#AND TWIGLEG MY BELOVED

[kats-randomology]

NETFLIX WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO DRAGON RIDER YOU MONSTERS--

[his-beloved-octopi]

Rereading Dragon Rider again and ya’ll better get ready I am not going to shut up about this book

[whumpster-fire]

Dragon Rider’s Movie Adaptation: The Tragic Tale of How I’m so Fucking mad right now

Aaaaand looks like yet another of my favorite books from my childhood, along with the Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl series, will be joining the “Has an adaptation but everyone pretends it doesn’t exist because it’s so goddawful that they couldn’t even get the actual author to pretend it’s not garbage” club: since according to the comments Cornelia Funke basically came out and said it sucked and they butchered her work.

Seriously... imagine buying the film rights to a beloved classic - spending actual money to get the IP rights - and then just turning it into a bland, half-baked ripoff of a totally different franchise. Like, if all you want to do is rip off How to Train Your Dragon, why did they even bother with that instead of making an “Original” story? Definitely the highlight of the trailer was when they showed the kid - I can’t remember his name from the book but with this tier of adaptation god knows they probably changed it - in a Viking helmet and a poster for an obvious HTTYD spoof because they knew damn well what they were doing, and thought if they made a self-aware joke about how obvious the ripoff was, people would be... okay with it?

These character designs are also just so... embarrassingly bad, especially considering the high quality cover art and illustrations in the damn book that they had to work off of. Some idiot in a suit, probably an entire committee of idiots in suits, had to have actively made the creative decision to change Firedrake into this... weird, bulbous flying sack of potatoes that looks like Barney the Dinosaur or something, make Sorrel this short-haired onion-headed generic furrybait (sorry, there’s no other way to put it) monstrosity that looks like she came from an Ilumination Studios Dr. Seuss Adaptation mixed with Elora from Spyro or something, make Nettlebrand not even remotely threatening or intimidating, and so on. Uhh... I guess Twigleg’s Design wasn’t complete garbage and that’s literally the only positive thing I can say about this?

Additional special mention goes to shoving as many racial stereotypes into the like five seconds of screentime the two Indian characters had in the trailer as possible (note that one of these characters isn’t even in the book so was apparently literally added to the movie for the sole purpose of this?)

The worst part of this whole dumpster fire is knowing that somewhere out there is an alternate timeline where Dragon Rider was adapted by Laika and became one of the greatest animated films of the 2020s. I mean, any studio that was actually trying to make a good movie would be better than this, but Laika’s artstyle if they treated it like Coraline or Kubo and the Two Strings would be so fucking perfect for this. My only misgiving would be I’m not sure the way they do fur would quite capture the amount of Grouchy Maine Coon Energy that Sorrel should have... but see above point that literally any even half-assed attempt at floof would be way, way more faithful to her design than fucking Elorax over here.

[vaixation]

Aww, thank you so much! That’s so sweet of you to say; I really appreciate it! And I agree - I love their dynamic so much haha. It’s really too bad there’s not a lot of content for Dragon Rider in general though. I’d say it’s definitely really under-appreciated for what a good story it is!

Oh my gosh I’m so sorry you lost your copy in a move for a while?! But I’m really glad you found it at least + got to read it! :D I’d love to hear your Many Many Thoughts™ on the story if you want to share - it’s always fun finding other people who love the story too! Personally I didn’t like it nearly as much as the first book because I think I’m just wildly over-attached to the original narrative, but it was still really interesting! I wish they did a little more with Twigleg admittedly, some of the plotline of the second book felt like loose ends to me.

Also there’s a movie?! What. WAIT IT CAME OUT THIS YEAR?! LMFAO WHAT THE HECK. I had no idea??? Oh my gosh though that’s really ominous that you’re calling it a disaster; I just looked it up on IMDB and like... the cover for it at the very least is yikes? That dragon doesn’t look like Firedrake at all. :’( Oh my gosh how badly did they butcher everyone’s designs for one, and also how badly did they butcher the storyline for seconds??? I’m... probably gonna watch this because it’s Dragon Rider and I have to but I’m predicting I’m gonna die inside while doing so.

Partially through the trailer and already just NOPE at Sorrel’s design. THEY DIDN’T EVEN GET HER COLOR RIGHT??? SHE’S SUPPOSED TO HAVE “SULPHUR-YELLOW FUR” AND “BROWN SPOTS” AND SHE LOOKS FLIPPING ORANGE OR SOMETHING IN THE TRAILER WHAT THE HECK!!!

I JUST SAW TWIGLEG BRIEFLY AND THAT’S NOT WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE AT ALL I’M GOING TO ACTUALLY RIOT WHAT THE HECK. ARGHHHH FIRST THEY BUTCHER ARTEMIS FOWL THIS YEAR NOW THEY BUTCHER THIS STORY TOO???? SFIUYAKSFHAGHDFKJHAKDJHFKAJHDF WHYYYYY LMFAO STOP RUINING MY CHILDHOOD ALL YOU MOVIE-MAKERS SFHKAJDHFKJAHDFLKJHALFDJHALDJFH.

*dies inside just seeing this trailer*

Like no salt to anyone who actually might like this movie adaptation but this story was a huge part of my childhood and it’s still one of my favorite ones to this day and seeing beloved characters’ designs just absolutely butchered beyond recognition is so upsetting to me! :’( They have like??? NO excuse to get the designs wrongs when the book has like a gazillion illustrations of what everyone looks like??? Why did they make it so cartoony??? D: Ugh I do not like this from the trailer alone. Also it looks like way over-humor-ified, like they’re trying too hard to be funny when story beats didn’t have a TON of humor in it to begin with really??? It was not an overly-silly story??? I’m.......... speechless. And not in a good way. Dx

;~~~~; Oh my gosh though you should ABSOLUTELY make some glorious content for Dragon Rider!!! I think it would be absolutely delightful and feel free to show me anything you make; I absolutely adore this series??? DRAW TWIGLEG! :D It would be so fun! After seeing this trailer I’m not gonna lie; I, too, want to draw some of the characters and actually do their designs more justice than that. >_>;

Anyways! I’m sorry for the long reply + ramble but I hope you’re having a fabulous day today, and thanks again for your kind words on my artwork! :D Stay safe! <3

EDIT: Bonus question but what’s your favorite mis-pronunciation/spelling of “homunculus” from any of the other characters who can’t fricking seem to spell/say that correctly for the life of them? x’D I think mine was “humblecuss” from Lola.

Hey there! I saw the tags you reblogged my post with (the one about Twigleg and Lola from Dragon Rider - Heartseer is my art blog!), and I just wanted to say bless you and hope you have a fabulous day! (Also fun fact: did you know there's a second book in the Dragon Rider series called The Griffin's Feather?) :D

AAAAAAAAAA thank you, it was cute as hell and i loved it!! lola and twigleg are three ounces of whoopass incarnate and their friendship is so good, it’s always great to see content for it :D

and yeah!! i actually just got to read it for the first time within the last week or so! i had a copy that i’d gotten a while after it came out, which i had put off reading until it got lost during a move earlier this summer, and after the disaster that was the movie i finally replaced it and gave it a read. i have Many Many Thoughts and a good chunk of them are that i love twigleg more than ever and i would die for this sad little man in a heartbeat 

getting back into it and seeing the stuff other people have made has made me want to make Content; it’s a travesty that i’ve never written or drawn anything for dragon rider before now, and it’s Time (to d-d-d-d-d-draw twigleg)