The Reluctant Dragon

Director: Hamilton Luske

We now come to the title cartoon of The Reluctant Dragon. This is one of those Disney shorts that, like "Flowers and Trees" and "The Wind in the Willows," everyone seems to know about it but that no one has actually seen. Based on the story by Kenneth Grahame, it's about a boy, a dragon and the knight called in to fight him. It's also about how appearances can be deceiving and how we're more alike than we are different and how much fun it is to be a gay dragon.

I'm pretty certain that last part wasn't on Disney's agenda when "The Reluctant Dragon" was on the drawing board. But today it's unmistakeable: this is one really gay dragon. He sings. He writes poetry. He prances about the countryside with a flute. He even wears a red bowtie in the movie poster.

Of course, being gay isn't the point. But being different is. And the dragon is definitely different, far from the ferocious beast pictured in the young boy's book. The knight is different, too. He's skinny and rather old and likes poetry himself. And he certainly doesn't want to kill a dragon that offers him tea and jelly sandwiches.

So together, they hatch a plan to make the townsfolk think that this formidable knight has defeated the vicious dragon.

Gay dragon aside, this title short is the most traditional of the three cartoons that make up The Reluctant Dragon feature. The setting is a nameless, timeless medieval land in the tradition of Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood and Walt Disney World's Fantasyland. There are a lot of rolling hills and brightly colored tents and villagers carrying trangular banners. The humor, too, is gentle and benign.

All of this is fine, but it makes things a bit dull. The short clocks in at around 20 minutes or so, which is an odd length. There's not enough time to pack in a whole lot of plot, but there's no reason to keep things quick like in a standard eight-minute short. So the scenes tend to go on a bit longer than necessary.

Still, there's some really nice, jaunty music involved and a lot of pretty animation along the road to a happy ending. Basically, "The Reluctant Dragon" is a solid, workman-like piece of animation. It's not dazzling by any means, but it doesn't offend, either. (Unless you're against gay dragons, of course.)