Dragonslayer is a 1981 ‘fantasy’ film, it tells a heroes journey tale of a young Sorcerer’s apprentice who sets out to save a kingdom from an evil Dragon. Peter MacNicol and Kaitlin Clarke star with support from Ralph Richardson and John Hallam. The film was co-written and directed by Matthew Robbins (Batteries Not Included) with Oscar nominated special effects by Phil Tippet and Dennis Murren. Perfect cinematography is provided by Alien cinematographer Derek Vanlint. Since no Blu-ray is available – I thought I’d take a look at the iTunes version, and compare it with the existing DVD releases.

A co-production between Paramount and Disney, with the creative talents of two George Lucas and Steven Spielberg protegees at the helm, it was commercial disappointment. Far darker than a typical Disney film, and subverting many of the Heroes Journey tropes (the princess would prefer to die than be rescued, the old king claims to kill the dragon at the end) it was just not a comfortable experience for mainstream audiences of the 1980s.

Scraping gross receipts worldwide of 14 million dollars on a budget of 18 it is surely not fondly remembered by many involved with the business side of the production.

Dragonslayer iTunes 1080p Review

Forest scene. All versions scaled to 1080p. Note the crispness of the grass in the iTunes version, and the browness of the grass in the PAL DVD version.

Average video bit-rate is 4.3 mbps with peaks up to 14 mbps. Soundtrack wise there is a stereo AAC track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

A few pieces of damage are evident on the film, but the elements used are pretty clean. Grain is present where appropriate, and it’s possibly to pick out the edges of various optical effects quite easily.

So how does it look ? Unfortunately there is just too much going on through most of the film to be supported by the average bitrate of 4.4 mbps. Pretty much every other shot has billowing smoke and flickering flame which compresses poorly.

The DVD versions have similar issues with the same scenes however. Basically a 35 Mbps Blu-ray is going to look noticeably better.

Dragonslayer iTunes HD vs DVD Releases

A confrontation outside the dragon’s lair. All three versions have trouble with these scene due to fog and flickering torches. There are still some advantages to the iTunes version (look at the dress).

I happen to have both a PAL and NTSC DVD of Dragonslayer in my collection. So I thought it might be useful to compare them.

The PAL DVD was released in 2004, and is not anamorphically enhanced which substantially reduces the resolution compared with both NTSC DVD and iTunes HD version. The colors are also significantly different from the other versions. I would the PAL version as being warmer (i.e. more red) slightly darker with slightly less contrast. This sometimes works in the films favor as the darker tones hide flaws in the special effect composites slightly better than the other versions. The DVD comes with a 5.1 soundtrack as well as various European language dub-tracks. If you want to get the PAL version, look for the European editions, rather than the UK release, as there are a couple of cuts to the UK version that make it less desirable. 

The NTSC DVD was released in 2005, and is anamorphically enhanced. Colors are cooler, and resolution is noticeably higher. The DVD also comes with a stereo as well as 5.1 soundtrack.

Again the color differences in the PAL version hide the matte line quite nicely, side-by-side the other seem a bit more washed out. Note the fine detail in the trees in the iTunes version.

The iTunes versions colors are identical to the NTSC DVD version, but the increased resolution is obvious: look at the dragon shot to the right and compare the trees between the three versions.

It’s actually hard to pick to pick between them. One major negative of the PAL DVD version is vertical aliasing which is quite noticeable on HD display. The iTunes and NTSC versions are basically identical, except the iTunes version has slightly higher resolution and a slightly more digital look sometimes.

I’d probably go with the iTunes version if I had to pick something to sit down and watch, but I do wonder about the color scheme sometimes. The warmer and darker PAL colors certainly help sell the special effects.

Conclusion

Fair: three and a half out of five. Compression artifacts mar an otherwise faithful HD transfer, but it’s a still a hair or two better than the best DVD. Worth a rental, but perhaps hold-out for the Blu-ray for purchasing.

iTunes 1080p Screenshots

Now the Dragon is really mad….

Tending wounds: It’s still alive.

Discussing an idea with the blacksmith.

At the king’s court.

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