About the studio
A spare room, a projector and a very long list of dragons.
“Studio” is a generous word for it. Dragon Videos is one person, one desk and a habit that got out of hand.
Hi, I’m Rowan
I edit video for a living — mostly corporate films, the occasional wedding, and a lot of colour correction nobody notices. In my spare time I watch dragons. Film dragons, cartoon dragons, the ones in games that set fire to villages while I’m trying to sell cheese. I’ve kept a list of my favourite dragon moments since I was a teenager, scribbled in the back of school notebooks and later in a spreadsheet with far too many columns.
Dragon Videos is that list, finally given a proper home. Each entry is an official trailer or reveal that I think shows a dragon at its best, with my notes on why it works — the animation, the sound, the way a good trailer hides the creature until the last possible second. I draw the poster art myself, in the evenings, usually with a cat called Toast asleep on the keyboard.
There’s no team, no sponsors and no schedule. A new entry goes up when something genuinely makes me sit up in my chair, which in a good month is twice and in a bad month is never.
How it got here
The short version of a long hobby.
None of this was planned. It grew the way most hobbies do: one list, then one evening with friends, then one weekend spent learning just enough web design to be dangerous. The site you’re reading is the fourth version, and the first one I’m not embarrassed by.
- 2014
The notebook
A list titled “Good Dragons” on the last pages of a maths exercise book. Smaug was entry number one.
- 2019
The projector
A second-hand projector and a bedsheet on the wall. Friends came over for “dragon nights” and I started writing little intros for each film.
- 2023
The first website
Dragon Videos went online as a single plain page of links. It was ugly, it was mine, and a surprising number of strangers emailed me their own favourites.
- 2026
The rebuild
This summer I rebuilt the site from scratch, drew new posters and started rewriting every entry with proper notes. Older entries are moving over a few at a time.
House rules
Official sources only
Every video is embedded from the studio’s or publisher’s own YouTube channel. I don’t upload or host anything — if a video is taken down, it disappears from here too.
Dragons first
A film can be brilliant and still not make the list. What matters is the dragon: its design, its movement and how the trailer treats it.
No spoilers in the notes
I write about what the trailer shows, not about how the story ends. You can read every entry safely.
Suggestions welcome
Half the catalogue started as an email from a reader. If I’ve missed your favourite dragon, tell me about it.