Dragonkeeper

Story

Set in ancient China, Ping (voice of Mayalinee Griffiths) is a young slave girl, abused and neglected by her master, Lan (Tony Jayawardena). Lan is the keeper of 2 imperial dragons, Danzi (Bill Nighy) and Lu Yu (Beth Chalmers), that protect the health of the emperor. When Ping comes face to face with the dragons for the first time, she is initially terrified, but the dragons befriend and protect her. When Lan decides to kill Lu Yu, Danzi persuades Ping to travel with him to the ocean to protect their precious egg. There, Ping learns that she, too, is a dragon keeper.

Along the way, Ping and Danzi are pursued by the evil dragon hunter Diao (Anthony Howell), who seeks to use dragon power to claim the throne. Diao is helped by Wang Chou (Bill Bailey), a former dragon keeper. Wang Chou is torn between using his powers for good or evil, but Diao is only interested in using the power for his own ambition.

When Diao unleashes a destructive energy that transforms him into a terrifying devil-like creature, and awakens the necromancers in the process, Ping and Danzi must use all of their positive energy to defeat the newfound evil and save the last dragon egg.

Themes

Fantasy; dragons; characters in peril; Chinese mythology; ancient China; magic

Violence

Dragonkeeper has a lot of violence. For example:

There are many battles and fights using weapons like spears, cross bows and magic powers.
Lan threatens an old woman with a whip when she trips and falls down.
One of Lan’s men grabs Ping by her ponytail and kicks her.
Ping is often in danger and has many falls. She appears dead on a couple of occasions, once when she is hit by an arrow, but she is saved by Danzi.
Lan orders his men to carve up Yu Lu, this is seen through Ping’s eyes.
Ping uses her powerful energy to bring down many men.
Diao uses one of his pet spiders to poison Ping. She falls down and struggles to breathe.
Diao grabs Wang Chou by the throat and raises him up into the air, then drops him.
Ping argues with the emperor’s son who slaps her across the face. She hits him back, making his nose bleed.
Wang Chou is attacked by poisonous spiders and he disintegrates.
Danzi and Diao, as a devil, fight viciously.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Dragonkeeper.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Dragonkeeper has some substance use – for example, poison is used.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Dragonkeeper.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Dragonkeeper.

Coarse language

There’s no coarse language in Dragonkeeper.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Dragonkeeper is an animated fantasy adventure set in ancient China and based on the book by Carole Wilkinson. The movie has appealing background animation and an interesting story rooted in Chinese mythology, but it’s also intense and quite scary. This makes it unsuitable for young children and more suited to older children and teens.

The main messages from Dragonkeeper are to believe in yourself no matter how insignificant you think you are; and to use whatever gifts you have for the good of others.

Values in move title that you could reinforce with your children are bravery, courage, co-operation, empathy, selflessness and female empowerment.

Dragonkeeper could also give you the chance with talk with your children about how in medieval times people had to work as serfs for a master who was often cruel and unkind. And how emperors lived in palatial surrounds while the poor people had nothing. It was a very unfair society and for some people things haven’t changed.