Gamers who wandered the arcades back in the day will remember the voice of a narrator rising above the bleeps and bloops of the various cabinets to announce, ”Dragon’s Lair! A fantasy adventure where you control a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue a fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon!” A new Kickstarter by famed animator Don Bluth has launched to bring Dirk and Daphne to the silver screen.
Bluth is a former Disney animator who worked on such classic animated films as The Secret of NIMH, All Dogs Go to Heaven and An American Tail, and whose coin-op arcade work includes Dragon’s Lair and the sci-fi B-movie homage Space Ace. His partner in the Kickstarter is Gary Goldman, another ex-Disney animator who collaborated with Bluth on most of his projects.
The Kickstarter refuses to spoil the plot of the film, and instead explains the difficulty of bringing animated films to the silver screen, discussing how production can run from $55M to $250M, while advertising alone can cost $100M. Crowdfunding bypasses most of that, and will focus on raising $550K without needing to answer to a studio or direct investors.
Dragon’s Lair was revolutionary as the first laserdisc game, which not only brought actual animation to games, but also spawned an entire gameplay mechanic: the quick-time event. Other laserdisc games popped up in its wake, such as Cliffhanger (which used footage from Lupin III) and Mad Dog McGee, a laserdisc light gun game.
The game’s sole leap to another medium was the short-lived Saturday morning cartoon show. Since then, Dragon Lair appeared on every platform possible as a Digital Leisure disc game.
