Author Topic: Dragon's Lair: The Movie  (Read 1839 times)

SignOfZeta

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2015, 12:47:32 PM »
Oh, it certainly would, but that just makes it even more expensive.

geise

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #16 on: October 30, 2015, 01:56:06 PM »
Actually 3D is pretty cheap depending on what is needed.  Cheaper than compositing oldschool fx into a 2d animation like the old days.

I hope this uses no cgi at all.  I also wish this was for Space Ace and not Dragon's Lair, but I'm in the minority I'm sure.  After all there is only 1 Space Ace game.

elmer

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #17 on: October 30, 2015, 03:54:02 PM »
I mentioned this KickStarter to the guy that programmed the original Dragon's Lair arcade game (I've known him for many years).

Lots of interesting stories came out.

It's fascinating to be in a position to see how "history" gets made and documented ... there's usually a number of different perspectives.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2015, 05:48:27 PM by elmer »

geise

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #18 on: October 31, 2015, 12:29:50 AM »
I would love to hear some of these stories.  Been a huge Bluth fan since the 80's.

elmer

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2015, 05:05:08 AM »
Well, my understanding is that it was Rick Dyer's company that had the idea for the game (as an outshoot of their previous hardware projects), and that it was his staff that designed the game, and the characters, then came up with the individual "scene" ideas and storyboarded them.

Don Bluth then came along and did the animation and created the distinctive "look" that everyone loves.

After the game became popular, there was a very long lawsuit over who-owned-what (apparently Rick Dyer was young and naive and never though to protect his company's ownership of the rights).

*****************

As for the movie ... I'm not seeing anything in Dragon's Lair that's going to provide a story that I'd care to see, nor anything in Bluth and Goldman's previous works that makes me believe that they're going to come up with one.

Don Bluth is a really great animator, I love the "look" of his stuff.

But this project strikes me as coming out of the same "wouldn't it be nice to have people pay me to relive my youth" mindset as Mike Kennedy's RetroVGS.

SignOfZeta

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #20 on: November 01, 2015, 06:13:23 AM »
That's a pretty ridiculous comparison. You might not like All Dogs Go to Heaven IV or A Troll in Central Park (neither do I) but Bluth is an animation master with experience that is probably totally unrivaled on earth at this point. His movies surpassed Disney in animation quality, which is probably the only time that ever happened in going on a century. A lot of it is crap (the direct to video stuff) but An American Tail, Secret of Nimh, and The Land Before Time are legitimate classics. Seriously beautiful movies.

Mike Kenedy hit his head on the toilet and thought he invented the Flux Capacitor. He is a hollow person with nothing but a need to be loved and nothing worth loving. He's never done anything like...directing fifteen features.

BTW, leagilities and such aside, I don't care about Bluth's legal issues with the rest of the Dragon's Lair team. Maybe he did screw those guys, but here is the facts: the ONLY reason people played Dragon's Lair or Space Ace is because of the Bluth animation. The rest is terrible. All of it. If your friend wants to claim ownership of everything BUT the animation in DL...I don't know why he would do that. It's all terrible. Money, I suppose that would motivate. Everyone deserves to be paid for their work, but it's amazing anyone would want credit for the game play (a very kind term) in Dragon's Lair. 

elmer

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #21 on: November 01, 2015, 09:10:55 AM »
That's a pretty ridiculous comparison. ...

Wow ... did the time change cause you to get out of bed on the wrong side?

I'm not comparing to Bluth's accomplishments to Kennedy's ... there is no real comparison.

I'm comparing the mindset of some of us older-folks who want to go back 30+ years and get people to fund their dream of reliving it.

As great as Don Bluth's animation skills are ... that still doesn't make it likely that some large company is going to throw $70M-$170M at a movie-based-on-a-game-with-no-story.

If you want to give him money out of sentiment for his work, or if the KickStarter "rewards" appeal to you ... then fine, go for it.
But it's still just going to be $550,000 that gets spent and almost-certainly leads nowhere.

I won't disagree about the Dragon's Lair game either, the main appeal was Don Bluth's animation.

But if you weren't there at the time ... it was also an amazing piece of technology to see in an arcade back when it came out. There had never been anything to play that was like it.

You wouldn't have even had the opportunity to see that animation if it wasn't for the company that invested their money to pay Don Bluth and to make the game itself, because it wouldn't have existed ... and so it's a bit shitty for you to rag on those folks.

I was asked about stories surrounding Dragon's Lair ... and the legal issues are one of them. Sorry if it's not one that happens to fit your perceptions of Don Bluth.

My friend doesn't claim ownership of any of that stuff ... he was an employee, working part-time while at college and having fun, just like a lot of people back then. He doesn't get royalties, and he doesn't live in the past.

It was Bluth's desire to revisit the past that brought the whole conversation up.

DragonmasterDan

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #22 on: November 01, 2015, 12:03:38 PM »
Last I knew there was a Dragon's Lair LLC that Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Rick Dyer were a part of that owned the intellectual property to Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. If Rick sold his share to Don and Gary that's between him and them, but otherwise I'd suspect he has some involvement in this.
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elmer

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #23 on: November 01, 2015, 12:28:33 PM »
Last I knew there was a Dragon's Lair LLC that Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Rick Dyer were a part of that owned the intellectual property to Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. If Rick sold his share to Don and Gary that's between him and them, but otherwise I'd suspect he has some involvement in this.

"Dragon's Lair, LLC" didn't exist during the creation of Dragon's Lair. You can look at the original 1983 Dragon's Lair poster on Wikipedia and see the companies that were credited.

I'm going to guess that it was probably created as part of the eventual settlement agreement, but I have no way of knowing, nor do I have any idea of what Rick's current involvement either is or isn't.

It's all just old-stories and old-history.

DragonmasterDan

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #24 on: November 01, 2015, 07:22:02 PM »
"Dragon's Lair, LLC" didn't exist during the creation of Dragon's Lair. You can look at the original 1983 Dragon's Lair poster on Wikipedia and see the companies that were credited.

I'm going to guess that it was probably created as part of the eventual settlement agreement, but I have no way of knowing, nor do I have any idea of what Rick's current involvement either is or isn't.

It's all just old-stories and old-history.


I'm not saying they existed then. I was just pointing out last I knew Rick Dyer still had some rights tied to the series.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/company/85946-dragons-lair-llc

Their name was on some other merchandise especially that released around the time of Dragon's Lair 3D.
--DragonmasterDan

technozombie

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #25 on: November 25, 2015, 10:14:43 AM »

elmer

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #26 on: November 25, 2015, 11:42:22 AM »
It'll be interesting to see if they go for the "flexible funding" option so that they can just keep however much money they raise, even when it's lower that what they've said that they need.

This just doesn't look good, no matter how well-meaning they really are.

crazydean

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #27 on: November 25, 2015, 11:58:16 AM »
I would like to know the reasoning behind this. It looks like a cash grab. I agree with the article, though. There's no shame in going for a lower budget production. However, switching to Indiegogo makes me think this will never actually get made.
Arkhan: Im not butthurt by your enjoyment.  Im buttglad.

DragonmasterDan

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #28 on: November 25, 2015, 07:00:51 PM »
I would like to know the reasoning behind this. It looks like a cash grab. I agree with the article, though. There's no shame in going for a lower budget production. However, switching to Indiegogo makes me think this will never actually get made.

From what they've talked about, the bulk of the 550,000 they wanted was basically to hire a top tier screenwriter to write the revised screenplay, the rest being spent on the kickstarter rewards items, kickstarters cut and actually traveling to pitch the script (and short demo film that Don is doing himself) to studios and investors. It looks like unlike the "reach the goal or give up" kickstarter system they're looking to see how much they can get, and then get the best script they can for the money they raise.
--DragonmasterDan

DragonmasterDan

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Re: Dragon's Lair: The Movie
« Reply #29 on: December 01, 2015, 06:14:22 AM »
And this is back up as an IndieGoGo campaign with better rewards and more realistic goals.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dragon-s-lair-returns/x/8648830#/

I'd like to see him at least get the pitch off the ground. High quality traditional animation (especially in the West) is nearly a dead art and this may be a last opportunity for a bunch of old-timers to produce something great and train a new generation of animators in the future.
--DragonmasterDan