There’s one mythical beast that fascinates audiences both young and old – dragons. Youngsters can read about them in books as well as see them on screen in films like How to Train a Dragon, whereas adults have been enjoying the more saucy and violent exploits in more adult material such as Game of Thrones and the current House of the Dragon.

This curious Spanish and Chinese animated co-production is certainly aimed at the younger audience, as a young girl soon finds her life changed forever.

Imperial China, and Orphan Ping (Mayalinee Griffiths) is taken in by an old woman, who raises her as her own. The old woman has to work her fingers to the bone for the master of the village, who requires her to feed two creatures held in the depths of the village.

One day Ping goes to feed the creatures instead, and discovers they’re dragons. Instead of being scared, she has some kind of connection with them, which leads to her discovering something about herself.

With clearly a bond between them, the dragon entrusts Ping with the last surviving dragon egg in the land, for safe keeping. But with this honour comes much responsibility, as the egg is said to hold a power that many not only desire, but would do anything to have in their grasp.

This co-production has delivered a mixed bag of an animation. It proves one thing that getting animation right is a true art. Disney has dominated the animation landscape over the years, but even they have gotten it wrong from time to time.

And it has to be said the animation here is interesting; it’s by no means high quality, but with its washed out colour palette it creates an acceptable world for its dragons to live in.

Where it struggles however, is in its storytelling; the narrative is on the convoluted side, especially for a feature clearly aimed at the young, making it a tad difficult to follow, for any aged audience. For instance, very little is made of the dragon lore itself, with no reference it their history, or their presence in the here and now of the story.

There are a number of characters that have a level of ambiguity around them, including Ping herself, who obviously has an interesting back story that we’re never privy too.

All in all this can make following what’s going on a trifle difficult in places, again, especially for younger audiences, but the simple yet pleasing art style may just be enough to have you see it through until the end.

A tighter script and livelier characters would have certainly breathed new life into this confusing tale.