The Reluctant Dragon (June 20, 1941)

This film was a pleasant surprise and a delightful watch! It is essentially a studio tour disguised with the plot of a husband who has a book idea he wants to personally pitch to Walt Disney. I was amazed to learn about the various departments at Disney’s animation studio. It was a painstaking process to paint the scenes by hand and take pictures of each individual frame. No wonder it took years to complete films back then! The titular story, The Reluctant Dragon, was lackluster, however. The story was about a dragon who was a pacifist who has to pretend to fight a knight at the behest of a boy. The dragon himself was quite annoying. The animation, as usual, was very charming and well made. There were a few other brief animated scenes throughout the film, but it was primarily a live action film. I believe this film is a must watch for classic, hand-drawn animation fans and, apart from the cheesy dialogue, I loved the film and would re-watch it in the future.

Final Rating: 7/10