1983's
Dragon's Lair was the first commercially-released LaserDisc format coin-op videogame in the United States, featuring a simple-to-learn (yet difficult to master) gameplay style and incredible animation from Don Bluth. Bluth had originally worked for Disney, and was involved with films such as
Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, Pete's Dragon and more. He later struck out on his own and was responsible for the cartoon sequences in
Xanadu as well as his own animated films like
The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time and
All Dogs Go to Heaven. The popularity of the
Dragon's Lair coin-op let to sequels and spins-off videogames (such as 1991's
Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp).
One of the best-remembered spin-offs of the videogame was the 1984-1985 Saturday morning cartoon series with the same name:
Dragon's Lair. Dirk the Daring is back, as is his now-rescued love, Princess Daphne. In the show's 13 episodes, Dirk must go on adventures with Squire Timothy and his horse Bertram. Frequently the dangers they face are familiar from the videogame story: the Phantom Knight, the Giddy Goons, the Mudmen, the Lizard King and even Singe the Dragon. Well-known voice actor Peter Cullen ("Optimus Prime" of
The Transformers) is on the cast as both Bertram the horse and as arrogant Sir Hubert Blunt.
The show was produced by Ruby-Spears, whose library of work is now owned by Hanna Barbera. So it should come as no surprise that the Warner Archive is apparently preparing a 2-DVD manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release of
Dragon's Lair - The Complete Series as part of their Hanna Barbera Classic Collection, as seen on the box art shown below. This packaging (which may not be finalized yet) became available early this morning, having been added overnight at Warner's password-protected B2B site. The online studio store at WBshop.com isn't listing the title yet, so we don't have a release date, pricing, or any other details. Still, we thought this was worth a special Saturday morning news post, to let you know that this is in the works! Stay tuned for updates, of course.
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