Dragon’s Lair – Nostalgia Critic

With special guest Don Bluth, Nostalgia Critic is forced to play one of the hardest arcade series of the 80s, Dragon’s Lair. It’s gonna be a long quest.

This week’s Featured Charity is the Salvation Army. Click here to learn more or to donate!

About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

144 comments

  1. This should be good

  2. Dragons Lair and DON BLUTH!!!!!

    My childhood orgasms.

    • Oh man. 2 really awesome NCs in a row. Still incredibly blown away you got Don Bluth to cameo and loved seeing Jim as Segata Sanshiro and Doug as Randy Savage. lol!

      I have both a love and hate relationship with Dragons Lair since as a kid I was blown away that I was literally playing an animated game, but I REALLY sucked at timing my movements to the lights on screen. Before the Double Dragon and the original TMNT arcades dominated the late 80’s, this was my quarter muncher.

      I confess I spoiled all of Dragons Lair on YouTube a few years ago, but I really should pick up one of the modern day ports since I know I won’t have to blow all my parent’s money this time!

    • Shame that I simply don’t care about Dragons Lair.. slapstick is not why I like his animations so much.

      • I love Don Bluth and Dragons Lair,
        but I wouldn’t say Dragons Lair is one of the things I’d recommend from Don Bluth.

        Land Before Time and Secret of Nimh are my go to Don Bluth films.

        • Land Before Time was one of my first movies. I still remember watching it on our family’s 12 inch screen TV and how I always hugged my mom extra tight after watching it.

          My dad likes it too especially the part with the little pterodactyls trying to give littlefoot food. Ah crap who’s cutting onions.

  3. hmm… this may work. nc was never that good at lps… but dl is essentially a movie…

  4. aaah, I’d like to see you play the second one, but oh well, I think your “review” of it in your top 11 mindfucks was quite enough.

  5. Yay ! Go NC !

  6. This was awesome and hilarious at the same time. The ending was great with Doug Walker portraying Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Totally awesome.

  7. What? No love for Space Ace?

  8. Good job and congrats on the work with Don. *drool*

  9. You know, Doug, it might have been a better idea to make a Dragon’s Lair video BEFORE the Kickstarter for the Dragon’s Lair Movie was cancelled. Just saying. ( Unless you address the issue in this video, which I haven’t watched yet. ) Yes, I realize that shameless advertising for someone else’s Kickstarter might not be the best idea. But c’mon, it’s Don Bluth.

  10. MidnightScreeningsman2014

    Oh my god that ending was so 80s and it’s nice to see Malcolm and Tamara were regular clothes(but too bad tamaras head got cut off). Wonderful episode and I love that don bluth keeps on torturing you and I loved seeing you fail in those two games of dragons quest. Though I’m surprised this kick starter hasn’t gotten it’s money but man that god there will be a second one.

    As for the charity of this week,I heard that they steal people’s money and use it for there own purposes(but seeing from your description of them I can now see that that is not true and they care a lot about people)!!!

    • According to Tumblr, the Salvation Army is homophobic. Let it be made clear that I am trying to be as neutral as possible as I post this. I’m just repeating what I heard. Make of it what you will.

      • Long before Tumblr there were statements about its homophobia, actually. But then again, Doug doesn’t really give a fuck, since he consciously avoids LGBT charities.

        • Yeah, I wouldn’t bring up Tumblr—it’s got a reputation matched only by Reddit and 4Chan (which is funny, because the real problem with those sites aren’t their politics or abusive communities, it’s their owners’ terrible management of said abuse). Too many people conflate any social protests with “Tumblr acting up again” as it is. ;D

          • lacking_psilosynine

            i constantly get called a tumblrina when i talk about social issues like how awful salvo is and i don’t even have an account on tumblr

          • It’s not just Tumblr, Reddit and 4chan that are poorly managed. Pretty much every major web 2.0 website has moderation problems. Including this one, which doesn’t have a report button for the comments on the main producers’ videos (I don’t know why they aren’t using the community blog features for the main producers, it really doesn’t make any sense) and KnowYourMeme which doesn’t have a block button.

          • I’m pretty sure KnowYourMeme is run by 4channers too. Meanwhile Zippcast, a smaller video site that’s been gaining steam lately legitimately cares about its users. Even this one nasty admin of a site you’ve probably never heard of who has a somewhat irrational hatred of Zippcast and its users.

          • lacking_psilosynine

            okay the “lol tumblrina” thing literally happened on the next page…someone asked for a “non-tumblr source” when i mentioned danielle morantez and jennifer gale. since they use this site, i assume they have access to search engines. but they decided to antagonize me. people are so strange

      • The Salvation Army may be run by homophobes in some parts of the country, but it’s not universally homophobic. I know for a fact that a local chapter of the Salvation Army in… I believe New York?… is in fact fronted by an openly gay (and married) man, as he’s a friend of the family and has said before that rumors of the Salvation Army’s universal homophobia are entirely unfounded.

        If you’re concerned, I’d say do some research on and/or contact your local chapter. But don’t dismiss the organization entirely due to the actions of a very few people within it.

        • lacking_psilosynine

          “not universally homophobic”. i wish that were true. http : // www . queerty . com/heres-the-internal-document-the-salvation-army-doesnt-want-you-to-see-20141218 i mean it’s awesome that an openly gay guy runs a local salvo chapter in nyc, but there seems to be anti-lgbtqiap+ stuff being spread by one of salvo’s higher-ups. so universally, okay, maybe not…but they’re still skeevy enough that i’d steer clear.

          • Surely all their work with the poor, helping out disaster victims, going onto the streets to help the homeless, etc… counts for *something*?

          • lacking_psilosynine

            not when there are other charities that work with the poor, help out disaster victims, and provide services for the homeless i’d rather donate to. you realize salvo isn’t the only charity of its kind out there, right?

  11. When are you guys going to fix the lag with the player on this site? have to wait until it’s released on youtube to watch it without issues…
    Btw. someone review “forbidden zone” by the richard elfman!

  12. Wow, this is not at all what I was expecting he would be doing with Mr. Bluth. I figured he’d be reviewing another of his later, shittier movies.

  13. I’m in. Lets hope this film will be “treat the audience like adults” bluth. secret of nihm, american tail, land before time and even titan ae. All his other films were a little too childish

  14. At least you didn’t have shove quarters in every time you died.

  15. it’s like a critic makes fun of Song of the South and Disney makes you watch it

  16. Holy crap. I actually remember playing that game. I’ll see what I can do for supporting the movie however.

  17. Holy shit. I can’t wait to see this movie!

  18. That controller isn’t even on.

  19. Awe, Tamara’s pretty head go boom.

  20. I just checked the Dragon’s lair Kickstarter page and it closed 6 hours ago. Don’t know why they’re starting again on Idiegogo.

    • Unlike Kickstarter, Indiegogo lets you keep the money you raise if the campaign isn’t successful, minus a 9& fee. And also to adjust rewards and such. A few people were saying that the rewards on the DL Kickstarter were too high priced.

    • Indiegogo is better about actually giving you the money and lets you keep whatever is raised, while Kickstarter only goes through if its fully funded.

      And they botched the leadup and announcement of the kickstarter with no advance advertising, so no one knew about it. Trying again after people know it failed once, but on a better setup and with a month of pre-hype, could help it a lot.

      That said, the kickstarter was basically to make a pitch reel to try and get a studio interested, not an actual movie, and that’s pretty hard to actually get excited about. Trying to raise 500K to make a couple minutes of animation is just… meh, especially when the games already exist. If they were trying to raise 3-5 million to produce an actual 30-45 minutes of animation, it’d actually have a much better shot. (and say, another 10 minutes per million raised?) It’d be super low budget compared to say, a Disney animated film, but on par with most anime. The likes of Avatar average about a million per episode, so a million for 20 minutes of animation at that quality level isn’t crazy.

    • The kickstarter was sadly very poorly marketed. Everyone blames the fact that they were doing a proof video—to that I counter with Hullabaloo, an insanely successful kickstarter that was basically for a bunch of proofs to “bring 2d animation back”. The problems with Dragon’s Lair were:
      a) They didn’t explain their reasons for doing a proof, so people didn’t understand why they should bother.
      b) Rewards were poorly explained
      c) Rewards pandered towards a tiny elite of hardcore (read: financially stable) fans.
      d) The kickstarter marketed only to the “Hey I played that game crowd”, failing to show newbies to the scene how cool the movie itself could be. The intro video was basically, “Hey, remember this?” If you didn’t, you were screwed.

      • The main difference with Hullabaloo was that it was seeking funding for a finished short (or multiple shorts ultimately, as I think they hit enough stretch goals to do more than one). So even if the movie never happened, backers would still have those shorts to enjoy. The Dragon’s Lair Kickstarter was seeking $550,000 to produce a pitch reel with some full animation, some storyboards, and some concept art. It wasn’t clear whether backers would ever get to see even this mix of final and not so final film.

        I strongly agree with your fourth point and it,s my biggest concern going into a second attempt at getting this thing funded. The Dragon’s Lair games are entertaining eye candy, but the story is minimal and the characters aren’t particularly fleshed out. Fine for a fast paced, action oriented video game where most players in the arcade didn’t see more than a few minutes of footage, but something that needs To be addressed in a movie. Vague hints of a prequel about how Dirk always wanted to become a knight aren’t enough to get me really excited about this potential movie and certainly aren’t going to win over anyone who has never heard or Bluth, Goldman, or Dragon’s Lair.

        My main worry after seeing the Kickstarter attempt is that the plan is to get the money first and then start figuring out what the movie is. When one of the promotional videos shows Bluth and Goldman wondering if the movie should be 2D or 3D animation, I’m left wondering what -if anything – has been decided on. It feels like I’m funding the general idea of a Dragon’s Lair movie instead of a specific story and the end result could be great or….not so great.

        I backed the Kickstarter, but if I don’t see significant improvement in all the areas you mentioned on the IndieGoGo attempt, I may pass on that one.

    • Indiegogo would work better then Kickstarter. Kickstarter should only be used if a movie wold be made if the get funding but from the sound of it it was only to use the money as a starter to get the project going never for make the movie.But with Indiegogo The not have worry about make the movie atilt the ready to make it.

  21. You know what be really cool if Doug and others from Channel Awesome did voices for some of the characters, even the two who did pinky and the brain. Granted yes, they would cast big celebs to do the voices for the major characters but still be awesome.

  22. THE CINEMATIC MIND

    A video game review! Oh hell yes! It’s iconic because I’m playing Dragon’s Lair at the moment to celebrate what’s going on!

  23. Like most people, I thought this would be a review of “Titan A.E”. You know we can’t hate something that mentions the Salvation Army at the end? I actually did charity work for those guys once. Yep, it’s the Christmas season. I even had a two hour dream last night about what this video would be! I thought it would be a Top 11 list of some kind and it actually was.

  24. I’m very curious about the Dragon’s Lair games… =)

  25. My Favorite Don Bluth Film is The Secret of Nimh.

  26. Haha, I really like Segata 😀
    Good episode, the surprise guest was fun!

  27. OK,I’m now convinced that DNA from Randy Savage and Segata were used to create DEVILBONER!

  28. Great video & promo.

  29. What’s up with using the word “literally” all the time? Maybe it’s because English isn’t my mother tongue but it sounds really… odd. It doesn’t make ANY sens.

  30. Gotta say, most of Doug’s yelling and screaming has kind of worn off after a while. It just doesn’t feel like most of the jokes are trying to be funny, it just feels like Doug going through the motions with his videos.

    Having said that, this is by far MUCH better than some of his clipless garbage. So long as he has actual material to try and critique, I guess I can’t be too mad.

    • That’s why when Doug retired NC, and then brought him back, he put in the explanation of “the character had grown and changed thanks to Demo Reel and had suffered personal failure.” Because Doug was shaving a hard time coming up with new ways to be upset and yell at movies *every* week, and the shtick of “I hate watching this stuff but it’s my job” wore thin.

      SO he hasn’t done the yelling bit nearly as much the last several years and has generally done more MSTing and general commentary. AVGN went through the same thing. You can only do the pissed off yelling guy for so long before it goes stale.

      • That true. I can believe it can take a lot of you, yet at the same time it becomes boring to keep doing it with the same energy. Despite how mad one gets one gets tired of being in that state of mind after a while.

        I mean, just looking back to their Sibling Rivalry of Jurassic World. There’s a more natural angry rant.

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