Director: Salvador Simó, Jian-Ping Li
A single dragon egg, an empire's fate, and a girl nobody expected to matter — Dragonkeeper turns a Chinese legend into a hand-drawn adventure animated across studios in Spain and China.
What is Dragonkeeper about?
Ancient China is running out of dragons, and with them, the balance the old stories say the world depends on. A young girl with no name and no clear place in the palace hierarchy finds herself the last person standing between an empire and disaster after she's entrusted with a fragile, final egg. Her journey away from the safety of the court forces her to learn what the keepers who came before her already knew: that guarding something rare means outrunning everyone who wants to take it for themselves. Directed by Salvador Simó alongside Jian-Ping Li, the film leans on painterly backgrounds and folklore texture rather than modern quips, aiming for a fable's pace over an action movie's.
Cast & crew
The Spanish-language voice cast is led by Lucía Pérez, with Mario Gas, Fernando Castro, Carlos de Luna, José Gómez Adán, César Díaz Capilla, Isabel Gaudí, and Miquel Rodríguez Ros filling out the supporting roles across the film's ensemble of palace figures and fellow travelers.
Context & significance
Dragonkeeper is a 2024 Spanish-Chinese co-production adapted from Carole Wilkinson's novel series, part of a wave of internationally produced animated features that draw on Chinese mythology while being made largely outside major Hollywood studios. The production spent years in development, aiming for a look closer to traditional hand-drawn animation than the computer-generated style dominant in most family releases, and it leans on the source novels' emphasis on patience, loyalty, and quiet courage over spectacle for its own sake.
Where & how to watch
Dragonkeeper is available on K-Time with a free account login, offered with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles and a Farsi-first interface built for the Iranian diaspora audience.