The Dragon Pearl

Nothing. Happens. Even while things are happening, nothing is happening. The kids were pretty good actors, especially for a kids' film, and the sets and effects were likewise not at all grating.

That said, expect about 50 minutes' worth of movie to be crammed into about 94 minutes of your day. Prepare for exposition by narration. A retelling of the exposition...by narration. People standing around. People looking at things. People thinking about things. Repeat shots of leaves...blowing around. Suppose there just wasn't enough script for a whole movie, which was a shame. Thought it could've been great.

I would say if you have a kid who's into dragons or Asian themes, definitely give this one a shot; it's clean as a whistle content-wise. Just that I can't imagine watching this again only for the reason that the whole time I was going...come one, come on, something HAPPEN!

There are some cool shots of kids playing Chinese drums that are AWESOME. They're shown at the beginning and end credits and have nothing to do with the plot; so that's really not a spoiler.