wait remember Dragon Booster it was the first animation project of the newly established
nerdcore entertainment which is criminally overlooked today the series Sports an impressive
Gemini award win for best animated series and is recognized for its revolutionary animation
technique mixed with episodic storytelling in children's action television and I haven't even
mentioned the unique and engaging World building that it achieved created by Rob
travolino and Kevin Maurer the series was very popular with audiences worldwide and
even had a more impressively sized toy Market than most animated series at the time despite
not living past 39 episodes the series Sports a wider range of toys and merchandise including
McDonald's Happy Meal toys in both the UK and us and tons of action figures featuring
multiple dragons and characters from the show there was also a Dragon Booster Nintendo DS
game released in December of 2005. so with what seems like a pretty large reach into the
international audience Toy Market in general positive consensus with fans why do didn't
the series continue despite there being plans for more and why is it not remembered as much
today looking back at the series which kind of felt like a fever dream was actually a really
fun experience one that truly surprised me if you enjoy the video you better subscribe put
those dragons in turbo mode because we're going to speed right into the world of draconis with
Dragon Booster this is exactly why I like video game dragons better than real ones dumb dragon
our story starts on the world of draconis which had been subject to a large war that broke out 2
000 years ago in the legend that is shared as the opening to each episode we learn about how
it ended with the legendary gold dragon of Legend choosing one human as its Rider to eradicate the
war and bring peace to both sides so that they may coexist I bet you can see where this is going our
story in Dragon Booster takes place two thousand years following the war when tensions are rising
and many people are anticipating Another War to break out our main character is artha pen a
teenager who is the son of a dragon racing company owner his father Connor pen was a huge believer in
the inevitable war and wanting to assure that it would be shut down quickly was working to breed
another legendary Golden Dragon and he did he was successful in breeding Beau short for bocephalus
who quickly becomes friends with artha and after a perilous evening with our main villains who I will
introduce later artha is chosen and bonded with Beau as the new Dragon Booster this solidifies his
future as a destined Peacekeeper who will unite both humans and Dragons once more eliminating the
inevitable war between them both artha Penn is our main character voiced by Matt Hill
Arthur was initially completely disinterested in Dragon Racing preferring video games and hanging
out with his friend parman instead of helping his Tad out in the Stables but as I mentioned
before in the first episode this all completely changes he loses his dad and his home as we know
it making Beau and his little brother Lance the more important things in his life he decides to
start racing putting his and Bo's bond to good use and we get to know his character
more as the series progresses initially I wasn't a huge fan of artha's character
he's characterized as Brash and egotistical his overconfidence in so many situations just makes
me want to pull my hair out but he becomes more tolerable as the series goes on either
I started to get used to his personality or he actually grew along with the series gonna give
him the benefit of the doubt and say it's the latter now you shall feel the full extent Myra
coming to civics now back to Dragon Booster Beau himself is interesting he is actually considered
the real main character by a lot of fans given how integrated he is in each episode he not only
alludes to understanding everything his human counterparts are saying but also is even given
his own voice kind of he makes noises other than just general Dragon Roars and we get to learn that
the dragons themselves are intellectual beings and have complex thoughts but the one thing that
separates them from the humans is communication at least in the form of understanding each other's
languages fully and Beau is pretty integral in the plot progression I don't think anyone would
disagree with me there due to his appearance being unique and literally alluding to his identity as
the golden dragon of Legend he often transforms sporting a new color palette that's blue and red
this is mainly to avoid attention of their enemies and main villains of the series word pain and his
sidekick son Mordred Payne word is voiced by Mark Oliver his main goal in the series is to
blow up in the in okay I've made that joke to me many times his goal is to instigate or just
prevent the prevention of the Dragon in human War his main philosophy being that the war is
inevitable he may as well just grab the reins while he can so that he can benefit from the
outcomes of it he is the CEO of pain Inc which manufactures racing or battling gear for the
dragons and their Riders because you can trick out the dragons like a car and knowing this his desire
for the war to begin makes so much more sense Mordred Payne voiced by Trevor Duvall is word's
loyal son a young character who we immediately see is truly just a product of his environment
he's absolutely the most interesting character of the series as his character progresses from Blind
Faith in his father to questioning everything he's ever been taught and maybe the term loyal
son is not appliable anymore but that's not to say he just turns a coin and joins artha's
side he takes his own path and becomes sort of a warped anti-hero eventually becoming Arthur's
rival as the shadow booster Lance is artha's younger brother his voice provided by Kathleen
Barr Lance's Ash actually a pretty wise character despite serving as the comedic side character he
seems to come in clutch a lot that is when the older characters actually listen to him their
dad is Connor pen voiced by Gary chalk he kind of serves as a general spiritual guide like that of
Mufasa not really treating his kids like kids but like prophecies giving them strange philosophical
messages we technically don't see Connor for the bulk of the entire series but overall he is a
pretty interesting character who is heavily tied into the lore of it all parman Sean or as I like
to call him parmesan is voiced by Lee takar he is Arthur's best friend and technological genius
when it comes to any additional assistance Arthur may need when competing in races or fighting his
enemies maybe it's the British accent maybe it's the cheesy name or maybe even his technological
clumsiness but I sort of consider Parvin to be the actual comedic relief character more
so than Lance once we get into the groove of the show with the Assembly of the pen racing
crew we get to know the other side characters as well including kit one voiced by lenora's San kit
was known as one of the best street racers in Dragon City and she has the attitude to back
it up she's intensely confident to the point where it kind of becomes unbearable but nevertheless she
along with her Dragon Wildfire have a strong bond that absolutely comes in handy when it
comes to defeating word pain and in general for stopping the war another character that we meet
is Mortis a dragon priest who becomes artha's Mentor who really isn't a new character at all
but actually I'll let you discover that as you make your way through the show they are a masked
Guardian figure that mysteriously appears in artha's life we dig into this character and
find out his connections to the story I think it's pretty easy to follow along where this character
comes from and their goals as they come into the picture whether you agree with this character's
actions or not they survey main purpose in aiding artha on his journey to be the best that he can
be and prepared for anything that comes his way the series was created by the duo Rob travolino
and Kevin Maurer of the story hat Animation Studio in Rhode Island the idea was originally from one
of Kevin's shorts stories which already contained a lot of the vision and World building introduced
in the series right off the bat Rob was impressed and they went straight into figuring out how they
can make this series happen there was something truly epic and deeply empowering at its Center
just waiting to be discovered and I wanted to stand in this world as any number of possible
characters to explore its history and live the hero's journey Rob helped expand Kevin's already
established premise combining both feelings of something legendary or Mythic and something that
is fresh and unique the two of them approached the project from a wide lens wanting to lay a
foundation in psychological social and cultural significance rivaling that of Star Wars in their
words both of them were already familiar with ASAP fibke who would later be known for other TV series
of his own making like Slugterra and Storm Hawks as I went over in the Slugterra and Storm Hawks
video nerdcore was founded in 2002 by ASAP and Chuck Johnson after they left a larger animation
company called Mainframe entertainment Mainframe was actually where they became familiar with each
other and Rob Bob and Kevin claim that nerdcore was actually custom built for Dragon Booster
their first pass and an animation test was made with the help of nerdcore in a rented apartment
that was packed with workstations and animators from there they Pride themselves on how quickly
they sold the show to CBC in Disney it premiered on October 23 2004 in the US on tune Disney in the
jet X block and three days later in Canada on the CBC Network it also aired on jet X and Mexico and
on ABC in Australia the series had a really good International audience as well which is attributed
to its great success initially and the shock when it was not picked up for a fourth season or
any continuation following the initial 39 episode order foreign terrible drunken human war is coming
go to Dragon Booster the animation style was praised during the time for being unique and
futuristic at that time when it was airing in 2004 computer animation was a fairly New Concept for
cartoons on television and it became a rush for many studios and creators to jump aboard to give
it a shot shows like Code Lyoko were just starting to play around with the concept of blending 2D and
3D getting comfortable with the inevitable cost effective switch that many networks would champion
and that's why the early 2000s are filled with so many shows that weren't your average traditional
2D animation anymore but the CG animation is not just your regular computer animation here it's a
bit of a blend laying the foundation from any more nerd core animations to follow the series used a
bit of both to ease the transition while the series is technically all computer animation it
does however sport a lot of strategic shading that flattens the characters to appear as if they are
in 2D animation and it works the black outlines the very distinct colors they all create this
illusion that you're looking at a traditional animation all in all when looking at some of
nerdcore's other projects it's definitely not as pretty but it's still incredible especially if
you recognize that the series art was a necessary stepping stone to the more aesthetically pleasing
looks of Storm Hawks and Slugterra it's clear that Rob and Kevin had a ton of World building
to get out of their system and something tells me that we only have been able to experience a
fraction of what they would have had to offer for this world and expanding on stuff like
draconium there is so much to learn about the different types of dragons what colors signify
what through draconium and mag energy and they even created their own alphabet that mirrors and
closely resembles the traditional English alphabet and all this information was conveniently located
in one place called dragoncity.org which now serves as a form of archival method for all
this great information including the original sneak peeks trailers character info even fan art
and fan fiction was unloaded to this site also on this site both Rob and Kevin were very active in
communicating with fans Rob's online name was mag draconis after the Giant Book of ancient knowledge
where fans could regularly ask questions and be in contact with the show's co-creators this was
also a great source to organize fan involvement when it came to the series not being renewed
past 39 episodes there were a lot of plans for the future of Dragon Booster Rob and Kevin had already
written a screenplay for a live-action feature film it would serve as a prequel going into more
detail about the evolution into the present series with a new protagonist Tanis Blair the leader of
the gold Draconian Dragon Priests who trained both young Connor and word in the priesthood they also
were planning a 26 episode follow-up series called Dragon Booster Academy which immerses the viewer
within a new setting within Dragon City the Dragon City Racing Academy it would kind of take on the
traditional structures of a high school series like Teenage Drama and competition and of all
the ideas for the series this sounds like such a fun location to zoom in on kind of resembling the
way Yu-Gi-Oh went after the main traditional series of Yu-Gi-Oh ended and we would end up
going to Yugioh GX which focused on an academy lastly there is an additional episode written
by Rob in the form of a screenplay specifically for fans to enjoy as it was never intended to be
produced it is titled Dragon Booster Episode zero zero zero The Alchemist Rob wrote it in
2008 and it's intended to take place 16 years prior to the first episode of Dragon Booster
it serves the main purpose to fill in a lot of the missing backstory for fans that were curious
enough to take to the internet and be active on their websites and fan forums lastly a series
of books were released in 2005 and 2006 such as the Ultimate Dragon Booster scrapbook and eight
chapter books like the choosing release the dragon Into the Fire and more when reflecting on why the
series didn't continue it's reported that voice actor of artha Matt Hill stated at notakuthon
in 2006 that the series wasn't selling enough action figures but I really can't track down the
original source of that interview so I wouldn't quote me on that specifically but it would make
sense as I mentioned in the beginning of the series that there were a lot of toys in action
figures produced so it would make a lot of sense that more episodes weren't worth the risk of toy
sales or even subpar at best and we see a lot of shows get affected by their toy sales
so it's not far off speculation I specifically remember having one or two of the figures from
the series but I know one of those for sure was from a fast food kids meal and not the actual
for sale more sculpted toys you could get I have always liked the designs in the show I thought
the dragons themselves looked pretty dang cool and the aesthetic of the world the whole show
in general truly is what made the show memorable for me some of the human characters do look a bit
janky in trying to have that mixed 2D yet still CG look but I can get past this as the story the
action and the dragons themselves had me a lot more invested Dragon Booster was a great series
that got its opportunity to tell its story in the original 39 episodes planned out it is a
shame that the following media that was planned did not get a chance but three seasons still
isn't bad at all I enjoyed my time with it and I would love to hear your thoughts on the show
as well so let me know in the comments thanks so much for watching like And subscribe later