Blazing Dragons

Blazing Dragons
Blazing Dragons cartoon series title
Genre	Cartoon series Comedy
Created by	Terry Jones Gavin Scott
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 PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996 by Crystal Dynamics. The video game features the voice talents of several celebrities.

The series' protagonists are anthropomorphic dragons who are beset by evil humans, reversing a common story convention. The series parodies that of the King Arthur Tales as well as the periods of the Middle Ages.

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, namely Toon Disney, were actually censored. Parts of episodes considered too overt such as Sir Blaze's sexuality, and minor swearing, were cut for American release as such matters are deemed taboo to American programing aimed at children.

Characters

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

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, yet it seems the only reason he's not is because Lounge-A-Lot typically takes credit for Flicker's heroic deeds. He's secretly love with Princess Flame though he is very shy about showing it. Flicker is generally smarter and more competent than the Knights, and is a Machinist far ahead of his time even though his inventions do not always go well as he planned.

Princess Flame: The daughter of King Allfire and stepsister of Blaze. Like Flicker, she also appears to be smarter and more competent then the Knights though on a lesser scale. She is somewhat of a tomboy and will go through great lengths to save her, the knights, and/or the kingdom such as fighting in a tournament. She has a deep crush on Flicker. In season one, Flame was purple-haired (although often concealed by a veil), 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 infatuated 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: Head Knight of the Square Table but, as his name implies, is an incredibly lazy knight. Loungelot loves gambling, sleeping, and most of all food, especially pastries (such as biscuit which he calls "bickies"). Loungelot rarely proves to be a useful companion in quests (though he is sometimes shown to be a good fighter) and often tries to get out of them except if it involves rescuing a damsel in distress or if threated/forced by King Allfire. Despite these shortcomings Loungelot is the favorite knight of the King and especially Queen Griddle. This is because he kisses up to her and invariably takes credit for Flicker's successes. The King and Queen, however, seem to be oblivious on Flickers actions and often credits Lougelot for the work. Flicker is his squire though he treats him more like a servant than a knight in training. 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 who is a monk). Loungelot is usually the cause of much of the knight's trouble due to his crass and selfish nature. His hair highly resembles that of Elvis Presley.

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. Like Loungelot, he doesnt seem to be enthusiastic about participating in quests, preferring to work on "home" activities such as dressing the castle walls. However, This is shown a on much lesser scale. He is one of the only three knights (the others Loungelot and Burnevere) who stays throughout the series. It is implied that he be a transsexual. Unlike the other dragons in the series (with the exception of Flame), Blaze has long limbered legs like a human rather than short stubby ones. No explanation is given on why he is the only dragon to have such a feature.

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 left-sided head, is upbeat and perpetually happy, whilst Clinker, the right-sided head, is alway depressed and sullen. The duo serve as the comic relief in most episodes. Cinder's side of the body is a dark green, and Clinker's is a lighter shade. Cinder has light-blue hair, and Clinker has brown hair.

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. His personality in the 2nd season also changes to be darker and more serious in tone to reflect his new appearance. 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. There are actually two within the show; The first is eaten by crocodiles in the second episode when Geoffrey pushes him into the moat, and is replaced with an identical evil spy.

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.

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

Voice talent

• Edward Glen as Flicker
• Aron Tager as King Allfire
• Suzanne Coy as Merle the Wizard
• Steven Sutcliffe as Queen Griddle
• John Koensgen as Count Geoffrey (season 1)/Evil Knight #1
• Cedric Smith as Count Geoffrey (season 2)
• John Stocker as Sir Burnivere/Evil Knight #2
• Dan Hennessey as Sir Hotbreath/Evil Knight #3
• Richard Binsley as Sir Blaze/Minstrel
• Stephanie Morgenstern as Princess Flame
• Scott Wentworth as Sir Loungelot (season 1)
• Juan Chioran as Sir Loungelot (season 2)
• Rick Waugh as Cinder and Clinker/Sir Galahot

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

Video game

Blazing Dragons
North American PlayStation cover art
Developer(s)	The Illusions Gaming Company
Publisher(s)	Crystal Dynamics
Distributor(s)	Mindscape
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Release date(s)	October 31, 1996
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 3+ ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults)
System requirements 1 memory card block

A video game based on the television series was created for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation consoles. 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 many 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 (the game starring former Monty Python actor Terry Jones) 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.

Cast

• Joseph Rye as Flicker
• Terry Jones as Trivet the Jester, Sir Burnavere, Uncouth Revolting Peasant # 1
• Cheech Marin as Sir George, Guido the Pizza Chef, Loudmouth Guard
• Harry Shearer as Dr. Zigmond Fraud
• Charles Adler as The Pied Piper, Hunter, Fisherman
• Michael Bell as Librarian Pureflame
• Jeff Bennett as Sir Loungealot, Head Guard, Sir George's Valet, Info Booth Receptionist, Angry Dancer, Frog Prince, Ant
• Gregg Berger as Sir Blaze, Ancient Al, Canary, Enchanted Pool, Monk # 2
• Jim Cummings as King Allfire, Chancellor
• Brian George as Simple Underachieving Peasant
• Jess Harnell Sir Gasflame, Sign Washer, Uncouth Revolting Peasant # 2, Monk # 1, Announcer
• Rob Paulsen as Mervin the Magician, Inventor of Baseball
• Robert Ridgely as Additional Voices
• Roger Rose as Sir Juicealot, Police Officer
• Kath Soucie as Princess Flame
• B. J. Ward as The Lady of the Lake, Rapunsel Yablanowitz

Basketball Team

Blazing Dragons is also the name used by the Chiang Kai Shek College Scout Basketball Team that emerged champions since 2006 to present (6 years and still going) in the annual Baden Powell Cup Basketball Tournament organized among Chinese-Filipino and other guest schools in Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is known as the only legitimate basketball team in the world organized based on the ideals of Scouting where players are guided by the Scout Oath and Law. It is highly competitive in many inter-high school leagues in the Philippines, particularly in the National Capital Region.

External links

TV series

• Blazing Dragons at the Internet Movie Database
• Blazing Dragons at TV.com

Video game

• Blazing Dragons at MobyGames
• Blazing Dragons (PlayStation) at Game Rankings
• Sega Saturn review at GameSpot
• Retrospective at Destructoid
• Retrospective at Hardcore Gaming 101
• News article from 1996 at Dailyllama

Chiang Kai Shek College Blazing Dragons Scout Basketball Team

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