I will admit, I had never heard of the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha, until I heard about its sequel, Ne Zha 2 becoming the highest grossing animated movie of all time! That really made me take notice and want to see it, but before that, I of course had to watch Ne Zha which was first released in 2019.
How to Download Ne Zha
Ne Zha was released in July 2019. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
It is so easy to get stuck in the Hollywood bubble of movies from Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Illumination being the only game in town, that you forget there are just as talented studios all over the world. I watched the trailer for this before I watched the movie and thought that it looked ok, but the trailer was kind of misleading as this was far better than I thought it would be.
A Fresh Take on Chinese Mythology
I do have to say that I am completely ignorant of the Chinese legend that Ne Zha is based on, however, I still found the story easy to follow and very exciting. The movie starts with the forming of a Spirit Pearl and a Demon Orb. This part is pretty weird, but that Demon Orb is reincarnated and is birthed as a son to Li Jing and his wife, Yin and he is called Ne Zha.
On the other side of this we have the Spirt Pearl which is given to the dragons that live on the bottom of the ocean and who desire to be allowed to leave. The Spirt Pearl becomes Ao Bing, the son of the Dragon King. Interestingly, as Ne Zha is birthed thanks to the Demon Pearl, he is supposed to have a very tragic life. He is cursed and will die, but he is also supposed to be evil as well.
An Engaging Hero’s Journey
However, his parents do not tell him this. Instead, Ne Zha’s parents tell him that he is destined for good and to become a heroic demon hunter, something that he takes very seriously. Of course, Ne Zha and Ao Bing end up meeting up and the pair of them try to take down a demon and this as you would expect goes pretty badly.
Stunning Animation and Emotional Depth
There is a lot of great action in Ne Zha and it looks fantastic, this is just as good as anything any of the other major animation studios like Pixar or DreamWorks have done. However, there is a lot of hard hitting stuff with the story too. Ne Zha finding out who he really is and learning of his curse and fate was brutal, but there is some real feel good stuff here too with him learning just how much his father really loves him and what he was willing to do to keep him safe.
Perfect Pacing and a Satisfying Ending
The runtime is a little under two hours and I honestly think that it was perfect for this story. Part of me wanted to see more of Ne Zha and Ao Bing bonding, but to be fair, I think that the pacing of the movie was fantastic. There was always something happening and nothing here felt like it was filler at all. They could have so easily added in some extra scenes to expand things, but I honestly think it could have hurt the flow of the movie.
Final Verdict: A Must-Watch Animated Epic
I had a lot of fun with Ne Zha. I can see why it did as well as it did, but even though I really liked it, it would not make my greatest animated movies of all time list. It had a fantastic ending that made me very excited to see the sequel. This is not just a movie for kids, sure kids will love it. However, I feel that this has the same cross over appeal where adults will like it just as much as the kids do.
