"The dragon... is power. Once they were our equals, today humans control the dragon. To race, compete, and fight, at nearly 200 miles per hour! Now, dragons are once again ready to be released. And the powerful dragon of legend will choose a young hero to save the planet... a Dragon Booster.
Release the DRAGON!"
If like many you've never heard of them before, Nerd Corps Entertainment was a Canadian-based animation studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia and founded by Chuck Johnson and Asaph Fipke - both of whom had worked for Mainframe Studios as producers before moving on to found Nerd Corps. And while I did grow up on one of their other shows as a kid, Dragon Booster actually was the first animated series to be produced by the company.
The series centers around our young hero Artha Penn who works as a stable boy looking after his dragon, Beau. However when Penn Stables is attacked by the Down City Crews, a gold star appears on Beau's head and he chooses Artha - his owner - to become the legendary hero and titular character, the Dragon Booster - chosen to bring an end to the imposing Human-Dragon War.
But Artha isn't alone, fighting alongside him in the Penn Racing Crew are his young brother Lance Penn; his best friend and know-it-all geek Parmon Sean; the female of the team, Kitt Wonn; and his father Connor Penn, who was the owner of Penn Stables, but upon being attacked he would go on to disguise himself as a mentor named Mortis; allowing for his son to develop on his own without needing help from his father.
As for the main antagonists, those would be Word and Moordryd Paynn. Throughout half of the show their goal is to steal Beau, believed to be the dragon of legend so Word can start another Human-Dragon war. However as the show progressed Moordryd does start to display some heroic qualities and eventually transitions into a more complex anti-hero. I sort of hoped we would get a full-on character redemption arc on Moordryd like we had with Prince Zuko in the Avatar cartoon, like maybe he would have gone from wanting to be rid of our main character to then working alongside them.
Okay, I know it's not relevant to this show in particular but it needs to be addressed. Considering I grew up watching Storm Hawks during my childhood (and this was way before I discovered Dragon Booster), these two shows feel almost exactly alike. Both being done by Nerd Corps of course, there are a LOT of similarities between the two shows; those being found in the anime-influenced art style, sound design, cel-shaded animation that honestly looks better compared to Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, and a superb voice cast comprised of Matt Hill, Lenore Zann, Kathleen Barr, Lee Tockar, Trevor Devall, Mark Oliver and Scott McNeil to name but a few Canadian actors what really made these characters stand out.
Considering this show and Storm Hawks both originate from Canada, I feel the writing, quality and art style that these shows had going dwarfs the quality of other shows that have come either before or after their time. But before anyone takes this the wrong way, that's not to say all Canadian cartoons are bad. I mean sure some of them are pretty mediocre and might not have aged as well, but like everything else there is always going to be that mix of good and bad between the wide variety of animated shows out there. (Also applies to American & Japanese cartoons)
But with that said, it seems inevitable that in the world where most action shows are made purely just to sell toys and fail, Dragon Booster also suffered the same cliff-hanger treatment that some of Nerd Corps other shows also had. I can already picture the uproar this caused with fans of this show at the promise of there being Dragon Booster Academy, whether it would've served as the show's fourth season or even as a spin-off series, it's sad knowing we'll never get to see where the story continued from there.
Also, fun fact! I looked at the show's release date on Wikipedia and it said the show premiered on October 23rd in the year 2004, which means that unbeknownst to myself at that time this show initially came out on my 6th birthday! How cool is that? And this year also will mark 20 years since Nerd Corps got the game started with their first animated show, paving the way for a few others to come.
Anyway, if you're looking for a cartoon that has it all; dragons, racing, war, drama... then I recommend you check out Dragon Booster. I wish there could be a channel on YouTube where each episode is uploaded in high definition like we got with Storm Hawks HD.
Release the DRAGON!"
If like many you've never heard of them before, Nerd Corps Entertainment was a Canadian-based animation studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia and founded by Chuck Johnson and Asaph Fipke - both of whom had worked for Mainframe Studios as producers before moving on to found Nerd Corps. And while I did grow up on one of their other shows as a kid, Dragon Booster actually was the first animated series to be produced by the company.
The series centers around our young hero Artha Penn who works as a stable boy looking after his dragon, Beau. However when Penn Stables is attacked by the Down City Crews, a gold star appears on Beau's head and he chooses Artha - his owner - to become the legendary hero and titular character, the Dragon Booster - chosen to bring an end to the imposing Human-Dragon War.
But Artha isn't alone, fighting alongside him in the Penn Racing Crew are his young brother Lance Penn; his best friend and know-it-all geek Parmon Sean; the female of the team, Kitt Wonn; and his father Connor Penn, who was the owner of Penn Stables, but upon being attacked he would go on to disguise himself as a mentor named Mortis; allowing for his son to develop on his own without needing help from his father.
As for the main antagonists, those would be Word and Moordryd Paynn. Throughout half of the show their goal is to steal Beau, believed to be the dragon of legend so Word can start another Human-Dragon war. However as the show progressed Moordryd does start to display some heroic qualities and eventually transitions into a more complex anti-hero. I sort of hoped we would get a full-on character redemption arc on Moordryd like we had with Prince Zuko in the Avatar cartoon, like maybe he would have gone from wanting to be rid of our main character to then working alongside them.
Okay, I know it's not relevant to this show in particular but it needs to be addressed. Considering I grew up watching Storm Hawks during my childhood (and this was way before I discovered Dragon Booster), these two shows feel almost exactly alike. Both being done by Nerd Corps of course, there are a LOT of similarities between the two shows; those being found in the anime-influenced art style, sound design, cel-shaded animation that honestly looks better compared to Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, and a superb voice cast comprised of Matt Hill, Lenore Zann, Kathleen Barr, Lee Tockar, Trevor Devall, Mark Oliver and Scott McNeil to name but a few Canadian actors what really made these characters stand out.
Considering this show and Storm Hawks both originate from Canada, I feel the writing, quality and art style that these shows had going dwarfs the quality of other shows that have come either before or after their time. But before anyone takes this the wrong way, that's not to say all Canadian cartoons are bad. I mean sure some of them are pretty mediocre and might not have aged as well, but like everything else there is always going to be that mix of good and bad between the wide variety of animated shows out there. (Also applies to American & Japanese cartoons)
But with that said, it seems inevitable that in the world where most action shows are made purely just to sell toys and fail, Dragon Booster also suffered the same cliff-hanger treatment that some of Nerd Corps other shows also had. I can already picture the uproar this caused with fans of this show at the promise of there being Dragon Booster Academy, whether it would've served as the show's fourth season or even as a spin-off series, it's sad knowing we'll never get to see where the story continued from there.
Also, fun fact! I looked at the show's release date on Wikipedia and it said the show premiered on October 23rd in the year 2004, which means that unbeknownst to myself at that time this show initially came out on my 6th birthday! How cool is that? And this year also will mark 20 years since Nerd Corps got the game started with their first animated show, paving the way for a few others to come.
Anyway, if you're looking for a cartoon that has it all; dragons, racing, war, drama... then I recommend you check out Dragon Booster. I wish there could be a channel on YouTube where each episode is uploaded in high definition like we got with Storm Hawks HD.