"A dragon's heart could doom mankind when a two-tailed comet blazed across the night sky."
— Mansel
Dragonheart: A New Beginning is a 2000 Medieval Fantasy Adventure film by Universal Pictures, directed by Doug Lefler and written by Shari Goodhartz. It's the direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 film, Dragonheart geared towards a younger audience, it features a new dragon named Drake (voiced by Robby Benson).
In the final year of Sir Bowen's life, he returned to the cave where he first met Draco — and discovered a dragon egg. Bowen put the egg in the care of Gilbert's monastery, where it hatched into a young dragon named Drake. Drake is cared for by a friar (John Woodnutt) and the novice Mansel (Matt Hickey) in secret for 20 years until he is one day discovered by Geoff (Christopher Masterson), an orphan stableboy who dreams of being a knight. Meanwhile, a pair of travelers (Henry O and Rona Figueroa) arrive from the East, searching for a dragon they believe has been born. A prophecy says an ancient evil will take hold of the land using a dragon's heart when a two-tailed comet soars across the sky. The comet is just days away, and they intend to prevent evil from happening. At the same time, the king's new chief advisor Lord Osric (Harry Van Gorkum), becomes interested in Geoff and Drake once he discovers their friendship.
Dragonheart: A New Beginning contains examples of these tropes:
- Action Girl: Lian's Waif-Fu skills enable her to take out several opponents on her own.
- And Starring: The cast roll here ends with "and Robby Benson as Drake".
- Award-Bait Song: "My Heart Goes With You
", sung by Rona Figueroa, the actress who plays Lian. - A Boy and His X: A stable boy and his young dragon.
- Breath Weapon: Fire and ice this time.
- Catch a Falling Star: When Geoff gets pushed off a cliff, Drake (who was previously hidden) reveals himself and takes flight, catching Geoff just before he hits the rocks below.
- Chekhov's Skill: Drake tries to learn the forgotten dragon art of breathing ice but fails. Naturally, he manages to pull it off at the climax during the final battle, which comes as a surprise to Griffin.
- Chemically-Induced Insanity: The king's apparent senility proves to be caused by the Big Bad giving him drugs.
- Color-Coded Castes: Lord Osric introduces a law that requires everyone to wear tunics of different colors based on their station in life. After being made a protector of the kingdom, Geoff gets to trade his peasant's green tunic for a nobleman's red one.
- Color Me Black: This was attempted on the Big Bad before the events of the movie. It utterly failed, and the dragon in human form is still hellbent on genocide.
- Comet of Doom: A prophecy says that an ancient evil will take hold of the land using a dragon’s heart when a two-tailed comet appears in the sky.
- Covered in Mud: At one point, The Rival Roland trips and gets a face full of stable mud.
- A Dog Named "Dog": "Drake" is a term meaning "(small) dragon," or certain (small) types of dragon, justified as humans who don’t know the dragon language raised and named Drake.
- Delightful Dragon: Drake is very innocent, friendly, kind, and protective of his friends. He is also initially a bit inexperienced about the world because the monks raised him in secret.
- Dragons Are Demonic: It's exhibited when Osric transforms back into a dragon and reveals himself to be Griffin, an evil dragon who was turned into a human as punishment for killing humans, and now that he’s a dragon again, he wants to enslave humanity.
- Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Griffin has a design that is a mix of Western/Eastern dragons.
- Dual Wielding: Both Roland and Osric fight with a sword in each hand at some point.
- Evil Mentor:
- Osric becomes a mentor to Geoff until it's revealed that he was only doing it to get to Drake's heart.
- After Osric transforms back into a dragon, he also attempts this with Drake when he offers Drake to join him in enslaving humanity, however, Drake refuses.
- Fan Disservice: Seeing a monk — even a supposedly teenage one =- run around in nothing but diaper-like underwear.
- Farts on Fire: While learning to breathe fire, Drake starts to lose control of it and turns away from the nearby village to avoid damaging anything. Unfortunately, it comes out the wrong end, and he destroys a building.
- Idiot Ball: Lian and Kwan are knowingly carrying around an evil dragon's heart. How did it not occur to them until Osric regains his true form that his heart might be the one in the prophecy rather than Drake's?
- Intergenerational Friendship: Lian refers to Kwan as her loyal servant, wise teacher, and closest friend.
- Karmic Transformation: This happened to Osric. He was a dragon who was transformed into a man as punishment for killing humans, though he remains bent on revenge even so.
- Last of His Kind: Drake is the world’s last living dragon The introduction of the evil dragon ‘Griffin’ briefly averts this; however, Drake truly becomes the last dragon again after he kills Griffin.
- Leitmotif: The credits song, My Heart Goes With You, serves as Lian's. She even hums it at one point.
- Literally Shattered Lives: During the final battle, Drake kills Griffin by breathing ice on him instead of fire. Griffin falls to the ground and shatters. Unfortunately, one of the pieces impales Geoff.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Poor Kwan...
- Mythology Gag: In the range of action figures which were released to tie in with the first movie, a dragon called Griffin was included in a double pack with Einon.
- The Middle Ages: Set many years after the first film, sometime in the 11th century.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Osric/Griffin’s plan to enslave humanity might seem like some extremist form of justice for the near genocide of his species until the audience (and Drake) recall that while in human form, he tried to trick Drake into sharing his heart (which would have cost him his soul), showing he is perfectly okay with screwing over his fellow dragons for his own ends.
- Older Than They Look: Osric’s speech suggests that he was turned into a human during Bowen's 12-year dragon-slaying career, yet he appears to be in his 30’s or 40’s at most despite the events of A New Beginning taking place 20 years after Bowen died of old age, wether the curse or his dragon nature are the reason for this and his exact age are never discussed.
- Old Master: Kwan
- One-Winged Angel: Osric transforms into a dragon at the film's climax.
- Parasol of Pain: Master Kwan's weapon.
- Playing Possum: Done by Osric and his men in battle. Osric was pretending that he was dying and needed Drake's heart, but when Geoff realized that Osric wasn't wounded, some of Osric's "dead" men jumped up and attacked.
- Posthumous Character: The Eastern dragon council, they are already dead by the events of A New Beginning however they are occasionally mentioned and it is them who placed the curse on Griffin that turned him into a human.
- Raised by Humans: After Bowen found Drake’s egg in Draco’s old cave and entrusted it to the monastery, Drake hatched, and the monks raised him.
- Renowned Selective Mentor: The king's advisor Osric trains Geoff, claiming it is because he's a natural and deserves special attention. However, his real motive is to make Geoff eager for battle and trust him to convince Drake to give up half his heart.
- The Rival: Roland is to Geoff, somewhat.
- Samus Is a Girl: The first time Lian is seen, she is believed to be a boy; it is only a little while later that she is revealed to be a girl.
- Secret Test of Character: Kwan and Lian want to test Drake to see if his heart will be the one that will cause evil. Kwan claims that there's a way to learn all of the ancient dragon secrets instantly, but Drake isn't stupid. Drake more than likely smelt a rat because nothing is that simple unless it's a trap, which is why he refused and decided to learn naturally from Kwan, year by year, therefore passing the test.
- Sequel: Takes place years after the first film.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Used as a bit of a Running Gag.Geoff: Come on, don't say it like that, take some pride in being special!Mansel: All right, I am special!Geoff: It's not like Pride is one of those Seven Deadly Sins or anything.Mansel (stops walking and frowns): ...Actually, it is.
- And then later:
(Mansel is holding a whole armload of food)Geoff: Hey, you have fun. 'Cause it's not like Gluttony is on that seven deadly sin list too.(Mansel quickly sets down all the food and walks away) - Sins of Our Fathers: Osric attempts to throw a knife at Lian for her ancestors sins, however he ends up missing and hitting Kwan.
- Surrounded by Idiots: "YOU are all INCOMPETENTS!"
- Taking the Bullet:
- Osric pretends to do this in battle.
- Kwan does this toward the end.
- There Is Another: Said almost word for word by Drake when Osric/Griffin reveals his identity and transforms back into a dragon.“There's another dragon?”
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
- Osric does this in battle.
- Geoff throwing his sword at Griffin in the climax.
- Triumphant Reprise: Mark McKenzie's rendition of Randy Edelman's "To the Stars" from the first film makes a brief return shortly after Drake kills Griffin and revives Geoff.
- Villain Has a Point: Osric/Griffin isn’t wrong when he points out that Bowen was responsible for wiping out the dragons.
- Waif-Fu: Lian uses this a couple of times.
- We Can Rule Together: Once Osric becomes a dragon again, he calls Drake "little brother" and invites him to enslave humanity together.
- You Have Failed Me: Stefan has served Osric loyally for years. One mistake, and he gets a dagger in his chest.
