The masterpiece of the Disney Studios’ postwar style (1959). The animation has been stripped down, in accordance with economic imperatives, but what the images lose in shading and detail they gain in strength and fluidity. Clyde Geronimi is the credited director, although Disney films are more legitimately viewed as workshop products, executed by teams of anonymous craftsmen much as was done in medieval times (according to some veterans, the working conditions weren’t much better). Though other Disney features were done in the wide-screen format, this is the only one that seizes the full dramatic potential of the extended space, most remarkably when the dragon makes its spectacular appearance in the final reel.