Dragon Tales

Dragon Tales
File:Dragon Tales.gif Dragon Tales logo
Created by	Jim Coane Ron Roedecker
Developed by	Jim Coane Wesley Eure Cliff Ruby Elana Lesser Jeffery Scott Peter Moss
Starring	Kathleen Barr Eli Gabay Andrea Libman Danny McKinnon Jason Michas Ty Olsson Chantal Strand
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Original release
Network	PBS
Release	September 6, 1999 – Present

Dragon Tales is an animated children's television series chronicling the adventures of two children, Max and Emmy, and their dragon friends Cassie, Ord, Zak and Wheezie. The television series was created by Jim Coane, an Emmy-award-winning creator and executive producer. It has been shown on the PBS Kids Channel/PBS Kids Sprout and PBS in the United States since September 6, 1999.

Dragon Tales is based on illustrations by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator, Ron Rodecker. Coane, then a producer at Sony Pictures Television, found the art work and developed it into a television series with several other writers, including Wesley Eure. Coane and Eure share the development credit on every episode. Coane then brought the project to the Children's Television Workshop, now Sesame Workshop, where Marjorie Kalins helped him and Sony Pictures Television obtain a grant from the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Coane was the executive producer for the first two seasons, as was Nina Elias Bamberger from Sesame Workshop.

Overview

In the episodes, the children transport themselves to Dragon Land through the use of a magical scale given to them by a musical Dragon with the line, "I wish, I wish with all my heart to fly with dragons in a land apart," at the beginning of each episode. They are then transported back to their world by using the same refrain and the phrase, "I wish, I wish to use this rhyme to go back home until next time.”

In Dragon Land, the children meet up with their Dragon friends — Cassie, Ord, Zak and Wheezie (the latter two being two halves of a two headed dragon) — and their bilingual teacher, Quetzal, as they learn valuable life lessons, aided by the fact that the children are inexperienced with the magical flora and fauna of Dragon Land.

Show Structure

The series mixes in Spanish language elements to promote a bilingual experience for the audience. By incorporating parts of another language, the show appeals to a wider audience, as well as providing a new learning experience for children.

Each show is divided into three segments: the first story, a song, known as a "DragonTune," and the second story. Each story is approximately 10-12 minutes long.

Characters

Max

Max is a rambunctious and independent four-year-old. He's a bundle of energy with a big smile and is prone to sudden bouts of silliness. Despite being the smallest and youngest of the group, Max is determined to keep up in a big way. "I'm big!" he insists, ready to jump over the stream just like the rest of the crew. However, his small size does not allow him to succeed in all of his adventures. When it comes to Emmy, his sister, Max is her biggest fan. She's the one Max looks to for approval.

Emmy

Emmy is Max's six-year-old sister and the leader of the group. "I know what to do. Come on!" is her mantra. Emmy is brave, smart and good-natured. She is supremely confident in her abilities. She can be found marching into the Forest of Darkness without fear, even though she may be holding Max's hand to make "him" feel better. She usually believes that she's right and emphasizes it with her signature slogan, "Definitely!" Sometimes her over-confidence can land her and her friends in a heap of trouble. And that's where the learning begins.

Enrique

Enrique is Max and Emmy's next door neighbor. He is a six-year-old boy from Colombia who is being raised by his father and by his grandmother, whom he calls abuelita (grandma). He is smart, logical and bilingual. He had moved several times before and found it hard to make new friends. Once Emmy and Max reach out to him, they soon become inseparable, sharing fun adventures in Dragon Land. Enrique is a recent character that wasn't present in earlier episodes.

Ord

Ord is the largest, strongest, fastest, blue dragon who is afraid of almost everything. More than anything Ord wishes he could be brave. Ord has a badge that lights up when he finds a way to overcome his fears - even if his courage is fleeting. Like the other dragons, Ord loves to fly. When Emmy or the other dragons want to encourage their big friend, they point out that he once was afraid of flying and now he's not. Perhaps the one thing bigger than Ord's heart is his appetite and he can almost always be distracted by food -- his favorites are dragonberry pies, dragonberry muffins and dragonberry cakes. Ord loves his friends, especially Max, whom he affectionately calls "little buddy". When Ord is afraid, he turns invisible.

Cassie

Cassie is the little, lovable pink girl dragon. She's the 35th hatchling of 72 in her family - the typical middle child who strives to help everyone. Cassie is the first one to offer a bandage when someone gets hurt and is always ready to cheer up a gloomy friend. She is shy about expressing her ideas because she worries that she'll be wrong. When she's sad, she shrinks. When she's happy again, she grows back. Slowly but surely, Cassie is learning to trust her own instincts - even when others don't agree. She wears a dragon badge in the shape of a pearl which glows brilliantly when she gains the courage to speak up and believe in her own wisdom.

Zak and Wheezie

Zak & Wheezie are brother and sister–one body and two heads. Zak is the neat, orderly green brother; Wheezie is the wild, free-spirited purple sister. Because they're real music lovers, they make up a "one-dragon band"; they can even play scales on their scales! At times, their opposite personalities can lead to disagreement, but harmony returns when they learn to respect and listen to each other. They'll try anything to get away from each other in moments of anger--once, a magical chant that separated them; or an "Alone Cone", which isolated one head from the other--but in the end they're always glad to be reunited. Their musical-note badges light up when they can find a way to meet a difficult challenge–like getting along with each other. As with most brothers and sisters, they don't agree on a lot, but when they put their heads together, it's music to their ears.

Quetzal

Quetzal is a wise dragon who has been in Dragon Land for centuries. He is an expert on Dragon Land lore and is a great resource for Emmy and the others. As one of the older members of the Quetzalcoatl culture of Dragon Land (which is the same as the Mexican culture in Max and Emmy's world), Quetzal speaks with a Spanish accent and adds some of his native language to his speech. He's the teacher at The School in the Sky, gently guiding our cast on their voyage of self-discovery. His classroom is full of books, art supplies and surprises, including The Big Storybook - a fantastical almanac of sorts. Quetzal is the person the youngsters turn to when they need a grownup but the wise dragon never gives them a total solution. He just leads them to discover, on their own, the right path to take. He also has an identical twin brother, but he is barely seen on the show.

Lorca

Lorca is a red dragon in a wheelchair; he was born with legs that don't function, so he relies on his arm muscles to get around.

Other characters in Dragon Tales

Each of the following have appeared more than once:

• Cyrus, a lizard-like "slinky serpent"; he often tries to steal others' eggs to eat.
• Eunice, a nearsighted unicorn with glasses.
• The Giant of Nod, while much bigger than his fellow Nodlings, is actually smaller than any of the main characters; nevertheless, he's enormously strong.
• Mungus, a giant who lives in a castle in the clouds.
• Polly Nimbus, the operator of the Cloud Factory.
• Priscilla, a dragon with huge, feathery wings that make her feel self-conscious around the other dragons, whose wings are tiny.
• Sid Sycamore, a talking tree who loves telling lame jokes; the dragons' tree house is attached to him.

Places in Dragon Land

• The School in the Sky - The dragon kids' school where Quetzal teaches.
• Dr. BoobooGone's office - Where dragons go when sick or hurt.
• The Scale Store - Featured in the episode, "Wild Time" where dragon scales are sold.
• Dragoon Lagoon - A large lagoon seen in many episodes.
• The Forest of Darkness - A large forest that holds trees with glowing stars, but is very dark. Ord is very afraid of this forest because of its darkness and other things that inhabit this strange Forest.
• Turtle Rock - A large rock shaped like a turtle.
• Singing Springs - A gold fountain that plays music.
• Rainbow Canyon - A canyon with pigments that make paint.
• The Cloud Factory - Where a dragon named Polly Nimbus manufactures rain clouds, snow clouds, etc., and ejects them into the sky as needed.
• Snowy Summit - A frigid, snow-covered mountain range, where Chilly the Snowman and his snow puppy Nippy live.
• Stickleback Mountains - Another mountain range, with colored sticks that have to be pulled out carefully.
• The Crystal Cave - A giant, crystallized cave where special crystals dance, with the aid of water from Singing Springs, and some Dandelion fuzzies from the Dandelion Forest.
• Dandelion Forest - A forest made of dandelions that actually roar and growl and are as tall as trees.
• Unicorn Mountain - A mountain that is crossed in order to see the bursting blossoms.
• Wyatt the Wishing Well - A well where dragons or people can make wishes which actually come true if they flip a coin into the well. The well is inhabited by a purple walrus named Wyatt who laughs at lame jokes.
• Marshmallow Marsh - Place that has things that are sticky like marshmallows.
• Cassie's Cave (House) - Cassie lives there.

Literary and film references

There is an oblique reference to Dragon Tales in Michael Chabon's novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

Cassie, the Dragon Tales balloon float from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, makes an appearance in the Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky.

Trivia

• Series creator Jim Coane's children, Max and Cassie, are the source for two of the character's names in Dragon Tales. His wife Amy is the namesake for Emmy, another character in the series.
• In the episode "El Dia de los Maestro", Enrique teaches several Dragon Land friends a song, which they then sing at the Teachers's Day party for Quetzal. The song they sing, "Clap Your Hands", is a modified version of a "Dragon Tunes" song from an earlier season.

Awards

• 1997-1999 Emmy nomination for Best Animated Children's Series.
• 2000-2001 Emmy nomination for Best Animated Children's Series.
• 2001-2003 Emmy nomination for Best Animated Children's Series.

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External links

• PBS Kids: Official Site
• Dragon Tales at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Sony Pictures Television official Dragon Tales site (DVD Series)

References

• Coane, Jim (November, 1997). "Dragon Tales". Kid Screen Magazine. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)