The Gryphon in Modern Media
Buckbeak, from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004.
The gryphon has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the last several decades, appearing in a variety of modern media such as films, TV shows, and video games. Here are a selection of gryphon appearances, from famous to lesser known.
Film & TV
Harry Potter (Hippogryph) - The gryphon's most famous relative, the hippogryph, features heavily as a named character Buckbeak in the third Harry Potter book and film.
Spiderwick Chronicles - More prominent in the books, the gryphon in the Spiderwick Chronicles movie appears only to give the protagonists a ride.
Attack of the Gryphon - Even Syfy has gotten in the gryphon game with their own terrible 2007 movie.
Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo - This recent Scooby-Doo movie features a gryphon as a prominent monster.
Chronicles of Narnia - Gryphons fight in Aslan's army in the memorable War of Deliverance scene.
My Little Pony - Gryphons are major players in 4th generation of the My Little Pony TV series, appearing as named characters in both the TV show and various movies.
Quest for Camelot - A gryphon served as a prominent antagonist in this 1998 animated WB movie about King Arthur.
Merlin - The late 2000s TV show about King Arthur featured a scene in which Lancelot had to kill a deadly gryphon.
Merlin (1998 miniseries) - Yet another Merlin adaption featured wingless gryphons in a scene that resembled keythongs.
Disenchantment - This animated comedy by Matt Groening features one of the more unique gryphons seen in modern media.
Aladdin - The TV series based on the Disney movie features gryphons in a few episodes.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - This classic 1973 movie shows a gryphon battled a centaur, anima ted by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.
Logos
Vauxhall logo
Perhaps inspired by heraldic crests of old, many companies and educational institutions have taken the gryphon as their main emblem and mascot. Here are few of the more well known of those institutions.
Tabletop and Video Games
Magic: The Gathering - The competitive deck building card game, Magic: The Gathering, uses the gryphon as an entire class of monsters.
Dungeons and Dragons - One of the most popular roleplaying systems in the world contains a Griffon in its bestiary.
Gryphon from The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
World of Warcraft - A massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, has several gryphons as rideable mounts.
God of War - In the second installment of the God of War franchise, gryphons feature as an enemy monster, in which the protagonist and player character must defeat them in aerial combat on a Pegasus.
Prince of Persia - The second installment of this franchise contains a gryphon to be defeated.
Witcher 3 - The third and expansive installment of this video game franchise features several gryphons as notable monsters to kill. These gryphons are also interesting in that they don't have forelegs, and are built more like a wyvern.
Legendary - A gryphon fight features prominently in this unique mythological and science fiction mash-up video game.
Skylanders (Sonic Boom) - This game is unique in that it's one of the only instances that the player can play as a gryphon and not kill it!
© 2019 James Spaid. All rights reserved.