Given it's a dragon year, the animal which is most revered in the Zodiac, you can bet your last dollar that everything's going to be dragon-related in any way they can. And this movie goes along the same line as well, obviously blessing itself with the word "Dragon" in both its Chinese and English title, with the story revolving around a lion/dragon dance troupe of the same name, as well as a baby that's born under the star sign who's so desperately wanted by all quarters, one that's given by the gods - children dressed in white and organized in very corporate like fashion. But if it's blessings that's requested by the film, it certainly needed a lot to gloss over its many flaws, He Sui Pian blind-eye notwithstanding.

The veteran Malaysian actress Lai Ming, already a very familiar face in the local movie industry, plays Mother Loong (#345 dragon reference),the matriarch of "Long Zhong Wu" the troupe who had failed to live up to the family's ancestors expectations of producing a male dragon-zodiac heir to continue their family bloodline and business. All she could muster is Lucy (Dennis Chew in his Auntie Lucy drag getup) as the oldest of three children, followed by twins in the tomboyish Ah Bee (Kym Ng) and Ah Long (Melvin Sia) the latter who unfortunately was delivered when the clock ticked into the Year of the Snake some 36 years ago. So the pressure is on with Mother Loong wishing for a baby dragon heir to appease her ancestors to befall her children, but Auntie Lucy is only interested in ballroom dancing, Ah Bee is all rough and tumble, and Ah Long is facing marital problems so he has returned from Kuala Lumpur.

The laughs come when a baby mysteriously appears at Long Zhong Wu, with everyone taking in to the little one, and frankly some of the best, heart-tugging scenes involve this little one with the filmmakers just nailing it in casting Baby Nigel in the role, making it believable why everyone takes to him, as well as the villains in the movie who felt that his presence mean a threat to their wish to takeover the Long Zhong Wu troupe. Headlining the villains are Bryan Wong as the relative Uncle Teck, who in full over-the-top fashion I felt was ridiculous funny with his lisping lines, and son Ah Beng (Benjamin Heng, a Kelvin Tong film veteran) whose rival lion dance troupe seeks deliberate trouble with Ah Long given the latter's rusty skills. Then there are the employed bumbling thieves played by Mark Chin and John Cheng who have some of the best lines in the movie, with natural chemistry and repertoire that make their on-screen partnership work for a number of local movie outings already.

Being a Boku film, you can sense Kat Goh digging into its past films for some inspiration, and one cannot shake away the references such as Eating Air's faux pas Kung-fu inspired moves that make an updated appearance here during the Lion/Dragon dance fights between Ah Beng and Ah Long, which could have been more energetic and extended rather than to be given the extremely tight shot treatment you suspect is to cover up their lack of training and realism. And the food references and scenes as well that this film like others in the filmography almost always taking their time to highlight and showcase, that your stomach will growl if you haven't had anything to eat prior to the movie, brought to you by Adrian Pang's very random character who got tasked to whip up a reunion dinner meal for Long Zhong Wu and its invited guests.

Kyn Ng and Adrian Pang once again continues from where they left off in Wee Li Lin's Gone Shopping in playing a romantic couple here, but not without the initial bickering starting from her saving his skin from loan sharks, and the very, as mentioned, random treatment in which she brings him back to the troupe. The film continues to play up on their stereotypes unlike their first film outing, with one continuing in her tomboyish persona and the other the natural comedian, that while they may look good on screen together, I guess the time has come to get them out of their comfort zones. And speaking of comfort zones, Auntie Lucy should be retired, with her constant head shake being a distracting annoyance, so much so that her entire story arc including that unrequited love for an Indian man called Mahendran (also played by Chew) could have been written out altogether. I'm not sure how matronly women in the audience will take to the constant ribbing of their age and demeanour by the young and more beautiful (ok, this was relative in the film).

But this being the welcome of the new Lunar Year, I would still endorse Dance Dance Dragon as a fail-safe family film sans grotesque violence, nudity and sex, with wholesome ingredients and themes suited for everyone. It has clean production values with elements to entertain from slapstick to drama, but I suspect it won't hit the nostalgic heights of It's a Great Great World so soon. Here's hoping that Raintree/Boku can come up with a stronger offering after this blip for next season's He Sui Pian. Huat ah!

Coming on the heels of their sleeper box-office hit 'It's A Great Great World', it's only inevitable that expectations are high for 'Dance Dance Dragon'- not only Mediacorp Raintree Pictures' first movie since Kelvin Tong's top local box-office grosser last year, but also their first movie in a year after that hit. Unfortunately, despite boasting almost the same production team (with Kat Goh taking over the directorial seat for the first time from her mentor Kelvin),this 'Dragon' is quite the tame animal that is unlikely to leave much of an impression.

Chief among this 'Dragon's' faults is its over-ambition, squeezing too many plot lines into just 92 minutes of screen time. So with the arrival of the 'Dragon' year, the 84-year-old matriarch of the 'Loong Zong Wu' clan prays for the arrival of a grandson to be the successor. God (portrayed by a young boy acting in consultation with his Chief Financial Officer and Human Resource Director among others) sends down a baby boy through Mother Loong's (Lai Meng) youngest son Ah Long (Melvin Sia). Prayers answered? Not quite- there's still her ambition of getting her two daughters hitched.

The eldest, Lucy (Dennis Chew in his love-it-or-hate-it Auntie Lucy getup once again),is already in her 40s and has just broken up with her Indian boyfriend (Dennis Chew again with a tan). Now Lucy's only interested in ballroom dancing- tango, cha cha or waltz, take your pick- and perhaps occasionally in Chef Eric (Adrian Pang),a random guy who follows Ah Bee (Kym Ng) home after she inadvertently rescues him from two loan sharks.

In between Lucy's dancing ambitions, Ah Bee's romantic sparks with Eric while demanding that he prepare a Chinese New Year feast for their family, and Ah Long's training to rejoin his family's lion dance troupe, there's also a scheming relative Uncle Teck (Bryan Wong) and his family's plotting (Benjamin Heng as his- what else- Ah Beng son) to take over ownership of the clan. Though 'Great World' did boast a similar bevy of characters, that movie had the benefit of containing them within individual short stories rather than crammed within the same narrative.

Indeed, when the two bumbling gangsters- Aw Gui (Marcus Chin) and Aw Gao (John Cheng)- whom Uncle Teck engages to steal Mother Loong's purported grandson steal the show, it's a clear sign of just how thinly drawn the other characters in fact are. The script by Kelvin and Marcus gives each little to do beyond a one-line description above, which makes their happily-ever-after ending obligatory in any Chinese New Year movie even more predictable.

What's worse is that there isn't enough comedy in each of the scenarios to keep their audience entertained, and after a spirited opening chronicling the birth of the three Ah Loongs back in the 60s and 70s, the rest of the setups struggle to match the same level of wit and energy. Kat Goh's inexperience as a director also means that many scenes lack punch, while others- especially those with Bryan Wong's overacting- try too hard to compensate for the lack of any genuine humour. And for a movie that revolves around a lion dancing clan, these scenes are just too short (i.e. less than 30 secs each time) and noticeably lacklustre.

Not even the combination of arguably some of the most talented local comedians manages to save the movie. Adrian Pang is largely wasted in a role that uses little of his considerable comedic potential, while Kym Ng is thrown once again into the stereotyped role of a Tomboyish woman with the loud voice and brusque manner. Dennis Chew is well… Auntie Lucy for better or for worse (we think it is more of the latter),but Bryan Wong takes the cake for being the most annoying character in the movie for speaking with a perpetual smarmy slur.

And even with the lowered expectations of a Chinese New Year movie, 'Dance Dance Dragon' barely manages to get its feet off the ground- burdened as it is with too many underdeveloped subplots, unfunny dialogue, and slack direction- let alone take flight. It's perhaps an even greater disappointment considering the dividends that the creative partnership between the once-formidable movie-making Raintree Pictures and Kelvin Tong's own Boku Films yielded last year- and it suffices to say that this 'Dragon' is unlikely to make the leap to the top of the box-office charts.