I’m not sure I’d trust a talking cat. I’ve known many cats in my lifetime; I’ve loved many cats in my lifetime, but I cannot say definitively that I ever thought any given feline ever had my best interests at heart. Not exactly takin’ a big stand there, I know. But, let’s face it, this poor damned kid: fatherless, down on his luck, and without an idea of how to help his mother, goes out and finds talkin’ cat who says, “I know an island where you can get a dragon, free!” There’s gotta be a catch, right?
Seriously, would you follow that advice? What are the odds that the cat truly wants to help you out, huh? That describes zero cats I know.
Hey, when you’re desperate, I suppose you’ll listen to a talking cat. Elmer (voice of Jacob Tremblay) used to have it all together. He was great at “finding things,” (a skill set which doesn’t really come up again) in the small town candy shop owned by his single mother. Then the people left; the business went under, and mom ‘n’ Elmer had to try surviving the big city. And they pretty much didn’t.
After getting hassled by the world’s tamest street toughs, Elmer finds frustration with everything and runs off to join the circus – except there is no circus in this story, so he heads to the docks where the talking cat tells him to claim the fire-breathing dragon on Wild Island.
It takes about thirty seconds and a pair of dull scissors to free Boris the Dragon (Gaten Matarazzo) and infuriate the multitude of greater and lesser apes tying him down. I’m not exactly sure how this works, but Boris is a pudgy, immature dragon who looks like candy and has tiny non-functional wings. And it is the destiny of Boris to rescue the sinking island because of course it is. And how will the pudgy immature dragon with broken wings pull an entire island out of the sea and keep it afloat? Well, I saw the film and I’d still say your guess is as good as mine.
Everybody in this film needs to grow up … including the film itself. The heart of My Father’s Dragon is the delightful kinship 
between Boris and Elmer, what motivates their friendship, and what it means to be a friend. These are good lessons to learn while somebody tries explaining to anybody –including either lead- how this dragon is gonna pull this sinking island out of the sea. I found myself rooting reluctantly for Boris and Elmer. I guess I wanted them to succeed, but I didn’t enjoy either character enough to worry about it in any sense. Huh, so the dragon couldn’t lift the island. Oh, that’s a shame. What’s on Hulu?
I am not the target audience, obviously. Will your kids like My Father’s Dragon? Hard to say. I think they’ll like Elmer more than I did, so they will likely loathe Elmer’s time in the city, being poor, ignored, and bullied. Then there is time on the island, where Elmer is excited and thrilled, then confused, frustrated, and hunted by a gorilla voiced by Ian McShane – personally, I wouldn’t want to encounter any creature voiced by Ian McShane … including Ian McShane. I thinking only the bravest or bored-est children will see this one through to the end. Will they be satisfied with the result? That I cannot predict. If only I had an immature, pudgy, candy-colored dragon with a poorly defined skill set to predict for me. Can the dragin do that? Well, geez, if he can lift an entire island with batwings, I think mine is the easier ask.
Elmer didn’t know what to do
With all the troubles he’d been through
But a dragon he found
Who turned out to be round
Maybe it will make decent glue
Rated PG, 99 Minutes
Director: Nora Twomey
Writer: Meg LeFauve
Genre: Learnin’ a lesson
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Kids who enjoyed the book, I imagine
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “This animation sucks”
