Dragonkeeper movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Dragonkeeper: https://amzn.to/4cz8tmS

This gorgeous animation is now playing on Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV.

RATING: PG

LENGTH: 1 hour 38 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B

SPONSOR of Today’s movie review: https://amzn.to/3W1fNRg

Mommy & baby plush dragons

IN A NUTSHELL:

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.

This family-friendly animation is based on the book Dragonkeeper written by Carole Wilkinson. She has actually written a trilogy, so we’ll soon see if the studio is going to film a sequel to this. The movie was directed by Jianping Li and Salvador Simo. Writing credits go to Carole Wilkinson, Pablo I. Castrillo, and Ignacio Ferreras.

Already, the film has been nominated for Best Spanish Film at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival.

THINGS I LIKED:

The animation is sophisticated and gorgeous. The design of the fabrics is especially impressive; it moves realistically when the people wearing it move.
I’ve been to China many times for business and fell in love with the beauty of the country, food, and people. I took my 2 youngest sons with me on my first trip and they both became instantly enamored too. One of them even married a lovely young woman from Hong Kong. I now have a grandson who is ½ Chinese with another grandson arriving in September!
The movie shows the Imperial Palace of the Chinese emperor. I got to visit that palace in Beijing a few years ago. It is absolutely gigantic and goes on and on and on when you walk through it. Super impressive.
The musical score is lovely. It would have been nice to include more Chinese elements to it.
The color palette includes glowy, magical features.
There is a lot of action.
The young dragon keeper has a cute sidekick that kids will love. Fair warning, parents: your kids will probably want one.
The voice talents in the English version include Bill Nighy (I adore him), Bill Bailey, Naomi Yang, Anthony Howell, and Mayalinee Griffiths.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

If you don’t like the sound of babies crying, you won’t like the first 5 minutes
Ping is the young dragon keeper, so we should love her, but she has an ungrateful, whining personality that drove me nuts at times.
It seems odd to see Chinese characters, all British accent
There’s a scene when the dragon and the keeper fall off a bridge, almost to their death. Only minutes prior, we saw them flying, so why didn’t they just fly to cross the bridge?
So much exposition.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Talk of energetic chi
Bullying
People get hurt
An old woman dies
Some people are servants
A girl sticks her tongue out at someone
Creepy, venomous spiders
Scary-looking “necromancers” and a demon guy
We see a mouse throw up
Soldiers fight with swords and arrows

THEMES:

Power
Control
Imperial dragons of China
Extinct animals

FUNNY LINES:

I didn’t write any down. The humor is mostly physical or situational.

INTERESTING LINES:

“Don’t make my mistake: don’t worry about how you’re going to die. Worry about how you’re going to live.” – old mother who dies
“You can’t change destiny.” Jao
“Ask not what lies behind but what waits ahead.” – male dragon (Bill Nighy)
“Sometimes the wider road makes the journey longer.” – male dragon (Bill Nighy)
“There are questions that should not be answered because the answers need to be found.” – male dragon (Bill Nighy)