Our final patrons' choice episode for 2025 is the 1982 VHS relic The Flight of Dragons from TV special animation legends Rankin/Bass. Based loosely on the speculative science book by Peter Dickinson and the fantasy novels of Gordon R. Dickson, the film sends the author insert character on a quest to save a magical realm from the suffocating encroachment of mankind's science. Along the way, Peter will meet wizards, dragons, a winsome princess, and an evil sorcerer voiced by James Earl Jones. But is it a forgotten classic that deserves to be in a domed nostalgic magic nature reserve, or should it be consigned to the straight-to-video bargain bin? Find out!

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In the last of our series of early previews of forthcoming films, gleaned from Conrad's time at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) under the wing of Toronto native and film critic extraordinaire, Joe Lipsett, we're looking at two gold-and-turquoise whimsical fantasies: Dust Bunny and Eternal Return.

The former is Hannibal and Pushing Daisies showrunner Bryan Fuller's directorial debut, introducing Sophie Sloane as a young girl who recruits the assassin who lives next door (Mads Mikkelsen) to slay the monster that lives under her bed. Cue a delightfully colourful and frequently absurd fairytale that also features fun supporting turns from Sigourney Weaver as Mikkelsen's handler and David Dastmalchian as a rival assassin. It's an odd blend of ingredients, but does it work?

Eternal Return is writer-director Yaniv Raz's attempt to create a whimsical romantic time travel fantasy, starring Naomi Scott as a broken-hearted twenty-something and Kit Harington as the eccentric map shop owner who believes he can navigate her back to emotionally significant moments in her life... and possibly change them. Also featuring Simon Callow as an elderly friend who also narrates in his sonorous tones, and set in a London that wouldn't look out of place in a Potter adaptation, does this romantic confection sweep Conrad off his feet?

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Dead Birds (2004), directed by Alex Turner and produced during the early-2000s boom in grimy, low-budget horror, is a Confederate-era ghost story that alternates between jump scares for a slow rot of dread and bad decisions. It follows a group of Civil War deserters – played by E.T.'s Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Michael Shannon, and Isaiah Washington – who rob a bank and hole up in a derelict plantation, only to discover it’s crawling with the supernatural consequences of its own bloody past! So should this dusty relic be set free at last or should it be trapped in the dark with its guilt? Find out!

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