History YMMV / TheFlightOfDragons

** The title track, by Music/DonMcLean. Yes, THAT [[Music/AmericanPie Don McLean]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The whole soundtrack by Maury Laws, but particularly:

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:

** Ommadon's {{leitmotif}} perfectly conveys his evilness.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The title track, by Music/DonMcLean. Yes, THAT [[Music/AmericanPie Don McLean]].

* ActorAllusion: Creator/JohnRitter plays a gigantic yet soft-spoken fantastical creature, a role he would later play in his more well known role as WesternAnimation/CliffordTheBigRedDog.

* XanatosGambit: Ommadon swears he will 'make man his' rather than retiring to the Realm of Magic. In this epic monologue he outlines how he will influence mankind and the use of their science to make mankind destroy itself and the world of science leading to the rebirth of the world of magic with Ommadon as its ruler. This speech is overlaid with images of greed and avarice overtaking men, deforestation, starvation, and an atom bomb exploding. Ommadon swears this 'dark determination' on his red crown, which he conveniently lets slip is the source of all his power. Why would he draw attention to that? Cut to Carolinus and the other wizards getting a group of heroes together to steal said crown. This pulls in the modern day scientist Peter, an agent of 'Antiquity,' the setting's version of Fate. Ommadon has several chances to kill Peter outright early on which he avoids, most notably with Bryagh, who went out of his way to try to kill Peter by dropping him, instead of the many ways a giant dragon could kill an unarmed and unarmored scientist. Juxtapose this with how Bryagh takes out the entire party of heroes at the end and you can see he's holding back. Why? Peter needed to face down Ommadon. In the end, Peter denies all magic to 'defeat' Ommadon thus ushering in the close of the age of magic. Melisande leaves to follow Peter into the modern world, bringing Ommadon's red crown with her and promptly selling it to a pawn broker. Not only is Ommadon's mark on the mundane world apparent historically (industrial development, greed, environmental destruction), meaning he somehow survived and is influencing mankind as he had planned, now his red crown, 'source of all his dark power', is physically in the mundane world as well. How long before the Dark Lord is reunited with his object of ultimate power? By allowing the hero to 'defeat' him, Ommadon makes a clear break into the world of man to spread his brand of evil, just as he planned.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The title track, by Music/DonMcLean. Yes, ''that'' [[Music/AmericanPie Don McLean]].
* CompleteMonster: Both the BigBad and his ([[OurDragonsAreDifferent literal]]) [[TheDragon Dragon]]:

** [[{{Sadist}} Bryagh]] is Ommadon's crimson steed and a bloodthirsty sadist in the skin of a dragon with a mind for violence. Bryagh cultivated a rivalry with Sir Orrin that lasts into the present day when Orrin came afoul of Bryagh [[EatsBabies devouring a nest full of the eggs]] of [[MonstrousCannibalism his own kind]], resurfacing years later to aid Ommadon in destroying humanity itself and even trying to spitefully drop Peter Dickson to his death against Ommadon's orders. Bryagh relishes the prospect of having his legions "attack, demolish, devour, burn, and grind" his enemies, [[HeroKiller slaughtering the heroes]] one after another in the final battle and even pausing his assault solely to sadistically laugh in Orrin's face as he mourns [[spoiler:his fallen love Danielle]], [[spoiler:dying soon after in a MutualKill with the knight]].
* CultClassic

** Ommadon would have crossed it if his plan to spread his dark influence among humanity and making them fight each other until the entire Earth will be destroyed was succesful.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The title track, by Music/DonMcLean. Yes, ''that'' Music/DonMcLean.

* GeniusBonus: If one listens closely, one can hear that the words of the song with which Sir Orrin is attempting to drown out the Sandmurks are those of "[[http://youtu.be/BVdA9t-AOfU Sumer is icumen in]]" -- the oldest secular song preserved in English. (If you listen closely, you also notice that instead of using the Middle Ages melody, he matches his singing with Peter's to add to the effect against the Sandmurks. Sadly, it doesn't work.)

* FridgeBrilliance: How would Lo Tae Shao know that Carolinus' crystal ball failed, and then why suggest using Melisande's far sight ability just in time for the sand murks to drive her mad? Because it wasn't him. It was all Ommadon. He interfered with Carolinus' scrying, then sent a fake message from Lo Tae Shao, just to force the green wizard to drive Melisande mad by "accident."

* MoralEventHorizon: Bryagh had crossed this before the plot even started, as Orrin ran afoul of him while he was quite literally [[EatsBabies eating babies]] (more specifically, [[IAmAHumanitarian dragon eggs]]).

* SpiritualLicensee: Arguably, it's a better ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie than the actual ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie.

* SpiritualLicensee: Arguably, it's a better ''Franchise/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie than the actual ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie.

* SpiritualLicensee: Arguably, it's a better Dungeons & Dragons movie than the actual ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie.

* ContemptibleCover: The video cover makes the film look like a happy romping adventure, when it's actually a quite dark, violent and dramatic story. Carolinus's robes are also changed to purple to make him more visually distinct from Gorbash. The [[http://ring.cdandlp.com/musicolor/photo_grande/113856365.jpg UK cover]] is closer to the film's tone, though the art style is more realistic than the film.

** Sir Orrin's HeroicSacrifice would have had more pathos if he hadn't effectively narrated that it cost him his life at the time. Some would argue Sir Orrin's big speech beforehand added to the awesome and his parting words made his death even more of a tearjerker.

** The aforementioned [[{{Sadist}} Bryagh]] is Ommadon's crimson steed and a bloodthirsty sadist in the skin of a dragon with a mind for violence. Bryagh cultivated a rivalry with Sir Orrin that lasts into the present day when Orrin came afoul of Bryagh [[EatsBabies devouring a nest full of the eggs]] of [[MonstrousCannibalism his own kind]], resurfacing years later to aid Ommadon in destroying humanity itself and even trying to spitefully drop Peter Dickson to his death against Ommadon's orders. Bryagh relishes the prospect of having his legions "attack, demolish, devour, burn, and grind" his enemies, [[HeroKiller slaughtering the heroes]] one after another in the final battle and even pausing his assault solely to sadistically laugh in Orrin's face as he mourns [[spoiler:his fallen love Danielle]], [[spoiler:dying soon after in a MutualKill with the knight]].

* CompleteMonster: Both the BigBad and his (literal) [[TheDragon Dragon]]:

* EarWorm: The opening theme: "''"Flight of dragons... soar in the purple light... in the sky... or in my mind''"

* CompleteMonster:
** [[BigBad Ommadon]] the [[EvilSorcerer Red Wizard]], furious with his three brothers' decision to create the Last Realm of Magic, decides to see them die as his dark magic reigns. Ommadon eloquently describes his plan to [[TheCorrupter destroy humanity]], to infest them with greed and spite and make them turn against each other, driving humanity lower into their worst excesses until they all perish in nuclear war. Ommadon sends monsters and spells to destroy Carolinus's chosen heroes through madness, despair, and even the slaughter of the innocent, eventually opting to simply have his devil dragon Bryagh massacre them all with no relent. [[CardCarryingVillain Ommadon]] gleefully makes himself the host to the sum total of the world's evil to finally cow and destroy the scientist Peter Dickinson after all else who can stand against him have been slaughtered, believing that [[AGodAmI he himself is nothing less than the world]].
** The aforementioned [[TheDragon Bryagh]] is Ommadon's crimson steed and a bloodthirsty sadist in the skin of a dragon with a mind for violence. Bryagh cultivated a rivalry with Sir Orrin that lasts into the present day when Orrin came afoul of Bryagh [[EatsBabies devouring a nest full of the eggs]] of [[MonstrousCannibalism his own kind]], resurfacing years later to aid Ommadon in destroying humanity itself and even trying to spitefully drop Peter Dickson to his death against Ommadon's orders. Bryagh relishes the prospect of having his legions "attack, demolish, devour, burn, and grind" his enemies, [[HeroKiller slaughtering the heroes]] one after another in the final battle and even pausing his assault solely to sadistically laugh in Orrin's face as he mourns [[spoiler:his fallen love Danielle]], [[spoiler:dying soon after in a MutualKill with the knight]].

** [[BigBad Ommadon]] the [[EvilSorcerer Red Wizard]], furious with his three brothers' decision to create the Last Realm of Magic, decides to see them die as his dark magic reigns. Onmadon eloquently describes his plan to [[TheCorrupter destroy humanity]], to infest them with greed and spite and make them turn against each other, driving humanity lower into their worst excesses until they all perish in nuclear war. Ommadon sends monsters and spells to destroy Carolinus's chosen heroes through madness, despair, and even the slaughter of the innocent, eventually opting to simply have his devil dragon Bryagh massacre them all with no relent. [[CardCarryingVillain Omnadon]] gleefully makes himself the host to the sum total of the world's evil to finally cow and destroy the scientist Peter Dickinson after all else who can stand against him have been slaughtered, believing that [[AGodAmI he himself is nothing less than the world]].

* CompleteMonster: [[BloodKnight Bryagh]] is [[BigBad the dark sorcerer Ommadon's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent literal]] [[TheDragon dragon]], and stands out as the only wholly evil dragon in the setting. Seven years prior to the plot, [[KnightInShiningArmor Sir Orrin Neville-Smythe]] came across Bryagh [[EatsBabies devouring an entire nest of dragon eggs]], and was only stopped from slaughtering the last one by Orrin confronting him. Orrin grimly injures Bryagh, leaving the dragon to wallow in his own hate for seven years before returning to aid his dark master [[OmnicidalManiac in his ultimate goal of destroying humanity.]] Throughout the plot, Bryagh is shown to be a vicious {{Sadist}} in the skin of a dragon, described as having blood on his mind and relishing the prospect of having his legions "attack, demolish, devour, burn, and grind" his enemies, happily serving Ommadon so long as he gets his kicks out of killing people. He's initially tasked with capturing Peter alive and bringing him to Ommadon; however, upon being pursued by Gorbash, Bryagh drops Peter to his intended death for little reason other than to spite the heroes. In the climax, Bryagh ambushes the FiveManBand and [[HeroKiller proceeds to kill Giles and Aragh]], and tops it off by killing the archer Danielle, who was Sir Orrin's love interest. Bryagh only pauses his assault to sadistically laugh about this in Orrin's face while he mourns, before both off themselves in a MutualKill.

* ContemptibleCover: The video cover makes the film look like a happy romping adventure, when it's actually a quite dark, violent and dramatic story. The [[http://ring.cdandlp.com/musicolor/photo_grande/113856365.jpg UK cover]] is closer to the tone, though the art style is more realistic than the film.

* AnimationAgeGhetto: Averted and asskicked; the film is dark, serious, violent, somewhat scary in places and unusually metaphysical, while still able to be watched and enjoyed by children.

* ContemptibleCover: Unfortunately, the artist for the video cover apparently hasn't actually seen the movie, and thought the story was about a boy going on an adventure with a jolly wizard and a happy dragon...
** Averted when the VHS video was originally released in the UK - the [[http://ring.cdandlp.com/musicolor/photo_grande/113856365.jpg cover]] depicted a scene of Sir Orrin-Neville Smythe facing off against Bryagh (with other dragons in the background, presumably supposed to be their final climactic and mutually-destructive face-off), drawn in the same dark and more realistic art style of the film itself (although Bryagh was green on it, instead of having grey and black scales with purple belly skin).