Celebrate St. Georges Day with our pick of dragons from the silver screen

Hollywood shows us that not all dragons are monsters.

While St. Patricks Day is marked with parades, green clothing and alcohol (lots of alcohol), we don’t make much of a fuss over St. George. He’s the patron saint of England and he slayed dragons – does it get much better than that? Well we’re here to celebrate George in the best way we know how – by taking a look at our favourite dragon-related movies.

First up and pretty hard to ignore is the latest offering from DreamWorks, makers of Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda. How to Train Your Dragon has done exceptionally well at the box office, impressing both kids and big kids alike with its great 3D and wry humour. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is a young Viking who dreams of becoming a dragon slayer just like his father – Viking chief Stoick (Gerard Butler).But he soon realises that the dragons are not trying to hurt the Vikings and (after a battle) they all live happily ever after together. While it might sound a bit childish, How to Train Your Dragon is great fun and gives us yet another great example of modern 3D cinema.

While How to Train Your Dragon is still in cinemas, we’re heading back in time now for a bit of fire breathing nostalgia. Cast your mind back to 1977; Woody Allen’s Annie Hall picks up an Academy Award, Star Wars hits cinemas and Disney released The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Rescuers. But they also released the musical story of an orphan named Pete (Sean Marshall) who had a very different best friend. Pete’s Dragon Elliott (voiced by Charlie Callas) was mischievous and animated, and it’s one of those films everyone’s seen but you still end up watching it over the holidays.

Fast forward to 1996 and there’s a new dragon movie on the box; Dragonheart is the tale of an ambitious prince who is injured and is given part of a dragon’s heart to survive. When his father is killed and he becomes King Einon (David Thewlis), his trainer Bowen (Dennis Quaid) flees the evil king and teams up with the dragon (Sean Connery) to play an elaborate scam on the local towns. Eventually Bowen kills Draco the dragon in order to destroy Einon end his murderous ways. While we’re looking back nostalgically on this film we suspect it might not be quite as good as we remember, only one way to find out!

Now onto a dragon of a different colour. Completely. Back in the 1970’s (again) martial arts cinema was rising in popularity and Enter the Dragon, starring the awesome Bruce Lee, became the first to be produced by a major Hollywood studio. When Lee (Lee) is invited to fight in a tournament by Han, he’s also recruited to spy on his host by the British Intelligence. After discovering Han is indeed up to no good they battle it out and (of course) Lee wins. Sadly Bruce died shortly before this film premiered, so he never got to see how much of an impact he had on cinema.

Following on from Enter the Dragon we have another martial arts movie – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. When Li’s ancient sword goes missing he decides to track it down while avenging his masters murder and trying to impress the love of his life. And with moves like his (flying through the air and fighting on rooftops) that can’t be hard. With stunning scenery, fights and effects, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a great choice for a dragon-inspired day of cinema.

And if you’re looking to get literary this St. Georges Day, try the original How to Train Your Dragon book, or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Swedish version of the film is doing incredibly well and an American adaptation of the hit novel (part of the Millennium trilogy) is in the works.