Dragon’s Lair seeks to hit the big screen – Kickstarter to the rescue!

Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, have given in to what they say has been long-time clamouring from fans. They decided to test the waters for a feature-length animated film version of Dragon’s Lair – through a Kickstarter campaign.

Bluth and Goldman say that the movie will provide the backstory to Dirk the Daring, the bumbling knight who tries to rescue Princess Daphne in the game but usually winds up falling, burning or getting the life squeezed out of him by insidious vines. The game was like a “choose your adventure” in cartoon form, so turning it into a full-length movie makes sense. Its unique look was due to the fact that it was created on LaserDisc. Players’ actions simply loaded a different animated scene as they navigated a trap-filled castle to create a running narrative.

They know what it takes to bring a full-length animated movie to life. That’s why they’re only seeking $550,000 (about £359,397) through the Kickstarter campaign. That sum would be enough for the duo to create a trailer for the film, which they could then use to lure investors to raise the full price of making the movie, which they estimate at $70 million (about £45847524.10) – If you want to help Bluth and Goldman take it, there are rewards ranging from digital postcards to T-shirts, caps, lapel pins and animation classes. Pledges start at $15 (about £10) and, for the true Dragon’s Lair lover, climb to $10,000 (about £6,535).

CHECK OUT THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE

THE GAME (Laserdisc Version)

This is the ENTIRE laserdisc from the 1983 arcade game “Dragon’s Lair”. This was the first of a wave of games that used laserdiscs with animation rather than computer graphics- while the intent was to create the feeling that you were “playing” the cartoon, it was really just a matter of memorizing the right controls to hit at the right moment. For each level there was only one way to get through it alive- when playing the disc would play the animation, then you had to hit the joystick or “Sword” button when you were supposed to- if you did this correctly the game would beep to tell you that you made a correct move and the disc kept playing. If you made a wrong move, the disc would skip to a scene of the character dying. As you can see here, the ‘death’ scenes for each level were all grouped at the end of the level.

This disc gets more noisy as it reaches the end- most of my other old laserdiscs are bad at the beginning then clear up by the end. The 2nd side of the disc is also a heavy metal material making the disc heavier than usual, but it plays on all my regular players.