The Dragon Spell

Lore & Background

The film's development began in 2007 under the working title 'Mykyta Kozhumyak and the Fire Flower,' but was frozen in 2008 due to the Great Recession and loss of funding from an anonymous Ukrainian businessman. Production resumed in 2011 with support from Panama Grand Prix, Ukrainian investors, and Derzhkino, which provided 4 million hryvnias—one-fifth of the total budget. Director Manuk Depoyan stated that a team of several hundred people worked on the film for two years, with the core animators being Ukrainian artists based in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa. The film was completed in 2016, with international experience helping to enhance character and scene appearance.

Reader's Guide

The Dragon Spell holds significance as a milestone in Ukrainian animation, being one of the country's first major 3D animated features. Its nomination for the Ukrainian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards brought international attention, though it was not selected as the official submission. The film received mixed reviews: some Ukrainian and foreign viewers and experts found it successful and interesting, while critics characterized it as technically outdated and excessively clichéd. Commercially, it performed well in Ukraine, collecting nearly 12 million hryvnias and attracting about 200,000 viewers, and was released in several foreign markets including Poland, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, and South Korea, grossing $1.98 million globally. The film's script was written in English to allow later adaptation by American screenwriters, and the original voice recording was done in English for phonetic and dubbing reasons.

Did You Know?

• The film's original working title was 'Mykyta Kozhumyak and the Fire Flower.'
• The music was composed by Serhiy Krutsenko and performed by a 62-person orchestra, with seven songs including a main track by Zlata Ognevich.
• The film was shot in English in the original because dubbing in English after Ukrainian dubbing is more difficult due to English phonetics and vocabulary.