Dragon Tales

Dragon Tales is an animated educational fantasy children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser and produced by Sony Pictures Television, Sesame Workshop, Columbia TriStar Television, and Adelaide Productions. The story focuses on the adventures of two ordinary kids, Emmy and Max, and their dragon friends Ord, Cassie, Zak, Wheezie, and Quetzal. The series began broadcasting on PBS on their PBS Kids block on September 6, 1999, and aired its final episode on November 25, 2005. Yearim Productions was responsible for the animation for all seasons (Sunwoo Entertainment and Wang Film Productions only did animation for season 1), with the exception of Koko Enterprises, which recorded the show, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The U.S. Department of Education, Kellogg's, and greeting card manufacturer, American Greetings^[5] were responsible for the funding.

Contents

• 1 Background
  • 1.1 Origin
  • 1.2 Show premise and overview
• 2 Characters
  • 2.1 Emmy
  • 2.2 Max
  • 2.3 Enrique
  • 2.4 Ord
  • 2.5 Cassie
  • 2.6 Zak and Wheezie
  • 2.7 Quetzal
  • 2.8 Other characters
• 3 Places in Dragon Land
• 4 Release history
  • 4.1 Music and songs
• 5 Episodes
• 6 Reception
  • 6.1 Awards
• 7 In other media
  • 7.1 Video games
  • 7.2 Marketing and merchandise
  • 7.3 Live events
• 8 References
  • 8.1 Citations
• 9 External links

Background

Origin

Dragon Tales is based on characters created in 1978^[6] by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker. Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graft when he began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that were too big to control.^[6][7][8] In 1995, Jim Coane, then a producer at Columbia TriStar Television, found the artwork and developed it into a television series with several writers. The project was considered something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known franchise like many children's television programs, such as Arthur or Paddington Bear. The series was immediately shipped to PBS member stations at the suggestion of PBS, but all originally passed at the time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, who loved the idea, brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain an $8.5 million grant from the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure.^[9] Coane stated that there was never any consideration of trying to shop the program to a commercial broadcast network and that PBS was, in his mind, the only destination for the program.^[10] As Columbia TriStar was the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are owned by the Sony Pictures Entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony, Dragon Tales became one of the few PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a major Hollywood studio's TV subsidiary; The other PBS shows were Bill Nye the Science Guy (made by Walt Disney Television), and Curious George (produced by Universal Television). In 2002, CTTV was renamed to Sony Pictures Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the program.

After a tour of the lot of Sony Studios, Wesley Eure created the first treatment of the show, including the initial conception of the two-headed dragon Zak and Wheezie, back then known as "Snarf and Bugger." The series received a massive multi-million dollar grant from the federal government, beating out The Muppets and Sesame Street for the request. As part of the conditions for the grant, Eure was required to create a companion series for the program, which he titled Show and Tell Me, based on his own lecture series known as "Anyone Can Write a Book." Though the companion series was never actually created, Eure remains hopeful that it will one day be produced. Eure's name was not included in the initial credits for the series, forcing him to hire an attorney to ensure that he received credit.^[11]

Following the development of a show bible by Jeffrey Scott, with some tweaks by writers Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser, the series was ordered for just over 60 eleven-minute episodes by PBS. Scott was assigned to write and edit half, with Ruby/Lesser assigned to the other half. At this point, the writing team was provided with a document titled "FUN AND LEARNING IN DRAGON LAND: A Writer's Guide to Dragon Tales Educational Content" which provided directives as to which curriculum should be included within the stories, such as "emotional challenges > understanding other people's emotions > recognizing and labeling feelings in others" and the statement that "CURRICULUM IS PARAMOUNT!" After the creation of the first script, all writing parties involved agreed that the scripts "weren't fun or funny, they were flat and boring." The writers successfully explained to the consultants, educators and psychologists of PBS that children watch television to be entertained and must be entertained in order to be educated. They were then provided with a new directive, "Come up with entertaining stories and shoehorn in the curriculum wherever it fits!" Scott states that from the experience he learned an invaluable lesson about how to create a successful preschool series.^[12] Dong Woo Animation, Rough Draft Korea, Sunwoo Entertainment, Wang Film Productions (season 1 only), Yearim, Siriol Productions (season 3 only) and Lotto Animation contributed some of the animation for this series.

Show premise and overview

The series focuses on the adventures of Emmy and Max, two human siblings in possession of an enchanted dragon scale which, upon reciting a special rhyme engraved into its casing, can magically transport them to Dragon Land, a whimsical fantasy world inhabited by colorful dragons. Befriended by four friendly dragons with distinctive personalities - the fearful, but strong Ord; the shy, yet sweet-natured Cassie; and polar opposite twins, neat-freak Zak and rambunctious Wheezie - the two children frequently travel to Dragon Land and help their friends in fulfilling particular quests, assisting them in their daily problems, and learning important morals through their experiences in Dragon Land.

Designed to educate preschoolers mildly in Hispanic culture, a new character named Enrique debuted during the show's final season, providing the series with a third protagonist. Surrounded by a variety of unique characters and faced with numerous differing situations, Emmy and Max commonly embark on adventures with their dragon friends, conquering fears or achieving goals in spite of any obstacles along the way.

As a series broadcast on PBS, the program has an educational focus, combining lessons of a pro-social nature with those of more general educational value. Educational themes covered included identifying shapes, learning words and letters in both English and Spanish, counting and basic math. Social themes are also covered, such as good sportsmanship, the importance of being a good friend, overcoming obstacles such as jealousy or fears and getting along with siblings. Many of the show's interstitial song segments, known as "Dragon Tunes," also covered such themes, such as "Make It Fun", which encourages viewers to not complain about having to do seemingly mundane chores such as washing dishes or helping parents with cooking meals, but instead find ways to make them fun; and "Hum," which encourages those who had a fear of the dark or trying new things to hum softly to comfort themselves. Three stated goals of the program's educational philosophy are the encouragement of pursuing new experiences, finding ways to approach and learn from challenges and that learning can come through trying and not succeeding entirely.^[14] Despite two of the show's human leads, Emmy and Enrique, being six years old, the show's described target audience was children closer to the age of four.^[15]

Another key topic of the program is the encouragement of honest and candid expressions of emotion. In "Cassie, the Green-Eyed Dragon," Cassie feels jealous of her little brother, Finn, who gets everyone's attention when she takes him to school for "circle time." Discussing the matter with her best friend, Emmy, and her teacher, Quetzal, helps her to understand that jealousy is a natural feeling that everyone experiences sometimes, but that there are ways that she can appreciate her brother, while still feeling appreciated herself.^[16] In "Feliz Cumpleaños, Enrique," Enrique feels sad and homesick for his homeland of Colombia when his birthday celebrations in Dragon Land are not like the traditions of those back in his old home. He talks with Quetzal, who encourages him to cry, even though he had been told that crying was something a boy at his age was not supposed to do. After doing so, he feels better and is able to enjoy his party celebrations.^[17]

As with Sesame Street, which is also produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), the program's creators encourage "co-viewing," the practice of parents or other caregivers watching the program along with their children and engaging in activities such as discussion, singing and dancing, and pretend play.^[13] The program's official website offers a number of activities and lesson plans to aid in these efforts.^[18][19]

Characters

Protagonists Emmy and Max (top image) in a season 2 episode of Dragon Tales, "Lucky Stone" (2001). Ord, Enrique, Max, Emmy, Zak and Wheezie, and Cassie in a season 3 episode (bottom image) of Dragon Tales, "Rise and Bloom" (2005).

Emmy

Emmy (voiced by Andrea Libman) is a 6-year-old brunette girl, who commonly appears as the leader of the group until she gave her position to Enrique while helping him get used to Dragon Land. She's Max's older sister. Her best friend is Cassie, and she's perhaps known for saying, "Definitely!" whenever a good idea arises. Though Emmy is not ashamed to do "girly" things with Cassie, she's also heavily into sports and games and generally is up for any activity. Though she experiences occasional jealousy of her brother, the two are otherwise usually together within Dragon Land and share many adventures. Though a brave, smart natural leader, she's also impulsive and does not always think before she acts. She's typically seen wearing a blue button-up dress over a red short sleeve shirt.^[20]

Max

Max (voiced by Danny McKinnon) is 4 years old,^[21] and is Emmy's younger brother. For the most part, he and Emmy get along fine, but occasionally have arguments due to him being prone to anger. His best friend is Ord. Though Max loves Emmy, he sometimes struggles with being the younger brother, and is usually frustrated about being too little to do certain things, or when Emmy acts in certain ways. He's of an adventurous sort and sometimes helps to give courage to Ord when he's afraid of certain things. He's kind to others, but often enjoys acting silly or goofy. He sometimes acts in a stubborn manner, determined to prove that a child his age can do things on his own, even when he really needs help. He usually wears a green short-sleeved shirt with yellow on the collar & edges of the shirt-sleeves and brown slacks.^[20] Max was named after the son of executive producer Jim Coane.^[11]

Enrique

Enrique (voiced by Aida Ortega) is 6 years old. He is Emmy and Max's new best friend and next-door neighbor who moved from Colombia to the United States and also once lived in Puerto Rico.^[22] He is raised by his father and his grandmother ("abuelita") ^[23] He first appears in the Season 3 episode "To Fly with a New Friend", and travels to Dragon Land with the children when Max encourages Emmy to share their secret. His recent experiences in South America provide more opportunities for the characters to demonstrate the meanings of new Spanish words.^[23] He misses his homeland of Colombia and saddened by reminders of times from his old home.

He rides with Zak and Wheezie, the two-headed dragon who rarely flew with any human friends prior to Enrique's debut in Season 3.

His personality is somewhat bashful but he is sometimes shy to join in on new experiences. However, he finds that he enjoys himself when he allows himself to let go, express his feelings and then move forward to have fun. He's raised by his grandparents and described as an intensely smart and logical character. A series of moves throughout his early life has left him jaded and wary of both making new friends and trying new things. He normally wears a yellow short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans.^[23]

Enrique received mixed reviews. The presence of Enrique on the program, in conjunction with Max and Emmy, was the subject of a study "'They Are?!' Latino Difference vis-à-vis Dragon Tales," which was critical of the show's use of the characters, feeling that the series ultimately "undermines multiculturalism because it fails to nurture children's ability to live fearlessly with and within difference."^[24]

Ord

Ord (voiced by Ty Olsson) is a strong blue male dragon who is Max's best friend. He is extremely fond of food and always carries some just in case; a running gag in the show features Ord making "Dragon Corn" by throwing the kernels in the air and popping them with his fire breath. He's also allergic to dandelions. Despite his physical strength, Ord is sometimes scared due to his fear of the dark and thunder, and possesses a magical tendency to turn invisible when he is upset or frightened. Ord's sun-shaped Dragon Badge glows when he faces his fears.^[25]

Cassie

Cassie (voiced by Chantal Strand) is a shy, cute, reserved and sweet pink female dragon and Emmy's best friend. She possesses a magical tendency to shrink when she is too shy, sad, or scared, may occasionally come across as slightly insecure and uncertain, and is prone to worrying, especially about making a mistake. However, Cassie is distinguished by her kind heart and maternal sweetness, primarily as a result of her responsibilities as an older sister and babysitter to a myriad of younger siblings. Cassie also is characterized by her color combination of pink and yellow, along with blue speckles in some areas. Cassie knows just about everything there is to know about Dragon Land and has a deep love of fairy-tales, both stemming from her love of reading, as well as being an amazing singer and dancer. Her dragon orb-shaped badge glows when she feels confident and believes in herself.^[26]

Zak and Wheezie

Zak and Wheezie (voiced by Jason Michas and Kathleen Barr respectively) are conjoined twin dragons with opposite personalities; Zak (green) is male, and Wheezie (purple) is female. Zak is neat and clean, worries a lot, and is pessimistic about many things. His catchphrase is "Take it easy, Wheezie!", which he often says when Wheezie takes off running, dragging him with her. Wheezie, on the other hand, is bold, hyper, confident, and free-spirited, with a tendency to be messy, much to her brother's annoyance. Her catchphrase is "Love it!", when she loves something. The two have a shared love of music and performing and they often perform in talent shows and recitals together.^[25]

Zak and Wheezie always fly with Enrique. However, in the first two seasons, Zak and Wheezie rarely flew with any human friends. In Season 3, Enrique was their partner. Their dragon badges glow when they work together and get along, though will sometimes glow independently when one of them accomplishes something on their own of significance. Although they fight a lot, they are very close and care about each other a lot.

Quetzal

Quetzal (voiced by Eli Gabay) is an elderly yellow dragon originally from Mexico who is the teacher at The School in the Sky where young dragons attend. He tries to encourage his students to find solutions to their problems on their own, but is a sounding board who offers stability and comfort, as well as sound advice.^[25] In the episode "Snow Dragon", Quetzal mentions it has been hundreds of years since he visited the dragon snow sculpture as a child, implying he is centuries old. He speaks Spanish with a strong accent. He also has an identical twin brother named Fernando who works in his garden.

Other characters

Each of the following characters have appeared more than once:

• Arlo is a dragon who works at the Dragon Dump, he has a machine at the Dragon Dump which he calls his "lil' ol' recycler" that sorts out things that can be used again. Voiced by Scott McNeil.
• Dr. Booboogone is a veteran pink dragon who works as a doctor. She wears a doctor's coat. Voiced by Shirley Milliner.
• Captain Scallywag is a pirate who captains a flying ship. Voiced by Scott McNeil.
• Chilly is a living snowman who lives on top of the Stickleback Mountains with his snowdog Nippy. Voiced by French Tickner.
• Cyrus is a conniving lizard-like slinky serpent, a minor antagonist in the show he often tries to steal others' eggs to eat. Voiced by Ian James Corlett.
• The Doodle Fairy is a fairy with green skin and purple dress. She does not speak but can doodle.
• Eunice is a winged unicorn. She cannot see very well, so she wears glasses. Voiced by Janyse Jaud.
• Finn is Cassie's younger brother. He is light blue, toddler-aged, attached to his blankie, and only just learning to fly. He is prone to tantrums when upset. Voiced by Ellen Kennedy.^[27]
• The Giant of Nod is the leader of a group of gnome-like creatures called the Nodlings. While much bigger than his fellow Nodlings, he is smaller than any of the main characters but is enormously strong. Voiced by Blu Mankuma on most appearances and Paul Dobson in "Much Ado About Nodlings" only.
• Princess Kidoodle is the ruler of the Doodle Fairy Kingdom. She seems to be much older than any other doodle fairies.
• Kiki is Cassie's younger sister. Kiki is light green. She seems slightly younger than Finn and still drinks from a bottle. She is attached to her "squishy", an oddly-shaped fruit that she enjoys squeezing.^[28] Voiced by Ellen Kennedy.
• The Little Bird with the Big Eyes, is a bird that lives in the Forest of Darkness who has big round eyes.
• Lorca is Max, Emmy, Zak, Wheezie, Ord and Cassie's friend. He was born without wings and can use a wheelchair because he was born this way and is incapable of flight. Despite his physical limitations, however, Lorca enjoys participating in adventures and sports activities and encourages his friends to think of new ways to do things. Voiced by Lenore Zann.^[29]
• Norm is a friendly little gnome who loves to count. Voiced by Stevie Vallance.
• Monsieur Marmadune is the main ruler and leader of Kingdom Come, who tells Ord that Kingdom Come is the happiest place a dragon could ever be. Voiced by Cusse Mankuma.
• Mr. Pop is a gnome-like character that temporarily steals Wheezie's laugh with his sound switcher. Voiced by Ian James Corlett.
• Mungus is a giant who lives in a castle in the clouds, he knows many folks in Dragon Land since he can travel far and wide in just a few steps. Voiced by Garry Chalk.
• Polly Nimbus is the operator of the cloud factory, which controls Dragon Land's weather. Voiced by Kathleen Barr.
• Poozy is a fairy with butterfly wings that was once Cassie's pet caterpoozle. She looks similar to the Doodle Fairy and like the Doodle fairy she does not speak.
• Priscilla is the manager at the lost and found, who during her first appearance, was feeling embarrassed because her wings were bigger than those of other dragons. She eventually realized that there is nothing wrong with being different when the uses her big wings to help Mungus clean up his castle in a "different" way. Voiced by Erin Fitzgerald.
• Sid Sycamore is a talking tree who loves telling jokes that relate to the concept of trees, the dragons' tree house is attached to him. When upset, the children will sometimes go to talk to him to be cheered up by his jokes. Voiced by Scott McNeil. (See "Emmy's Dreamhouse / Dragon Sails" [sic] regarding use as a treehouse.)
• Slurpy is Zak and Wheezie's pet furball. Voiced by Stevie Vallance.
• Windy is a little wind that likes to blow like her father. Voiced by Erin Fitzgerald in Season 1, Maggie Blue O'Hara in Seasons 2-3.
• Wyatt is a talking wishing well that immediately grants any wish for a single coin. He's old friends with Quetzal. Whenever coins pile up too high, he knows it is time for them to be emptied and taken to the First Dragon Land Bank. Earlier in the series, he was called Willy. Voiced by Doug Parker.
• Emmy and Max's parents, they are not seen, but their voices are often heard off-screen. They call out to Emmy and Max from downstairs at the beginning or end of an episode. Their mom is voiced by Kathleen Barr, and their dad is voiced by Eli Gabay.^[30]

Places in Dragon Land

Dragon Land is the fantasy world where the majority of the show takes place. It is home to numerous colorful, dragons and many other fantastical creatures. Max and Emmy travel to Dragon Land by holding an enchanted dragon scale while reciting the rhyme: "I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land apart." The scale then teleports them to Dragon Land. It appears that it does not matter who does or does not say the rhyme, as long as at least one person says it; whoever is holding the dragon scale while they say the rhyme will be teleported with them. Returning home from Dragon Land is done in the same fashion, although no dragon scale is needed. The rhyme is: "I wish, I wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home until next time." The person reciting the rhyme, as well as all those holding their hands, will be transported back to their original homes.

• Basketball Court – For one episode, Emmy, Max, and the dragons come here for a game of basketball.
• Chile Valley is a valley with many tasty, yet spicy chilly peppers, which are red in color and resemble dragonberries.
• The Cloud Factory is a large factory in the mountains, where a dragon named Polly Nimbus manufactures various types of clouds and ejects them into the sky as needed.
• Crystal Cave is a giant, crystallized cave where crystals are stored and special crystals dance, with the aid of water from Singing Springs, and some Dandelion fuzzies from the Dandelion Forest.
• Crystal Fountain is a fountain inside Crystal Cave for cleaning.
• Dandelion Forest is a forest made of dandelions that actually roar and growl like real lions, and are as tall as trees. Ord is so allergic to dandelions that when he sneezes in front of the dandelions, he usually does so with an incredible force that the dandelions lose their seeds and turn sad.
• Dr. BoobooGone's office is where dragons go when sick or hurt.
• Dragon Beaver Dam is a dam where the dragonbeavers (a cross between dragons and beavers) reside.
• Dragon Land Laundry is a place where dragons do their laundry.
• Dragon Dump is the place where the citizens of Dragon Land send their garbage to be recycled or disposed of. It is run by a dragon named Arlo.
• Dragoon Lagoon is a large lagoon seen in many episodes, home to creatures called silliguanas and hissyfish, complete with a plug at the bottom, similar to a bathtub.
• The Forest of Darkness is a large, very dark forest that holds trees with glowing stars. Ord is very afraid of this forest because of its darkness and whatever inhabitants live in it.
• The Knuckerhole is Zak & Wheezie's home. In fact, these holes are found all over Dragonland.
• Lost Forever Hole is a small tunnel formed by a river. According to Ord, anything that flows on the river through the hole is "lost forever". Because it is not really explored and it is unknown where it goes to, it is also unknown if this is true or not. It only appeared in "Big Funky Cloud".
• Marshmallow Marsh is a swamp full of sticky marshmallow goo, which is almost impossible to clean off and it is near Mushroom Meadow.
• Mushroom Meadow is a large field of mushrooms with "bouncy" tops. The dragons and the children often play there.
• Rainbow Canyon is a canyon with pigments that make paint. When it rains, the pigments turn to mud.
• Rainbow Falls is a waterfall where there are always rainbows.
• The School in the Sky is the school run by Quetzal who teaches the dragon children.
• Singing Springs is a gold fountain that plays music. It is seen in the opening and closing of the Dragon Tunes segment.
• Snowy Summit is a frigid, snow-covered mountain range, where Chilly the Snowman and his snow puppy Nippy live.
• Stickleback Mountains is another mountain range, with colored sticks that have to be pulled out carefully.
• Treasure Trove is a cave where dragons keep their treasure, guarded by a magic door named Woody in the knuckerhole.
• Turtle Rock is a rock that is shaped like a turtle.
• Wyatt is a well where anyone can make wishes, which actually come true if they flip a coin into the well. The well is inhabited by a stone statue of a walrus named Wyatt who laughs at silly jokes.