit down and watch with them.
It's decades on from when Bowen, in his last year of life,
is given the last dragon egg in existence and he places it
in a monastery for safe-keeping.
Protected and cared for by the monks, the dragon is nurtured
in secrecy - which is all to the good because a prophecy comes
that a dragon's heart will cause the land to become ruled
by evil.
The new main character, apart from Drake the dragon, is Geoff
(sounding more like Joff, played by Chris Masterson) who is
a stablehand, but is training with a home-built fighting machine
to become a knight.
There's fat chance of that, however, as the addled king has
appointed Lord Osric (Harry van Gorkum) as chancellor and
the beastly chap is out to make it impossible for those of
Geoff's class to become anything other than peasants.
Van Gorkum is terrifically understated as a bad guy - particularly
for a knights and dragons movie - and the mysterious travellers
from the east (Henry O and Rona Figueroa) put in good, winning
performances.
In fact, the whole cast does a solid job and the ever-likeable/sensitive
Robbie Benson takes on the almost impossible task - that of
following up a role similar to that done so brilliantly by
Sean "I am the last one" Connery - and does a fair
old job with it.
On the audio and video front, the presentation is up and
down. The sound is very good, with music dialogue and sound
effects being catered for very well, but the pictures struggle
a little at times through poor compression in the transfer
to DVD. There is no widescreen available.
Dragonheart: A New Beginning is good for family entertainment.
Conclusion: Movie 80%, Extras 30%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
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