My Father’s Dragon has its moments, but never quite takes flight

Cartoon Saloon is undoubtedly one of the essential underdogs of modern animation studios, perhaps only comparable to Laika in their dedication to their now-niche discipline within the medium. Their Irish Folklore trilogy, culminating in the transcendent Wolfwalkers, is an achievement of gorgeous hand-drawn animation that would be difficult for any studio to follow up—which leaves My Father’s Dragon with some lofty expectations that ultimately do the finished product a disservice. To draw another comparison, My Father’s Dragon holds a similar position in Cartoon Saloon’s canon to Missing Link in Laika’s: safe, relatively unambitious, and aiming for broad appeal in ways that are adequately charming, but don’t come anywhere near the heights that the animators are known for, either aesthetically or narratively.

This at least partially comes down to the relative simplicity of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s 1948 children’s novel, from which screenwriter Meg LeFauve and director Nora Twomey adapt their film, in which 10-year-old Elmer (Jacob Tremblay) in forced to leave his hometown with his mother (Golshifteh Farahani) after their general store closes. Fueled by his mother’s promise that they will open a new shop in their new home of Nevergreen City, Elmer at least finds solace in the notion that he and his mother have a plan for the future. But as Elmer’s mother repeatedly dips into their savings, Elmer becomes disillusioned with his mother’s emotionally shielding lies and runs away from home with a cat he discovers is able to speak (with the voice of Whoopi Goldberg, no less).

The talking cat tells Elmer of a magic island where he can find a dragon that will give him the power to save himself and his mother. So Elmer sets off on the back of a talking whale (Judy Greer) to the perpetually sinking Wild Island, held afloat because the island’s leader, a gorilla named Saiwa (Ian McShane), has imprisoned the dragon so that it may periodically lift the island from the water. Elmer frees the dragon only to find that it is as much of a child as he is. The clueless and cowardly Boris (Gaten Matarazzo) doesn’t know how to come into his powers as a dragon, so the duo must quest to find an ancient tortoise with the secrets for Boris’ ascendency, saving the island, and ultimately providing Elmer’s salvation.

This plays out in fairly standard fashion for a story where a child’s fantastical journey is ultimately a metaphor for his troubled home life and the life lessons he needs to realize in the process. In that sense, My Father’s Dragon is a timely parable, addressing a pre-adolescent fear stemming from the realization that parents aren’t always in control of their destiny, and affirming that it’s okay to be afraid of that uncertainty. Cartoon Saloon may here be aiming for a younger audience than usual, but there’s still a sense of maturity underpinning their film’s messaging that’s absent from a lot of their contemporaries.

That said, there isn’t a lot of depth or subtlety to that message or the film’s portrayal of Elmer’s internal conflicts, instead leaning on Matarazzo’s silly, hyperactive vocal work to prop up cute slapstick shenanigans and requisite fart humor. Parents may recognize the voice talents of Dianne Wiest, Chris O’Dowd, and Alan Cumming rounding out a celebrity voice cast portraying various jungle animals, but casting feels less indicative of desired talent than desired name recognition, with Tremblay’s performance being passable but occasionally at odds with the facial expressions the animators deem most appropriate to any given scene.

And while it would certainly be unfair to lean too hard on the film’s animation for not living up to Cartoon Saloon’s previous standards, it’s hard to deny that this is the studio’s least visually engaging film. The hand-drawn characters are all lovingly rendered and fluidly animated to a degree that is still unique in modern feature animation, but the color palette and environments are less textured, and less willing to lean into abstraction than The Secret Of Kells or Song Of The Sea. Though not without its moments of spectacular splendor, particularly in the climax, this relative blandness leaves the film without much of a distinctive visual identity, planting it in an uncanny realm of competent anonymity.

None of this is to say that My Father’s Dragon isn’t charming on its own terms. The core of the film is in Tremblay’s and Matarazzo’s portrayal of a budding friendship, and the resulting adventures that Elmer and Boris have are certain to entertain plenty of families looking for a comfortable evening on Netflix. It will just be difficult for fans of Cartoon Saloon’s previous films not to notice that My Father’s Dragon has more modest goals than its forebears. They’re adequately achieved, but disappointing when it’s known that this animation studio is capable of so much more.