Dragon Hill - Premium Handmade Wooden Dragon Statue for Home Decor, Office Display & Fantasy Collectibles | Perfect for Gifts, Feng Shui & Medieval Themed Rooms

I like dragons, I like animated movies, and I like the Spanish language, so the made-in-Spain "Dragon Hill" seemed like a natural fit for me. Disappointingly, not only is the North American release by Eagle One Media a pretty substandard treatment, the movie itself leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to storytelling and animation quality.The storytelling flaws take a while to become apparent, but eventually they're the biggest problem the film has. The overlying plot involves an evil wizard from the dark ages attempting to return to the human world from his prison in Dragon Hill - a mystical land populated by intelligent dragons, where humans sometimes end up for unexplained reasons - by summoning an ambitious young kitchen boy through time and space to help him secure the key to the interdimensional gateway. Somehow, the movie manages to pad itself to the point that the actual meat of the conflict doesn't occur until the last twenty minutes of the movie. A lesser plot involves an adolescent dragon called Elfy testing out a flying machine built by an inventor from the 21st century; Elfy's more or less a supporting character, but he's shoved to the forefront of the movie (and the DVD cover) even though he doesn't gain genuine storyline importance until the final act of the picture. The movie feels extremely rushed towards the end, and I can't help but think that it's supposed to act as an immediate companion to its sequel, The Magic Cube.The animation is a mixed bag. Director Angel Izquierdo had a storied career of many international cartoons behind him when he made this movie, and his experience and talent shows in the animation of the dragons: they're not at Don Bluth-level, but at least that of a higher-quality Land Before Time sequel. The human characters look a bit blander and wonkier, but the real disappointment here is the amount of computer animation that was shoved in alongside the 2D stuff. Although the sequel would make an even bigger mess of this, the computerized backgrounds and add-ins make the movie look cheap. In all, "Dragon Hill" would be a TV-quality production if it had been made in America, but I do my best to remember that European studios usually don't have the technological strength of US counterparts.The DVD treatment doesn't help the movie's look. A relatively low-quality transfer results in a frequently static picture; and at least on my copy, the bottom right edge of the frame was constantly stuttering. Much to my dismay, there is no Spanish language track on this DVD. The English track, while not godawful, features at least a few annoying voices and, oddly, doesn't feature the American voice actors in the credits. On the other hand, the single musical number translated surprisingly well. There are no bonus features here to speak of.I'm not a huge fan of How to Train Your Dragon, but now that that one has been released, there's really no need to investigate "Dragon Hill" unless you're a particular fan of the art style. Younger kids, naturally, might enjoy it a bit more, but since I couldn't even enjoy any of the characters, I'd say this one's age appeal stops before ten. Watch out.