Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Audio Description provided By: International Digital Center

Narrated By Clement Chow

I do kind of miss opening credits and stuff from theatrical releases that are typically missing on Netflix titles, but this thing ended up being a lot better than I thought. of course, this is a brainchild of the director of Kung Fu Hustle, so he has assembled quite an interesting treat.

There’s a monkey. He is special. We don’t know why, but the world he inhabits involves The immortals, and then regular folk. There’s also a Dragon King, and monsters to fight. Somehow, there’s a semi-coherent film here, when the Monkey decides he is special enough to be elevated to immortal status. An elder tells him that the Gods won’t even look at him until he’s killed at least 100 monsters, so he sets off to do just that. Along the way, he picks up a mystical stick that seemingly has its own personality (like Carpet in Aladdin). Later, a super fan shows up to help assist him on his journey. All the while, the Dragon King is lurking…

This film is a blast. it’s imaginative, and even if parts of this feel similar to the chunks in American Born Chinese that weren’t set in High School, it uses culture and tradition to blaze this unique path forward so there aren’t other films like this. Sure, there are the other “hero’s journey” type films, but at a certain point, it becomes debatable about whose journey we are really on. As his newly acquired sidekick’s backstory is slowly revealed, and monkey becomes increasingly selfish, perhaps this is someone else’s journey?

another animated success this year for Netflix after Nimona. The problem with their animation is that it is all over the place, and instead of developing through maybe one or two studios, it always feels like they throw things against the wall. Luckily, this worked. My only problems revolve around constantly calling the sidekick a pebble. I’m sure it’s a cultural thing, but my mind did wander to a Monkey being followed by a small rock more than I should have. I would have appreciated a better description of that character than I got.

But, for the most part, this has a lot of action sequences and imaginative ideas to describe, and I thought it did a really terrific job doing that. Several monsters are defeated, and given various amounts of screentime in which to be described. Probably one of the best descriptions is that of Buddha, who appears in this to give this film an even stronger cultural center.

I remember when my Filipino friends were over the moon for, well, over The moon, because their culture was represented in a way that hadn’t been done on film before, and I can’t help but think that for some kids out there, this brings their culture into the light, which is always such a huge win to be able to finally see yourself on film. But for the rest of us, this is still a really entertaining movie for all ages.

Final Grade: A-