Dragonheart: A New Beginning (1999 Video) User Reviews

Regular sequel with little budget and average FX

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 18 June 2007]

This following is set in the 10th century , A.D. , and concerns about an orphaned young boy named Geoff (Chris Masterson) living in a stable , he spontaneously meets a dragon named Drake (voice by Robby Benson, while in the first version by Sean Connery) , the world's last living specie . The dragon is being hidden and cared by a novice monk (Hickey) . Drake is the only film dragon that can breath ice . The young boy dreams becoming a valiant knight and befriends that same dragon and join forces with him to vanquish an astute tyrant , Lord Osric of Crossley (Harry Von Gorkum) . The young boy suddenly encounters himself the only companion who can save the kingdom and then his dreams come true , as he soon to be become a beloved hero . Meantime , in the monastery appears a Chinese young girl (Figueroa) and Master Kwan (Henry O).

This is a lack-luster and short-budget sequel made for direct to video and TV . Unlikely premise from the first part to be continued in a similar plot , there is also a last dragon and a young knight that dreams of becoming a brave knight in shining armor and both inspire the people to fight for their freedom and taking on a tyrannical villain . The film contains agreeable performances and is compromised by borrowing elements from original film , as footage from the prior movie is used . In fact , the scene where Drake destroys the windmill in flames by accident is partly re-utilized from ¨Dragonheart¨. It is entertaining and fun but with mediocre computer generator special effects bringing the dragon to life . The movie was produced in a few money by Raffaella De Laurentiis (Dino's daughter) . Musical score by Mckenzie is ripped off from excellent , memorable soundtrack by Randy Edelman . The motion picture was regularly directed by an usual television movies director , Doug Lefler (The last legion) . It's a familiar film but is specially appointed to kids .

Unnecessary and disappointing sequel

[Juni78ukr · 4/10 · 17 November 2004]

Four years after original Dragonheart movie, which I liked a lot Universal released on video this cheap and rather pathetic sequel. I saw it a few days ago and it was far below my expectations, although it wasn't completely a bad movie. If you don't expect too much and don't take it too serious it can be at least watchable and even entertained. But that's all about it.

There is no intelligent story and no true atmosphere of medieval age as it was in Dragonheart. Actually, the story is poor and it has the certain lack of emotional appealing. The characters development was totally forgotten and with pathetic villains, Asians and Kung-fu in the middle of medieval Europe, ice-breathing dragons, silly jokes and worst of all with ridiculous ending A New Beginning was unable to bring to its audience a memorable and well-constructed story.

The same was with the cast in the movie. It looks like the studio was counting every buck making the movie and no one actor and no one character from the original movie didn't return for the sequel. Even if I mostly liked Chris Masterson in his part in Malcolm in the Middle TV series, his choice for the lead character was totally ineffective. Maybe because of his lack of acting experience he was very unconvincing and unable to wake up the audience. Even visuals were unoriginal and poor. It's a case when the term "unnecessary sequel" instantly and unintentionally came to mind without any invitation. Dragonheart: A New Beginning is a typical example of making cheap, uninteresting movie sequel and burying the franchise.

Grade 4 out of 10.

Weak and fluffy sequel

[FiendishDramaturgy · 5/10 · 15 January 2005]

As far as sequels go, this one is about average.

It lacks the style and substance of the first and substitutes any attempt to go with legend and/or myth, with fluff and "cuteness," giving it a much softer (non-existent) edge.

The performances were also lacking, dangling there somewhere below the original, but not so low as to be considered within the land of the putrid.

Draco is dead. LONG LIVE DRACO! but there is a new Dragon to take his place. He's a baby Dragon. (Awe! Ain't he cute?! NO!) He has to learn everything, and there is a Chinese soothsayer who is there specifically to teach him. But he's also there to kill him.

Confused? That's OK. It's a very easy plot to follow, so it will spin itself well in a nice, even, straight line for you. No twists, no surprises, just...exactly what you expect.

The effects are a bit better, but the stars are gone, and so this project was left with little talent, and less hope. I own it, just because I got this thing about collecting all the parts of something. There are few I don't have all the parts to (like Exorcist. don't' have 2, don't want it, etc.)

All in all, I can't give this more than a 5.3/10, and realistically, I'm being generous.

the Fiend :.

Toned down kids version.

[Anus Individual 7 · 15 September 2001]

Certainly not as trilling or as well done as the original. Even with all the great actors, it's limited to cliches and other such crap that you can expect from a kids film. I recommend this only for die hard fans of the original. And infants.

A children's version of the original

[Ghel · 2/10 · 25 September 2000]

This movie was generally watchable as long as you kept in mind that it was a CHILDREN'S movie. Even so, I found some problems with it, and it certainly did not stack up to the original. First, the special effects were not quite as good as in the original. Second, the majority of the main characters were young, inexperienced, and naive. Only Goeff seemed to have some sort of interesting background, but he never elaborated on it. Lastly, the ending left much to be desired. At the last moment, the bad guy reveals a secret that was never even hinted at during the rest of the movie. The king is never shown to come out of his stupor. It's no surprise that the dragon saves the hero's life (that was telegraphed from the beginning). Nobody gets the girl (in fact, they never show her saying goodbye to the hero). All in all, the movie was a disappointment.

Only worth seeing if you are a fan of the first Dragonheart.

[rudeboyai · 4/10 · 16 August 2000]

I enjoyed the first Dragonheart very much. This new one was certainly inferior to the first, but I found it worth my time. It was released straight to video and that is a obvious sign of lacking. It was short and the plot was fairly shallow, but it did have it's moments especially comedic ones.

It doesn't do the original justice, but its still fun

Somehow the 1995 CGI was better than the 2000 CGI

[olivia-rambleon · 4/10 · 7 January 2020]

I was impressed by the graphics in the 1995 Dragon Heart and figured it was only going to get better as the years went by and the technology improved. Boy was i wrong... the actors aren't bad and somehow carry the film on their shoulders- the dragon- Drake- is a weird computer game animation that looks misplaced and whoever did the voice work sounds a bit stoned at times. The film quality is worse than the 90s OG at times, but I watched it nonetheless because again, the acting wasn't bad and i figured I'd need to watch it for the 2015 one to make sense.

Tale of a boy and his dragon

[a_chinn · 4/10 · 6 July 2017]

Okay kids fare about a stable boy who befriends a young dragon. The dragon is voiced by Robby Benson, who's certainly no Sean Connery, who did the voice of the dragon in the original film which I've never actually seen, although Benson did do the voice Beast in Disney's animated version of "Beauty and the Beast" so maybe he does have a bit of cred. This film is not a big budget film by any measure, but it's not exactly a cheap low budget production either. Outside of Benson, there are no real name actors, but the special effects are all good and the writing and direction are also competently done, which is more than I was expecting from a De Laurentiis production. I think what was most strange about this film is who exactly was the target audience? It's PG-13 for a fair amount o violence, so it's not exactly a kids movie, but I'm not exactly sure that teens or even pre-teens would be all that interested in a corny tale of a boy and his dragon. Oh well, it kind of works and is passable enough of entertainment.

Yep, it's bad all right...

[constructionbob · 3/10 · 3 October 2000]

Well, given that the first Dragonheart was no Citizen Kane - heck, it wasn't even an Excalibur in itself - my expectations were low for this movie. And those expectations were met in full. Dragonheart: ANB builds on the contrivances of the first and offers its own; now there's a new semi-evil ruler guy (you'll love his beginning speech decreeing that citizens must always speak the truth), a new convenient dragon (whose 'ice lung' ability is just a little too powerful) and a wimpy hero who learns to deal between the two, sort of.

One of the more humorous things about ANB is its unnatural PG rating, which means swordfights and such must be bloodless. It makes many of the fight scenes more laughable than they are naturally, which is considerable already. And it gives no particular creedence to the inevitable dragon-heart-changing-sequence, which you know must be coming - you just don't quite know where. Sigh. I shouldn't waste much more time on this. It's a fun dumb movie, but don't expect much more from it. At least they didn't contrive a romance between the hero and the 'foreigner' bodyguard, who is quite clearly female but at whom every character seems surprised to discover this fact.

Nostalgic, but mostly for the kids

[colvinsart · 6/10 · 19 April 2012]

I was saddened by such a low score on this film when I looked it up. Obviously it doesn't hold a finger to the original, but it's not terrible. I've seen much worse.

I saw this when I was 11 or 12 and really enjoyed it. I was at the time (and still am) a huge fan of the first film. I felt this one wasn't trying to match it though but more or less show the story to a much younger audience.

The acting was decent over all, not anything special but not terrible. I liked Chris Masterson as a young orphaned stable boy. As a kid I could relate to him because of his desire to fight and become a knight but not being able to.

Over all the effects are not great, but it was basically done on a TV budget. The dialog wasn't really that good, but it didn't bother me like other films have.

I think this is a great companion to the first one in the fact that it can re illustrate the power of kindness and love to children. Don't expect the original film, but sit down with your children and have some fun with them!

One of The WORST Movies I've EVER Seen

[toanguyen · 1/10 · 1 August 2020]

Cutting to the chase, it was lucky that I even finished this movie. (It was soooo bad it made me write my 1st ever review on IMDB).

The acting was horrible. The humour was dry. The plot cliche. It doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breathe as its prequel. The CGI for this movie was a LOT worse than its predecessor. Drake looked NOTHING as close to real as Draco did in the 1st movie. Do yourself a favour: don't bother with this movie. 1/10.

Dragonheart

[btreakle · 9/10 · 7 September 2020]

In spite of the over all lower ratings of this film dragonheart a new beginning was a standalone the my opinion very good very nice story lying some cool effects so I give it a 9 out of 10 stars if you like stories about dragons you will like this one

Not nearly as good as Dragonheart, but an ok film.

[LebowskiT1000 · 6/10 · 10 June 2002]

I can definitely say "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" is a kid's movie. I'm REALLY shocked that this film even got made, not because it was that bad or anything, but I just can't imagine that there is much of a demand for this kind of movie. But, I guess it got made somehow. There are a some cool things in this film, but nothing really great.

You can't talk about this movie without mentioning the special effects because the whole movie is a special effect. The Dragon looked ok, but quite cartoony at times. The special effects in the first installment blow away the special effects in this one, but they're still kind of cool at times.

The story is ok, but again, nothing spectacular. The story is a little thin, but for a kid's movie that's kind of typical. The characters aren't anything terribly interesting or great, but they're cool I guess. I had never heard of any of the actors, but they all seemed to do an ok job.

All in all, this is an ok film, but definitely not anything to go out of your way to see. If you REALLY liked "Dragonheart", then you'll probably want to see this film. But even then, it depends on WHY you liked "Dragonheart", if you liked the film for it's incredible special effects only, then you probably won't like "Dragonheart: A New Beginning". On the other hand if you liked "Dragonheart" for it's story, then you may like this film. Anyhow, I hope you like the film, and thanks for reading,

-Chris

Severely flawed sequel that has none of the charm of its predecessor.

[Smugglarn · 1/10 · 16 July 2000]

Severely flawed sequel to an amusing and beautiful original. The CGI dragon is very well animated but the lighting is all wrong and the voice acting is pitiful (not to mention the regular acting). The original film relied heavily on the charisma of Sir Sean Connery's voice(!), so it is no wonder that this film lacks the charm of its predecessor. The film seems aimed towards kids and possibly young teenagers who tend to be somewhat underdeveloped in the intellectual department. The whole production has the feel of a 'Young Hercules' episode (especially the campy martial arts sequences), which is not a compliment...

NeofreemaN out.

Great fun if (like me) you're a sucker for tough princesses!

[freydis-e · 2 July 2004]

This is the lower-budget cash-in sequel to the Quaid/Connery movie 'Dragonheart' and this review has minor spoilers. Most of the film isn't all that wonderful, despite great music (particularly the song over the closing credits) and nice scenery. The plot is predictable and undemanding (the talisman contrivance is sheer corn – on the grill in this case!) some of the acting is no better than average and the special effects (like the dragon) are smaller and weaker than in the first movie. Worst of all, the 'hero', a stable-boy, seems to care only about becoming a knight and, having 'befriended' the not-much-more-than-a-baby dragon, exploits him shamelessly to achieve this.

Fear not! – true heroes soon show up in the shape of two mysterious orientals, Lian (tiny Broadway star Nora Figueroa) and her ancient mentor (Henry O) both of whom are deliciously inscrutable. Lian is the good guys' one-woman army, dealing with all comers barehanded and without breaking a sweat in a series of brilliantly choreographed fight sequences (think 'Kill Bill', but with a five foot nothing 'Bride' who needs no sword to trash her armed and armoured opponents over and over again). As she squares up to the first half dozen or so, her worried mentor tells her: 'Be gentle with them'! It's really a kids film, so don't expect blood and guts – the kung fu is beautiful, funny and harmless, like some of Jackie Chan's best work. Villain, Harry van Gorkum provides a great contrast to the deadpan pair, swaggering way, way over the top. All three are perfect, especially Figueroa, and it's a shame she didn't do any more movies after this.

Another review here complains because the hero didn't 'get the girl'. I guess some people will never look beyond Hollywood clichés to see that there is no 'girl' here, while the bold hero gets just what she deserves, which mercifully doesn't include the lame self-serving guy. It's unusual and refreshing for a woman to take such a powerful and unqualified tough-guy role, and though this movie may not be technically as good as the original, I found it a lot more fun. You'll agree if you like tough princesses!

Nothing Compared to the First

[DarthBotto · 3/10 · 1 February 2006]

Hmm... it doesn't follow the story very well. Guys don't lay eggs. Draco's death was significent because it was to be the last dragon's. And, the content of A New Beginning deserves a G rating.

Seriously, the dialogue was simply childish. Like, "Wow," and "I don't wanna leave!" So yeah, this was pretty fake in and out. The first one had a serious storyline and was awesome to watch. But watching a baby dragon spit fire out his butt, spit on someone from a mile away, to be taught to breath ice, you can't possibly be thrilled by that.

Next thing, the special effects were miserable. When Drake breathed "ice," it was was like seeing a bunch of kindergarteners throw chunks of styrafoam as a wall!

Yoshi's day out

[Anakros · 2/10 · 18 April 2005]

Seriously, when I first saw the styling of the new baby dragon, I expected it to swallow a turtle any moment on the way and sprout angel wings. It looks too much like Yoshi, like a baby and the sad thing is that I have yet only talked about the dragon.

Christopher Masterson and Robby Benson are spectacularly out of talent during this lot, a spineless cast trying to bare the weight of complete and utter failure. The underdog recipe has been tried honestly for over a thousand times, on twenty different types of movies, but in most cases, this one included, it does not inspire pity nor does it add something to the experience of watching this.

Then there are the brace of peeps that watch this thing for its special effects; trust me when I say that they are quite bad. So... is there anything at all making it you worthwhile to watch this?

No.

Allow Me To Make a Few Points Here

[Chloroform · 1/10 · 22 February 2005]

For those of you who saw the first Dragonheart, which was a WONDERFUL MOVIE and I suggest you see it, you should know the second one makes VERY LITTLE SENSE.

Point A. If Draco was the LAST DRAGON, how are there other dragons now?! There's like a million of them running around in China or something! Point B. After Draco died he completed the constellation Draco, so tell me if it's completed because the last dragon is there how are there other dragons?!

I thought this movie was lacking plot, good acting, and it made little sense prior to the first movie. I give it two thumbs down.

For children, not 16-year-old punk kids.

[hemightbegiant · 2/10 · 22 July 2006]

I loved the first Dragonheart.

I threw a party last weekend, and saw this movie for sale in Wal-Marts "$5 and under movie" bin. I regret I ever took it out.

The story goes that after Draco. "Last of the Dragons" died, he reveals a gift to Bowen before he dies, a dragon egg. If Draco was last of the Dragons, where the H*** did the egg come from? So the young Dragon, named Drake grows up in Brother Gilberts monastery basement/dungeon area thing. A young boy, Geoffery, goes down into the dungeon, where he befriends Drake.

enter the generic bad guy who toys with he boy's dreams and convinces him to become a knight. Enter the two stereotypical Chinese old Kung-Fu master and apprentice who turns out to be a girl sent to kill the last evil dragon, who is in the form of a man.

Guess what, the bad guy IS the Dragon! SHOCKER! He and Drake fight i the air, despite the above-average special effects for its time, it was rather boring. the evil Dragon, Griffin, breaths fire. Yhen, out o nowhere, Drake masters the ability to breath ice and freezes Griffin, who shatters into a million pieces when he drops 30 feet from the air. One of the ice shards hits Geoffery.

Huess what, he gets half of Drakes heart, they become heroes, and everyone is happy.

WAY TOO HAPPY! The first Dragonheart was an action-fantasy epic, this movie is just a dull kids version. 2/10

Three people left he party during the movie because it was so horrible. Let your younger siblings see it, you just wont love it

Don't make a sequel if you can't make it at least half as decent!

[thomvic · 3/10 · 4 June 2011]

Funny thing is, I just watched the original a few hours ago. I borrowed the DVD from the library and it came with the double pack with both movies. So of course I was going to watch the second one too.

Hahahaha what a joke. This movie pales in comparison to the former. I really gave this a chance as I know you can't make a sequel or a prequel exactly the same and I accept that totally. However, the story wasn't strong, the acting was pretty bad with some of it being way over the top and not to mention some dodgy special effects in terms of the dragons.

The beginning was rather promising because I felt it was going to go down an interesting direction but then it just got extremely silly. In particular, it felt like I was watching a cross between the Karate Kid with the Asian character kung fu added in - and it wasn't necessary not to mention that it looked really corny and stupid.

Christopher Masterson doesn't bring much at all to his character and while he is more effective in Malcolm In the Middle, his take on a dramatic character fails. This is not helped by the rest of the cast who look like they are taking part in a school play instead of a film.

The dragon named 'Drake' at times looked a bit fuzzy in terms of the visuals but also isn't as charismatic as Draco in the first film - and he looked way more real in that.

The narrative done in this was also unnecessary as though they think the audience will engage more with the story but it only makes it feel like the audience is clueless as to what is going on.

All I can commend is the attempt they made to make it fun and to try to capture the warmth of the first one - other than that they failed miserably.

Not a bad movie...too bad the story is too weak at times.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 28 May 2005]

This actually is a worthy sequel to "Dragonheart". OK it misses the magical atmosphere, good special effects and cast but it still is a movie worth seeing.

Good things about the movie are the nicely choreographed fight sequence's and the pretty solid and satisfying end fight. Also the movie provides some successful comical moments.

Still there are some major flaws in the movie. The story itself about the prophecy is quite weak and silly and it's hard to tell at times who are exactly the bad guys, due to some poor casting and bad story telling. Some of the scene's were also edited poorly together. The special effects are far from the best ever but also far from the worst. They look acceptable enough.

Robby Benson (best know for voicing the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".) wasn't exactly the best choice to voice Drake, he's boring and makes some of the dialog sound silly. Overall the acting is pretty solid by the rest of the cast, of unknown actors.

With some more work on the script, this movie could have been really great. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a third "Dragonheart" movie being made.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Disappointing

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 21 June 2010]

The first film was a very likable and fun movie, which is more than I could say for this sequel, which was very disappointing. Drake(with decent vocal work from Robby Benson) was a good enough character, though Draco was much more likable and imposing, the CGI is fairly impressive and the score while basically a rehash is very good. However, the sets and costumes are rather tacky, the pacing is very uneven, the story is clichéd with scenes that are severely lacking in life, the action sequences is done with little or no heart, the climax is rushed and uninspired, the script is weak and the acting is not good at all. And was there anyone else who didn't like the character of Osric, as a villain he was nothing special, and he never convinced really as a villain. He was ambitious yes, but he was nothing more than that. Overall, disappointing and clumsy, definitely not the worst sequel I have seen, but it doesn't hold a candle to the much superior original. 3/10 Bethany Cox

wow what a great film.

[popmad2001 · 10/10 · 20 January 2002]

Wow i love the film it's great.thoughs who havent seen it must coz its really good and i think chris is lush i mean have u lot seen him 'wow'. i just watched it again and this time i've taped it coz last time i kinda taped over it. if i had a chance i wouldnt say no to acting a part in it with chris.oh and drake i felt sorry for him being the only dragon but at least when evil was distroyed he was happy. for a dragon drake was kinda cute wasnt he? well i think its great and if any 1 says im wrong well 'get stuffed' coz i think its brill. im going now and im loving chris.

A nice one...

[snowtiger · 6/10 · 6 April 2001]

It's a nice movie, although a little more comedy-based than the first movie was.

Drake's personality was a lot like mine, he was fresh and young like a human male of his age would be, although he was young, he still had some charisma left from his father, Draco and he was wise too, not easily swayed towards evil, as was said in the movie by the Chinese old man, I've only seen the movie once so I don't remember his name. I think I'll take an another look at it when I've got some time.

I really liked the scene where Drake was being instructed on how to spit ice, I can imagine what it feels like to get a bucketful of dragon-spit on yourself.

What I'd really want to know is, why didn't they make this picture a little bit longer and they might of juiced up the ending more, it was a little bit boring as it was. Also I did wait for some more scenery shots with Drake and Geoff in them, as they weren't really any good scenery shots in the movie. There were some awesome shots like this in the first movie.

All in all, it was a nice movie, it had it's weaknesses, but it had also it's own strengths. I'll probably have to take an another look at it.

Well frankly, I'm disappointed.

[Mjolnir_ · 3/10 · 14 July 2003]

*MAYBE POSSIBLE SPOILER* Sorry, but I'm afraid to say I disliked this movie. I've seen Dragonheart many, many times (which isn't really a children's movie), but when I saw this one, was surprised to see that's what it is. A children's movie, I mean. No appearance by Pete Postlethwaite doesn't help, either. And since when did dragons breathe ice? You'd think the fire and ice would cancel out or explode or something, but anyway, If you liked Draco in Dragonheart, see this one because Drake (The young dragon) is the only similarity to the first film. And even then, only marginally. 1.5 out of 5.