Dragonkeeper

image for Dragonkeeper

Short takes

Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 11 (violence, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Dragonkeeper
  • a review of Dragonkeeper completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 20 January 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to scary scenes, violence and themes.
Children aged 9–11 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Dragonkeeper
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes and animated violence
Length: 99 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

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

The two are pursued by an evil dragon hunter, named Diao (Anthony Howell), who has designs on using the dragon power to become the next emperor. Diao has in his employ, a former dragon keeper named Wang Chou (Bill Bailey) who still has his powers and is conflicted between using them for good or evil. Diao, however, is only interested in using them for his own benefit. Diao manages to unleash a terrible energy that transforms him into a terrifying devil-like creature, while at the same time, awakening the necromancers. Ping and Danzi have to use all of their positive energy to defeat the terrible evil and to save the last dragon egg.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Fantasy; Dragons; Characters in peril; Chinese mythology; Ancient China; Magic.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, including many battles and fights using weapons such as spears, cross bows, swords and magic powers. Other examples include:

  • 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 set upon by poisonous spiders and he disintegrates.
  • Danzi and Diao, as a devil, fight viciously.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The dragons, though good by nature, look very scary. They are both large, fierce-looking creatures with large claws, eyes that glow yellow, large teeth and they breath fire. They also roar really loudly.
  • Many scenes of dark, creepy places – abandoned villages, misty areas with thunderstorms and ominous sounds.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A medieval wall mural depicts soldiers with swords and dragons.
  • Master Lan is a large, evil-looking man who mocks others.
  • Magical events happen, such as objects rise up on their own and glow blue. Magical forces are used which appear as blue or red flames.
  • Ping dreams of following the blue egg into a cave. Lu Yu breathes fire on her and she glows with a blue energy. When she wakes up, her house is shaking and pots fall off the shelves.
  • Danzi is captured and tied up in chains. Men pull the chains to make him move.
  • Diao is an evil character who laughs manically and is quite brutal.
  • Ping and Danzi cross a rope bridge which gives way.
  • Ping sews up a large gash on Danzi’s body and he winces in pain.
  • Diao keeps deadly spiders which are black and red. He sends them out to kill people.
  • Diao enters into a sphynx-like enclosure to ‘join the gods’. Great power comes out of the tomb and swirls around everywhere. Diao emerges as a red, devil-like creature with horns, a tail, red glowing eyes and huge ears.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Diao watches his mother on her death bed. She looks very gaunt and has yellow eyes. He weeps when she dies.
  • Necromancers come back to life. They wear grey robes, have glowing yellow eyes and walk like zombies.
  • The final battle between Danzi and Diao is particularly scary. Diao keeps growing larger and larger until he is squeezed inside the building.
  • Danzi is dying and Ping cries. She decides she won’t let him die and uses all of her power to heal him. She then collapses.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Use of poison.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

Dragonkeeper is an animated fantasy adventure set in ancient China and based on the book by Carole Wilkinson. The background in the film is visually appealing and the story is based on Chinese mythology. It is, however, very intense and quite scary, which makes it unsuitable for young children and more suited to older children and teens.

The main messages from this movie 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 this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Bravery
  • Courage
  • A strong female character
  • Working co-operatively
  • Empathy
  • Selflessness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • How in medieval times people had to work as serfs for a master who was often cruel and unkind. Emperors lived in palatial surroundings while the lowly people had nothing. It was a very unjust society and for some people things haven’t changed.