Mythically-Inclined, Scaly, Fiery Dragons in Media Quiz

Answer: Reign of Fire

Starring Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and Gerard Butler, "Reign of Fire" sort of fell by the wayside after its initial release but ended up grossing over $80,000,000 in the box office. Directed by "X-Files" director Rob Bowman, the movie began with a dragon being awakened from an ages-long sleep beneath the London Underground, and after twenty years and a fire-ravaging across the globe, dragons ruled the lands and bred, essentially taking over.

A group led by Bale, holed up in an English castle, encountered a group of Americans and set out to protect themselves and stop the dragons once and for all. Yes, there was fire.

Answer: Shrek

The Dragon from "Shrek" made her debut in the first film of the franchise back in 2001 as the guard of Princess Fiona waiting in a castle atop what appears to be a volcano. Shrek and his sidekick, Donkey, ended up leashing the dragon and preventing their fiery fate at the last second, escaping with Fiona.

In later films, Donkey and Dragon got together and had several little Dronkeys. The original "Shrek" was a hit for Dreamworks Animation; it grossed almost $500,000,000 in the box office while the series as a whole (including the "Puss in Boots" spin-off) earned over three billion dollars as one of the top-grossing franchises ever made. Dragon appeared in all four core films.

Answer: The Goblet of Fire

The fourth film of the eight-movie "Harry Potter" series (stretched from seven books) saw Harry getting thrust into the rarely-occurring Triwizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts. During the first of three deadly tasks, Harry had to go head-to-head against one of four dragons (he was drawn the worst of the four, the Hungarian Horntail) to retrieve a golden egg. To do so he ended up summoning his Firebolt broomstick from a distance and flying to his desired object. Mike Newell directed this fourth film and it earned almost $900,000,000 internationally; it was the third-lowest gross, even with that total, of the eight films.

Answer: Yu-Gi-Oh

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon was a very powerful card early in the show possessed by Seto Kaiba, Yugi's main opponent in the first major arc of the series on the Battle Islands. While not the most powerful seen on the show it does play a major role as an intimidating obstacle to overcome.

Much of the series was based around the interactive card games played by the main character, Yugi, and his friends. They built decks, developed relationships with the cards, and fought ancient evils (of course) over the course of the original show, its subsequent spin-offs, and feature films.

Answer: Game of Thrones

"Game of Thrones", based on the "Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy novels written by George R. R. Martin, debuted on HBO in 2011, quickly emerging as one of the most popular cable shows ever released, let alone popular fantasy shows ever released. Praised for its production value, the show also featured three dragons, thought to be extinct, which hatched from young Daenerys Targaryen's eggs, a wedding gift from her marriage to Khal Drogo, when she accompanied them into her husband's funeral pyre in the first season.

The fifth book in the series, indicating the importance of the creatures in the works, was "A Dance with Dragons".

Answer: The Hobbit

Although initially conceived as a two-part film prequel to "The Lord of the Rings", the massively popular trilogy originally created by J. R. R. Tolkien (and the last film of which was an Oscar-winner for 'Best Picture'), "The Hobbit" was expanded into three parts by director Peter Jackson.

While the first film, "An Unexpected Journey", briefly brought the viewer (and the titular Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins) closer to Smaug, the second film, "The Desolation of Smaug", would bring the series along the same track as the book, onward to Lonely Mountain.

It was announced that Sherlock Holmes portrayer Benedict Cumberbatch would voice Smaug in the series.

Answer: Q - The Winged Serpent

Made by "It's Alive!" director Larry Cohen, "Q" was a bit of an odd one involving the arrival of Quetzalcoatl, a dragon God from Aztec mythology, who ventured northward to the Big Apple to roost atop the Chrysler Building. An obscure horror film, it gained a bit of a cult following in later years despite being a big flop in limited release (recouping about a fifth of its million dollar budget).

The movie starred Michael Moriarty and David Carradine. Cohen has since progressed into screenwriting.

Answer: Dragons' Den

"Dragon's Den" originated in Japan under the title "Money Tigers" in 2001 before it was shopped internationally by Sony, ultimately picking up in many of the major countries. It appeared under the name "Dragons' Den" in the UK and Canada while the U.S. called theirs "Shark Tank".

The premise is the same though-- a group of billionaire investors hear out inventors and marketers wishing to get financial backing for a product or service and they strike a deal which ultimately gets them their much-needed investment (which, occasionally, results in a bit of a windfall if the demand is right) at the cost of needing to sell a stake of their company to said magnate (and the TV network, marginally).

In other cases, investors have turned down the panel of dragons only to find great success, simply through exposure on TV.

Answer: Mulan

Mushu the Dragon, voiced by Eddie Murphy, was Mulan's appointed guardian in the movie "Mulan" after the guardian they had originally sought to protect their descendant did not awaken. Nonetheless, with Mushu's help, Fa Mulan was able to defeat the Huns, save the Emperor of China, and get the guy after infiltrating the Chinese army by posing as a young man. Mulan was played by Ming-Na in this major release which earned over $300,000,000 in the box office.

Although by no means as popular as films in the earlier Disney Renaissance, it held its own after the less-successful "Hercules".

Answer: Pokemon

Charizard is the final evolution of Charmander (by way of Charmeleon) in the original "Pokemon" video games but he's also seen in the "Pokemon" TV series and feature films, usually as an unruly Pokemon unable to be tamed by protagonist Ash Ketchum. Charizard, while considered a 'Flame Pokemon' and not at all a dragon-type like Dragonite, Dratini, or Gyarados, does have the outward appearance of a dragon and is able to breathe fire, fly, and claw at foes.

After single-handedly making Ash lose in the Pokemon League Tournaments, Charizard later is set free to live and train in the Charicific Valley.

He has returned periodically in Ash's party, especially in later seasons.