Dragonkeeper

Adventures, humor, fantasy and action in this 3D cartoon film, this is an attractive movie that younger people will love. Well directed by Salvador Simó, the film adapts the first book of the Dragonkeeper literary saga by Carole Wilkinson, set in an Imperial China where magic still exists. And it's full of imagination, humor and marvellous dragons. The film begins with a prologue that gives a historical chronology: ¨No one remembers the dark times, when the threat of necromancers loomed over the world and humanity was on the verge of perishing. The emperor then turned to the only force capable of saving us. A sacred bond was formed between the dragons and a select few of pure heart who learned the secrets of their wisdom. Together, men and dragons defeated the hosts of Wucheng. But in the ashes of victory germinated the seeds of distrust and fear. The emperor, jealous of his power, hunted down the dragons and pursued their guardians. Dragons had been banished from the kingdom. Ping, an orphan, finds one of the last remaining dragon eggs. Palace guards force Ping to run away in order to return the dragon egg to the ocean and save all dragons from extinction. The fate of ancient China rests on the shoulders of one young girl, who must find the last remaining dragon egg and fulfill her destiny¨. So the mistreated servant Join Ping must find the last remaining dragon egg as she becomes who she was always meant to be... the DragonKeeper. Ping seems to be the last hope.

Fantasy, magic and adventure for the whole family come together in this Spanish-Chinese animated film about a a very special girl, a dragon (the last of them) and the power to change fate. So the plot follows the adventures of enslaved girl 'Ping' with her dragon companion 'Long Danzi' during an ancient imperial age. The story begins years after the union of dragons and humans managed to finish off the necromancers. Now there are hardly any dragons left, and the last ones are locked up by order of the emperor, jealous of his power and that of the guardians. There is continuous non-stop entertainment with frenetic action, good staging and adventures of all kinds in which our starring will face a thousand and one dangers in order to achieve peace and save dragons. The film is technically acceptable with a colorful pop approach accentuated by contrasts of time and space. The story, with basic positive messages, action enough and continous amusement, but it does not stand out for its inventiveness in humor, originality or the keys it handles. As the director. ¨Dragonkeeper¨ takes us on an adventure where fantasy prevails over everything else, although everything else is equally exciting. Here we have the rebellion of an orphan girl who wants to make her decisions, the overcoming of traumas of the apparently brave and determined heroine who has suffered past slavery and loneliness.

There's a good and lively musical score by composer Arturo Cardelús. The film was well directed by Jianping Li and Salvador Simó . It was nominated in Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2024: Golden Biznaga Nominee Best Spanish Film Salvador Simó and Jianping Li. Salvador Simó formerly worked in animation department of various films, such as : Midsummer Dream , Goofy and son , Howl , Las tres mellizas , El Cid : the legend , It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown , among others. Being his big hit : ¨Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas (Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles 2018) that was winner of the award for best animated film at the Goya and at the European Film Awards. Dragonkeeper(2024) rating: 6.5/10. Decent computer generator animation particularly advisable for the youngest members of the family.

I like the movie Dragonkeeper because it is funny and heartfelt.

The storyline is about a slave girl called Ping (Mayalinee Griffiths), who dreams about meeting dragons. Her dream comes true, but one of the magical creatures dies and she goes on a quest to save the dragons and hatch the last imperial dragons' egg. Joining her is a dragon as her protector and a funny "very helpful" mouse. She soon finds out that she has mystical powers and learns to use them to stop bad guys who want to steal the egg and use its powers for evil.

I really enjoyed this film. It's an animated film with special effects. It Also has lots of humor - there are all sorts of humorous scenes like my favorite, where the mouse tries helping. He marches up to the big fight against something 2,000,000 times his size. Or when he rolls the egg away from the bad guys. The movie is also sad and heartfelt because one of the dragons dies. The visual effects are great and really stand out. For example when one of the dragons heals Ping's wound with the power of the egg as shown in the trailer. I do have to admit that some parts of the movie are a little childish. For example, There is a scene about 30 seconds long of two kids blowing raspberries at each other.

The film's message is "you can do whatever you want; only you decide your destiny."

I give Dragonkeeper 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 5 to 12. It opens in theaters on September 27, 2024. I hope you enjoy it. By Ariel K., KIDS FIRST!

Ping is an orphan girl living with a servant woman tasked with feeding the "Honored Guests" living under her master's care. The "Honored Guests" are actually the last two imperial dragons along with their unhatched egg.

Ping learns that she has the power to control qi or chi which makes her a dragon keeper and she is destined to be the person to take the last remaining egg to a special birthing pool to hatch. To achieve this goal she will need the help of her dragon friend, Danzi, and her mouse friend, Hua Hua, to retrieve the stolen egg.

Ping will have to overcome the sickly Emperor, who wants the egg's qi to heal his illness, and the evil necromancer, Diao, who wants to steal the egg's qi to become an immortal god.

I enjoyed this film very much although I did think that some of the subject matter might be confusing to a child. It's beautifully animated but it was lacking a little something that I just can't put my finger on. My biggest complaint is that it simply didn't feel complete. The film seemed to leave a lot of questions unanswered and feels as though there must be a sequel in the works but I couldn't confirm my suspicion.

Glad I came across it and I hope they are planning to make a sequel simply because I feel there should be more to Ping, Danzi, Hua Hua and Kai's story. I would definitely watch it.

I feel this film doesn't deserve to be shot down. I liked the story, the characters are a bit childish, but I enjoyed the voice acting, the animation was good

As I said, while I'm no professional reviewer, I'm a fan of well made animation, the soundtrack seemed to be in sync enough not to give me any discomfort. The artwork was well drawn and an enjoyable watch.

Over all a nice looking film to comfortably pass sometime and definitely not a waste of effort.

(Why is there such a high character count required in a review. I makes writing a review quite an effort, especially as I've got dyslexia.)

Wonderful film of Chinese and Spanish co production, you can sense the combination of both east and west sensibility. The drawing style is very beautiful with great colors, artistically referencing details from the Han dynasty. This is a great story for kids to understand about friendship, responsibility and courage with a nice touch of humor. The music score gets you really into the emotion and adventure. I have watched it twice with family and friends and both adults and kids enjoyed it. The beautiful ending credit style is a real surprise, a film made with a lot of efforts and love. Really looking forward for the sequels.