Half an hour, and it still gets the one thing right: the ache of being a kid who's only ever heard about heroes secondhand. It opens with Dai curled up on Grandpa Brass's every word, the monster magician spinning the legend of how Hadlar got put down and how the man who did it was named Avan, and you can see the boy deciding right there what he's going to be. This was the Toei Anime Fair short that beat the TV series to screens in 1991, the first time Dai ever moved, and it leans hard into the joke at the center of the whole thing: the island's monsters aren't the enemy, they're the family. Slimes and drackies straight off the Dragon Quest cartridge, animated like they matter. Anyone who grew up grinding those games and then found the manga knows exactly why the bedtime story hits harder than the fight does.

Dai, a young boy, thinks back on a tale once told to him by his grandfather Brass, a monster magician. The story recounts how the Demon Lord Hadlar was brought down by a hero, and as it unfolds, that hero turns out to be Avan. This feature-length film from the Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken franchise is a fantasy adventure with plenty of action.