Top SFX shots No.36: Dragonslayer

Martin Anderson

Published on Dec 29, 2008

Having made a notable foray into stop-motion in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Industrial Light & Magic produced arguably their most impressive work in the field for Disney's stab at the sword-and-sorcery genre. It must be admitted that one of the reasons Vermithrax is so amazing is that you have to wait such a long time to see him, but in truth the lighting and movement of the evil beast is unparalleled in the field. This dragon wasn't seriously challenged until the CGI dragon's 'crash-landing' shot in Rob Bowman's under-rated Reign Of Fire (2002).