The Dragon Series is a series of Picture Books by Dav Pilkey of Captain Underpants fame. They follow the small, domestic adventures of a small, blue dragon. Our protagonist, simply named Dragon, experiences all kinds of everyday adventures and deals with simple conflicts in his ordinary life. But no matter what challenges he runs into, Dragon's big heart and gentle nature always helps him find his way out in the end while also maybe learning a lesson or two along the way.
There are five books in the series, which do not need to be read in chronological order. They were originally published by Orchard Books, but Scholastic, the publishers of much of Pilkey's later work, would republish them in 2019. The books are:
- A Friend for Dragon (1991)
- Dragon Gets By (1991)
- Dragon's Merry Christmas (1991)
- Dragon's Fat Cat (1992)
- Dragon's Halloween (1993)
As happens with a lot of best-selling kids' books, an Animated Adaptation was produced in Canadanote . It was created by the Quebec studio Cité-Amérique entirely using Stop Motion animation, with the title character and The Narrator being voiced by Canadian actor and puppeteer Frank Meschkuleit. It aired on Treehouse TV from 2004 to 2007, running for a total of 78 twelve-minute episodes over 3 seasons. It also aired on Qubo in the United States.
For the Wuxia novels by Laurence Yep, check here.
The Dragon Series contains examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation: The Animated Adaptation adapts some of the original Pilkey books, but takes some liberties (some done in order to stretch out the runtime to 11 minutes). For instance, in the animated version of A Friend for Dragon, Dragon's "friend" is a rock instead of an apple.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Ostrich is a girl, but her coloration is only seen on males of her species.
- Animated Adaptation: The Stop Motion animation series produced in Canada in 2004, which aired on Treehouse TV and Qubo. It adds several new characters to Dragon's world.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: In the Animated Adaptation, Dragon has this. His meals are always strange combinations of food, like marshmallows in milk or cookies with mustard. Even in the original book, he eats applesauce and ketchup mixed together.
- Canon Foreigner: The cartoon series adds several characters who were not present in the books as Dragon's circle of friends, these being Mail Mouse, Ostrich, Beaver, and Alligator.
- Christmas Episode: The concept of Dragon's Merry Christmas.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Dragon's friend, Ostrich, from the Animated Adaptation. She views herself as a superhero and always tries to help others whether they ask for it or not.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: A Friend For Dragon is about Dragon's friendship with an apple that he thinks is alive. It's mainly comical because of Dragon's Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, but then a walrus eats the apple and the heartbroken Dragon holds a funeral for the apple and has a Heroic BSoD for what is implied to be months. Things do brighten up at the end when Dragon finds an apple tree, though.
- Companion Food: Dragon's friend in the first book is an apple, which he believes spoke to him, and he keeps the apple around and even takes it to a doctor. But he does bury his dead friend after it begins to rot.
- Delightful Dragon: While definitely a trouble maker Dragon isn't eating people or setting anyone on fire.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Dragon is a dragon named Dragon, and his pet cat is named... Cat. The other characters introduced in the Animated Adaptation follow this trend: Beaver, Mail Mouse, Ostrich, and Alligator.
- Fly Crazy: The episode "Dragon's Fly" from the Animated Adaptation sees Dragon trying to deal with a housefly bothering him. While he never tries to kill it, Hilarity Ensues as his various attempts to catch the fly end up causing more trouble for himself.
- Friendless Background: The first book of the series features Dragon's adventures to find a friend and being rejected by just about everyone.
- Halloween Episode: The concept of Dragon's Halloween.
- Heroic BSoD: After losing his apple friend in the first book, Dragon spends a long time mourning...long enough for an apple tree to grow in the grave where he buried his friend.
- Literal-Minded: In the Animated Adaptation, Dragon tries making a litterbox for Cat by putting a bunch of garbage in a box when told about them by Mail Mouse.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Dragon spends the first book on a quest to make friends and largely failing.
- The Narrator: Featured in the Animated Adaptation, provided by the same person who voices Dragon himself.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Averted with Dragon's friend Alligator from the Animated Adaptation, who is a laidback bongo player who just likes to take it easy and go with the flow.
- Nice Mice: Mail Mouse from the Animated Adaptation, who is always there to give Dragon advice and help him learn more about the world.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The title character, Dragon, is small, blue, and has a tail and spikes, but exhibits no other traditional characteristics of a dragon, such as fire breathing, flying, magic, or even hoarding gold. If you weren't told otherwise, you'd probably say he was a dinosaur instead.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Downplayed, since it's a kid's book, but a snake tricks Dragon into thinking an apple is talking to him and wants to be his friend, which he never realizes.
- Sssssnake Talk: The snake in the book speaks with extra S's.
- Stop Motion: The Animated Adaptation is animated in this style.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Despite Dragon spending the latter part of A Friend for Dragon grieving his friend, the book ends with him discovering an entire tree of new "friends" and a smile.
- Wily Walrus: A walrus eats Dragon's apple friend when Dragon asks him to look after the apple while he gets a drink of water.
