Ne Zha

In my search to find standout movies to make sure this year doesn't feel dull, I've been keeping an eye out for foreign language that can spark some interesting results. I have had more encounters of those live action features rather than the animated ones at this point but I'm always open to anything new regardless of what language is spoken. Thanks to my viewings of Screen Junkies of Movie Box Office news on YouTube, I had been made aware of some foreign language features that have been rising in popularity, some of which piqued my interest earlier this year such The Farewell and The Wandering Earth. This brings us to Ne Zha, a Chinese 3D computer animated film that made over $700 million dollars in the globally (breaking box office records in that region), is spoken in Mandarin, and recently released into US theaters. I haven't seen a lot of great animated films this year with some being solid while others being underwhelming. The only information I knew about this one was that it involved a popular Chinese mythical character. I went into the auditorium blind (not looking up the trailers) and left it glad I decided to check it out.

What's it about? The story follows our titular lead as his family does their best to steer him towards the benevolent path instead of a malevolent on following the circumstances of his weird birth. An element of this premise that's a double-edged sword is the amount of mythical lore that's used to give context to this fantasy environment. On the one hand, trying to find if destiny is fixed or can be changed is a fascinating element in stories where trying to have someone reach some type of light in their harsh circumstance. In the ensuing struggle, it's sometimes unsure if events are set in stone to happen or if an outlook on life can be altered towards positivity or negativity. The fantasy and history of these figures involved adds some interesting angles to it. A strong element going for it would be the action sequences where it feels like the animators have the most amount of fun and creativity with, particularly in the epic third act.

On the other hand, however, the amount of exposition surrounding the mythical elements in the story is a lot to take in and can feel overwhelming. This is most evident of this in the beginning where the stakes of the conflict are being setup. The humor can be hit or miss with a running gag or two not landing as well as it thinks it does. It also falls into the trappings of laying out bread crumbs to leave details set for a possible sequel with post end credits scenes, which is an open door considering how much money this made (it does deserve credit for actually letting the audience know about that ahead of time at the beginning of the end credits).

How are the characters? In regards to how well the vocal performances of the cast were in their respective roles, it felt like the main cast showed up and did a good job working well with one another. It can be a little tough to gauge the strongest to the weakest among them since even the minor actors put talents to use despite limited screen time. The standouts among the cast are Lu Yanting, Han Mo, Lu Qi, and Yang Wei for feeling like they were able to flesh out the personalities the best.

Overall Consensus: Ne Zha is an entertaining fantasy adventure with solid vocal performances, fun energy, and great action sequences, despite the amount of lore to digest and hit or miss humor. ⭑⭑⭑⭑🎟 Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes NR

Reasons to watch it: You are familiar with the popular Chinese mythical character or the classic novel the plot of loosely based on Investiture of the Gods. You are curious about animated movies from a different region. You like any of the aforementioned actors. You like fantasy media with plenty of lore to dive deep into. You want to see a computer animated movie where it doesn't shy away from blood wounds or vomiting (only one scene of that and it's quick).

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't curious about animated movies from a different region. You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You dislike fantasy media with plenty of lore to dive deep into. You aren't interested in voice acting that's spoken in Mandarin.