#canimation

Panda Bear in Africa is about a panda saving a dragon that has been imprisoned by African lions. The plot overall has odd references to Kung Fu Panda but especially The Lion King, having a Chinese village populated solely by pandas, an evil lion uncle, hyenas and lions being at odds and dead royals. I hesitate it to call it a rip off, since it does new things with these elements – the hyenas, for example, are not evil – but it is still pretty jarring at times.

The animation is subpar, being a low budget CGI. The plot, despite its concise core, is meandering and ll over the place. Most of the jokes don’t land, but I do find myself laughing at a few, especially at the dumb crocodile henchmen.

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.