WITH 2017’S AFGHANISTAN-SET The Breadwinner, first-time director Nora Twomey earned an Oscar nomination for a sublime, hand-drawn animated movie that matched its vibrant visuals with tough subject matter (namely an 11-year-old girl’s life under the Taliban). The film was such a success — for both Twomey and Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon (home also to The Secret Of Kells, which she co-directed, and Wolfwalkers) — you imagine she could have done anything for her next project.
So you might wonder why she settled on an adaptation of a whimsical 1948 children’s book (written by Ruth Stiles Gannett) about a ten-year-old boy named Elmer (Jacob Tremblay) who befriends a young, blue-and-yellow-striped dragon called Boris (Gaten Matarazzo) on a fabulous island populated by fierce talking animals.