A Menina e o Dragão

With the emperor ailing in his capital, he sends out messengers to secure the one thing that can save him from certain death: the blood of a live dragon. Luckily for the few remaining dragons, though, there's a young girl "Ping" and her pet rat "Hua" who are determined to preserve their last egg and ensure that "Kai" is born in the sacred birthing pool safe and sound. It's quite good fun, this, and I always liked the Chinese depictions of dragons as rather more lithe and nimble then the grumpy, scarred and scaly Western interpretations, but otherwise this is a rather thinly padded out story that might better have tried to incorporate more from this six book series it's based on into it's plot to better build up the characters and fill out the plot. That said, it doesn't hang around and there's plenty of action as the youngster and the ancient dragon "Long Danzi" take on the whole Imperial army - and it's dastardly and scheming agent - whilst trying to preserve this fragile blue egg until it's ready to hatch. There's a gentle moral to the story about self reliance and the odd humorous moment too, and though it's probably not a film that the very young will really get much from, the animation is lively and colourful with some menacing bugs and fiery blue fisticuffs and it's worth a watch on the telly if you like the family fantasy genre.

Dragonkeeper is an adaptation of the books of the same name by. Carole Wilkinson, specifically the first novel. While the overall tone is lighter than the book, it was written by the author herself, so any flawws in the story are within her purview.

The story takes place in an Ancient China where dragons have been hunted to near extinction and where a chosen one can wield chi powers. The latter is kind of a gross misinterpretation of chi seen also in Mulan 2020, but for the most part the movie is accurate to chinese dragon lore, associating them with water.

Personality wise, the characters very very archetypical. There are some missed opportunities; the villain, for example, has a sympathetic scene setting his motivation, but devolves in a card carrying bad guy for the rest of the film. Not a lot of complexity to be seen here.

Overall, if you want a Wuxia fix, this movie will deliver half-way.

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 put this on for my son who is 5, it was immediately obvious that this was re dubbed from a Chinese version. Some if the voice acting is awful, with voices nowhere near matching the physical look of the characters. That said you can live with tha, and my son surely would never notice it.

But what bothered me most was how dark the whole tone of the movie was. My kid asked me why everything was dying and absolutely nothing positive or uplifting happens until the very end of the film.

Children's films are becoming increasingly dark these days and that probably reflects society. I've a feeling Dragonkeeper is reflecting current Chinese society. But with themes like slavery, bullying and murder, I probably wouldn't have let my kid watch this had I known.

I also believe there's something that's lost in translation with this movie, but somebody cleverer than I can analyse that.

Giving this an 8/10 rating

First off, try and watch the sub version which is Chinese, then the UK English dub, which I saw, has very good voice acting, with Bill Nighy and others, then you will have fun with this. I had a fun time with this Chinese/Spanish production about ancient China, dragons and Necromancers, and lots of magic.

It does look really colourful on a the big cinema screen, where I saw it, and the kids in the audience, here in London, did like it. I see low ratings because of the horrid American dub I fear, so I guess we got it lucky with our English dub, which really is good. The look really is Chinese for sure, and the main lead- the little girl named 'Ping' was to me, likeable more and more, once it got further into the film.

The themes are quite dark in places, but the dragons are great, and the style is good on the eye, some good humor too. I sat down and let it the beautiful visuals take me away. The version I watched was very wide, so there maybe an IMAX of this floating about. But really, watch the trailer of this first. But I paid my money, and liked what I watched.