Draco

Draco is the talking dragon of the 1996 film Dragonheart, voiced by Sean Connery, the last of his kind, who shares half his heart with a prince who grows up to be a tyrant.

The Story

In Dragonheart, set in a fictional medieval England, the young prince Einon is badly wounded during a peasant revolt. His mother brings him to a dragon, who saves him by giving him half of his own heart, on the promise that the boy will rule with justice. Instead, Einon grows into a cruel king, and the knight who trained him, Bowen (Dennis Quaid), wrongly blames the dragon's heart for corrupting the boy. Bowen becomes a professional dragonslayer and kills dragons across the land.

Years later Bowen fights a dragon to a standstill, and the two strike a deal. They stage fake dragon-slayings to cheat villages out of their reward money. The dragon has no name, so Bowen names him Draco, after the constellation. As they become friends, Bowen learns that Draco is the last dragon alive and the one who shares his heart with Einon. Because of that bond, any wound to one is felt by the other, and the tyrant cannot be killed while Draco lives. The ending turns on that terrible choice.

Appearance and Powers

Draco is a large, four-legged, winged dragon with a long tail and an expressive face. He breathes fire, flies, and speaks with great dignity and dry humor. He is wise, lonely, and bound by the old dragons' code of honor, which he feels his kind have failed. His shared heart is the film's central idea: a dragon's heart can give life, but cannot make a person good.

Origins and Sources

The story was written by Charles Edward Pogue and directed by Rob Cohen. Draco was one of the first leading characters in a live-action film to be created entirely with computer animation, by Industrial Light & Magic. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Its ending ties Draco to the real constellation Draco, an echo of the old Greek story that the dragon Ladon was placed among the stars.

Legacy

Draco helped prove that a computer-generated character could carry a film's emotional weight, paving the way for later digital creatures. The film led to several direct-to-video prequels and sequels. Draco stands with Falkor and Toothless as a sympathetic film dragon, in contrast to the monster of Saint George's legend.

Related

• Vermithrax Pejorative: Vermithrax Pejorative is the ancient, fire-breathing dragon of the 1981 film Dragonslayer, which terrorizes the kingdom of Urland until a young sorcerer's apprentice sets out to kill it.
• Falkor: Falkor (German Fuchur) is the white luckdragon of Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979) and its 1984 film, a joyful, wingless flying dragon who carries the young hero Atreyu across Fantastica.
• Toothless: Toothless is the dragon partner of the Viking boy Hiccup in Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books (from 2003), a tiny, talkative dragon who became the sleek black Night Fury of DreamWorks' 2010 film.
• Ladon: Ladon is the serpent-dragon of Greek myth that coiled around the tree of golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, guarding it until Heracles came for the apples.
• Saint George and the Dragon
• Famous Dragons

Sources and Further Reading

• Dragonheart, directed by Rob Cohen, screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue (Universal Pictures, 1996)
• Charles Edward Pogue, Dragonheart, novelization (Boulevard Books, 1996)

Cite this entry: “Draco,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/draco-dragonheart.