Blazing Dragons

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Blazing Dragons
BlazingDragons.jpg
Blazing Dragons cartoon series title
Genre Cartoon series
Created by Terry Jones
Directed by Larry Jacobs
Voices of (See article)
Country of origin  Canada
 France
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 26
Production
Executive producer(s) Stéphane Bernasconi
Michael Hirsh
Terry Jones
Patrick Loubert
Robert Réa
Clive A. Smith
Producer(s) David Beatty
Jocelyn Hamilton
Running time 30 min.
Broadcast
Original channel Teletoon (Canada)
Original run September 9, 1996 – February 16, 1998

Blazing Dragons is the title of a popular British cartoon series, the brainchild of Monty Python's Terry Jones. A coinciding graphic adventure video game was released for the original Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn in 1996 by Crystal Dynamics. The video game features the voice talents of several celebrities.

The series' protagonists are dragons who are beset by evil humans, reversing a common story convention.

Contents

[edit] Television series

From 1996 to 1998, Blazing Dragons was produced by Nelvana in Canada and Ellipse Programme in France. In the series, King Allfire and his Knights of the Square Table fight against the evil Count Geoffrey and his inept minions. It ran for two seasons consisting of 26 episodes in total. The cartoon episodes that ran in the United States were actually censored. Parts of episodes considered too overt such as Sir Blaze's sexuality, and minor cursing, were cut for American release.

[edit] Characters

Knights of the Square Table clockwise from upper left: Sir Galahot, Sir Loungelot, Sir Burnevere, Sir Blaze, King Allfire, Sir Hotbreath

[edit] Dragons

Squire Flicker: The main character of the series, a squire under Sir Loungelot, he happily accepts any task his master gives him. Flicker longs for the day he'll become a Dragon Knight himself. He is in love with Princess Flame. Flicker is generally smarter and more competent than the Knights, and is an inventor far ahead of his time.

Princess Flame: The daughter of King Allfire and stepsister of Blaze. She returns Flicker's feeling of love. In season one, Flame was purple-haired, but in season two, she became a blonde. Her role seemed to diminish in season two.

King Allfire: King Allfire is the king of Camelhot, the head of the Knights of the Square Table, and married to Queen Griddle. King Allfire is also wielder of the legendary sword Excaliburn, but rarely uses it since he is semi-retired from fighting.

Queen Griddle: The second wife of King Allfire. She is the daughter of the gigantic Queen Mum, and is infatuted with Sir Loungelot. Griddle is also very short-tempered, and tends to get violent when angry. Due to her robustness, she is often the butt of many fat jokes.

Sir Loungelot: An incredibly lazy knight whose squire is Flicker. He treats Flicker more like a servant than a knight in training, but Loungelot is the favorite knight of Queen Griddle. This is because he kisses up to her and invariably takes credit for Flicker's successes. Loungelot is the son of the Lady of the Lake (something he is not proud of since she nags him constantly and talks about his choir boy brother). Loungelot loves gambling, sleeping, and most of all food, especially pastries (such as biscuits which he calls "bickies"). Loungelot is often the cause of much of the knight's trouble due to his crass and selfish nature.

Sir Blaze: Sir Blaze, "The Smartly Dressed", is the flamboyant and effeminate son of Queen Griddle and the stepbrother of Princess Flame. Blaze is unusually energetic, and is described as having amazing panache. He is one of the only three knights (the others Loungelot and Burnevere) who stays throughout the series.

Sir Burnevere: Sir Burnevere, "The Overly Educated", is a plucky hero with a Scottish accent and a tendency to use large words none of the other knights understand. Burnevere appears to be the oldest and wisest of the knights and often screams "Hoot McGregor!" when something bad happens to him. Burnevere is actually linked to the Scottish royal family, but turned down the throne at the thought of being surrounded by all his relatives.

Sir Galahot: Sir Galahot, "The Proper" is a large and imposing knight of the Square Table and the first knight to be introduced. He only appears in season one.

Sir Hotbreath: Sir Hotbreath, "The Not So Proper", is a short knight who has many ideas. Unfortunately he often ends up torching everything near him due to uncontrollable outbursts of fire-breathing burps. Like Sir Galahot he only appears in season one.

The Wandering Minstrel: In season one, The Minstrel introduced and closed out most episodes with a short verse or song related to the content of the episode. While breaking the fourth wall in Knights and Knightresses, Flicker remarks that he "thought he was just a background character who served as mere bridges between the scenes". In the second season, due to the shorter episode lengths, The Minstrel only appeared in the episode Shamrocks and Shenanigans as a secondary character, explaining that he was fired from Castle Camelhot.

Cinder and Clinker: A two-headed Dragon jester. Cinder, the right-side head, is alway depressed and sullen, whilst Clinker, the left-sided head, is upbeat and perpetually happy. The duo serve as the comic relief in most episodes. Cinder's side of the body is a light green, and Clinker's is a darker shade.

[edit] Humans

Count Geoffrey: The principal bad guy of the series, Geoffrey styles himself Dread Count Geoffrey de Bouillon, Oppressor Par Excellence of the Poor and Weak. His appearance changes from a purple knight's armor and red hair in season one to silver knight's armour with a dragon skull helmet and black hair in season two. Owner of Threadbare Castle, Geoffrey is always coming up with sinister "plans" to relieve the Dragon Knights of Castle Camelhot.

Evil Spy: An agent of Count Geoffrey dressed up in a purple dragon costume to infiltrate the Dragon Knights. His presence within the Dragon Knight ranks, usually while sensitive strategy is being discussed, never seems to be questioned by the other dragons, even though the costume is quite conspicuous.

Merle the Wizard: Merle the Wizard is a short, wise-cracking female magician who fits the stereotype of a witch much more than that of a wizard. She speaks with an American accent and often claims to have visited the future. When Count Geoffrey needs that extra edge in his fight against the Dragon Knights, Merle is often called upon and appears from a cloud of purple smoke.

Evil Knights #1, #2, and #3: The bumbling henchmen of Count Geoffrey. #1 is medium height, fat, and has a bushy mustache. #2 is short and skinny with a long pointy nose, and speaks in an Italian accent. #3 is muscular, bald, and appears to be the stupidest of the three. It is possible the trio are brothers, since #3 mentioned his mother in the sense she was mother of them all.

Peasants: Count Geoffrey is always exploiting the peasants of the village for either tax money or using them in some manner of slave labour such as catapult ammunition, or as human columns to hold up the ceiling of his crumbling castle.

[edit] Episodes

Season 1

  • The Quest for the Holy Quail
  • A Gift for Griddle
  • Tournament Day
  • Excaliburn
  • Newt for a Day
  • Knights & Knightresses
  • Merle's Mirror
  • Renaissance Dragon
  • Robbing Hoodlum
  • The Stone of Wisdom
  • Hermits & Heroes
  • Sir Hare
  • Bleepin' Beauty

Season 2

  • A Killer Makeover / The Age of Retention
  • The Lost Ruby Hat of Omar the Ham / Achy Breaky Mace
  • Shamrocks and Shenanigans / Three Dragons and a Baby
  • King for a Day / Erik the Well-Read
  • Chain Mail Letter / You Dim Sum, You Lose Some
  • Excalibroke / Infernal Flame
  • MacBreath / Attila's Hot Buns
  • The Isle of Dwight / Ice Try
  • Single Green Dragon / Sphinx Jinx
  • Griddle's Sleepless Knights / Whine & Roses
  • The Reign in Spain / Geoffrey's Evil Pancakes
  • The Golden Thimble of Theodora / Seven Dragon Sins
  • Quest to Success / Slay the Dragon

[edit] Voice Talent

[edit] Selected Credits

  • Concept Created by: Terry Jones, Gavin Scott
  • Executive Producers: Terry Jones, Robert Rea, Stephane Bernasconi, Patrick Loubert, Clive A. Smith, Michael Hirsch
  • Produced by: Jocelyn Hamilton
  • Directed by: Lawrence Jacobs
  • Voice Director: Dan Hennessey
  • Animation Supervisor: Mark Petlock
  • Music Score by: Amin Bhatia
  • Theme Song by: Pure West

[edit] Video game

A video game based on the television series was created for the Sega Saturn console. In a twist on the legend of King Arthur, the player controls Flicker, who lives in Camelhot castle and is in love with Princess Flame, but is not eligible to ask for her hand in marriage because he is not a knight. However, the King has announced a dragon tournament, where the winner will not only win the princess but also become the new king.

As a young Flicker, the player must collect various objects and interact with an eccentric cast of dragon and human characters in order to solve puzzles. The player's overall quest is to become a dragon knight to compete in the grand tournament and win the heart of Princess Flame. However, the player discovers an evil human plot to take over the kingdom by kidnapping the princess.

As is the case with other graphic adventure games, the player can never die in the game or reach a point in the game where a puzzle cannot be solved. The humour in the game is heavily influenced by the British comedy of Monty Python and thus includes plenty of mild sexual innuendos, and other shenanigans.

While the video game leaves open the possibility for a sequel, no sequel for the game was planned.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Dragons"