8 August 2023

Zog (2018)

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s sweet, keen-but-clumsy dragon Zog flaps his way out of their 2010 children’s book and onto our screens in brilliant colour and extra-strength cuteness thanks to South African animating studio Triggerfish (who’ve been involved with series including Revolting Rhymes, Highway Rat, Stick Man and more).

The voice cast is stellar, with comedians Sir Lenny Henry narrating the lively, rhyming storylines, Tracey Ullman voicing Madame Dragon and Rob Brydon filling in on a host of townsfolk. Hugh Skinner (Fleabag’s Harry) voices Zog, Patsy Ferran (Jamestown’s Mercy) is Princess Pearl, and Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones’ Jon Snow) is Sir Gadabout.

In this award-winning tale, young Zog really wants to win a gold star at Madame Dragon’s school, but over his first three years of studying roaring, flying and fire-breathing, all that Zog collects are burns, bumps and bruises. And in year four, he will face his biggest challenge yet – kidnapping an actual princess. Perhaps Zog’s kind young human friend who’s been patching up all his sore spots over the years could help with that…

The action is crammed with visual jokes, so if the small fry controlling your lounge demand this on repeat, there will still be plenty to see by the inevitable 20^th re-screening.

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