I first watched 'The Last Dragon' on Animal Planet when I was 12 years old, a brilliant age to be introduced to it. It was the peek of my interest in fantasy, having experienced 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia', and to see a documentary depicting such creatures in a naturalistic context - a kind of mystical 'Walking with Dinosaurs' - that was like a dragon hoard of awesome. But even after ten years, when I watch this video again, it still fills me with great satisfaction knowing that a lot of effort went into creating such a visceral depiction of the creatures. I love fantasy and mythology, but what makes the film succeed is how it meshes those elements with a certain element of natural history. A lot like the Rankin/Bass cartoon 'The Flight of Dragon', 'The Last Dragon' attempts and ultimately succeeds in creating a scientific explanation for their behavior - how they flew and breathed fire, mating rituals, family dynamics, even explaining the diversity of visual depictions between cultures worldwide.All of this is depicted in the same way as 'Walking with Dinosaurs', digital creatures displaced against live action backgrounds and they all look spectacular. One particular scene involving two classic European dragons I remember as a teenager actually being on the verge of tears. I dare not give away what the action is specifically but suffice to say that the visual style mixed with a really clever and creative depiction of their natural behavior is what won me over and I was completely immersed in that world.As a huge fan boy of folklore and mythology, a little bit of me still carries that child-like belief that some kind of creature as a dragon did exist at some time... Hey, if 50% of Icelanders are allowed to believe that elves still exist - and they definitely do - I get to believe these creatures could have feasibly exist. 'The Last Dragon' gave me that sense of possibility and if you're like me or you have kids who are at that age, this documentary will certainly have a similar effect. It has the right balance of sweeping visual adventure mixed with the scientific-ish jargon that appeals to a lot of audiences. It also helps that both narrators provide real gravitas to the script; both the British narration by Ian Holm and the North American track by Patrick Stewart are brilliantly cast. This is a real sweeping tribute to the 'what-if' genre of documentary television and can be enjoyed by families, fantasy lovers or just those people looking for an adventure.

Just watch this, before the controversial Mermaid Documentaries, Animal Planet made a convincing Dragon documentary featuring Tyrannosaurus rex and Chinese Tigers being second the the reptilian fire-breathing serpents and still falling short against their battle with mankind. We see a supposed discovery of a dead Dragon in Romania among the Carpathian Mountains. The dragons may be a lie, but the rest of the aspects of Biology, Zoology, Evolution, Ecology, and Paleontology are accurately used in the description of a mythological beast as they challenge our beliefs in the beasts. Look for someone who hasn't seen or heard of this film, then see their face change as they watch it. You, too may feel this way. Even knowing the story was only that, I was convinced and started looking through dragon stories for any connections as well as searching though different animals for cases of convergent evolution. I especially recommend that you show this to kids, as they will certainly be fascinated and start to wonder.More convincing (and even more true) than a Politician's speeches, take your friends and family into the Last Dragon's World, and experience this fantasy made real.

This documentary (or I should say mockumentary) is the perfect example of how ridiculous can the people be, when they have full enthusiasm on something like that. Honestly, I hate Cryptozoology. It is unscience, it just destroy it. However, something positive in this was the visual effects (dragons were beautiful), but some of the information in this mockumentary was totally fake, and that is really disappointing because it was coming from scientists, so that is the reason why it deserves a 1 of 10 and not a 0. An example of false information would be the hydrogen idea: It is true that, according to Chemystry, the hydrogen is produced in the stomach but it is impossible to be produced in that proportions, so in that case, you need a good explanation of what really happens in a dragon stomach. There are a lot of substances whit hydrogen in the nature but not the necessary to aloud an animal like that to fly, and the hydrogen does not appear from nothing, so it is impossible. Anyway, there is actually something worse, the idea of the platinum: This element is more difficult to find than gold, and I cannot explain myself how dragons survive depending of that. It is ridiculous, they present dragons like creatures with low chances of conquering the planet Earth, but off course at least that explain why they got extincted. Probably cryptologist's call themselves scientists, but they are not. People like them say lies like in this mockumentary, and what is worst, some people buy them. But I do not think that a person who cares about Science would believe in dragons after watching this. Those fake scientists waste their time.

I think that most everyone wants to believe that extraordinary things exist and this film shows no restraint in trying to exploit that to the fullest. The presentation is very interesting, well presented and the graphics are state of the art, but from a scientific point of view it just doesn't work. Hydrogen filled flying bladders? They would need to be the size of a Mack truck to be useful. And then there's the ever-present possibility of a catastrophic explosion. I have no problem with fantasy, just don't try to pass it off as fact. Some folks will always misunderstand. All in all the film is entertaining, but I constantly found myself saying "oh brother, what a load of ....". If you want a FAKE documentary, watch This Is Spinal Tap instead. Or at the very least turn the sound off.