Prince Nezha's Triumph Against Dragon King

The English title is "Little Nezha" (Nai-ya), it tells the story of an emperor's wife laying an egg instead of giving birth, the emperor is outraged, however before he cuts the egg with his sword in anger, his son is born from the egg and givin special powers from a wise old man (Tai-yee) to battle the 5 dragon kings terrorising china.

This is superb traditional Chinese animation, the dubbing isn't amazing (what dubs are??), but acceptable. Kids and adults will enjoy this, though there is some shocking scenes, though I didn't mind them at all when I was a kid. The music alone is amazing, very atmospheric and memorable. Find this on VHS on ebay, I did!! You wont regret it.

Now, I was first introduced to Ne Zha through the newer films, 2019/2025, and since then, I've been wanting to learn more about the mythology around him, so why not start now before the dubbed version of Ne Zha 2 comes out?

The first Ne Zha animated movie ever made, and it hits all the check marks it needs to hit.

It gets the important story beats and the character growth.

There's a lot in the story that I do like. Half of that is because it's from the newer films, but the other half is because it feels different enough.

This film was made in 1979 - it's pretty old. And you can 100% tell in the actual movie. The animation is extremely outdated, but it's cool to see what Chinese animated movies used to look like in the late 1970s compared to America.

But because the film is so old, there is a huge pacing problem in the movie. A lot of the time, I love the actual plot because it's the main plot in Ne Zha's story.

But half of that is taken away because you have such a slow movie. It is only an hour, and in that hour, every 10 minutes there's a fantastic moment that Ne Zha goes through. But hidden between all those moments is a drag to sit through.

Now, I do have to keep in mind that this movie is almost 50 years old. But it's a 50-year-old movie that served as a good introduction to the character for people who didn't know the myth.

But it is now extremely outdated, and now that we have such a better version of the story, there is almost no reason to go back and check this one out. I would say what makes it worth checking out is some of the story elements that this version has which stand out a bit. Other than that, it's not worth checking out.

Like many of the reviewers I thoroughly enjoy this odd Chinese animation. It is well animated and the sound track is particularly enjoyable. I watched this animation numerous times throughout my childhood without recoiling at any of the 'shocking' scenes nor considering it particularly 'disturbing'. That being said, I remember when I first went to University I showed the animation to a few friends and they found the animation to be very disturbing for an animation that children would have watched.

Given this, I would recommend any parent watches Nezha before allowing their kids to watch it. If you were okay with uncensored Dragonball and other Japanese animes then Nezha should be no problem.

I would thoroughly recommend it though - very enjoyable film, and highly memorable.

Like I said (again), animation is an art form, and I saw that in a few countries in the world, there is some excellent animation. After watching online the 2004 Chinese animated film The Butterfly Lovers, though it was originally made in Taiwan on December 31, 2003, I had gotten curious about Chinese animation. So on YouTube and on another video site, I watched the dubbed version and the original version of the film Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, and I loved both versions. And like I said, the world has lots of wonderful stories to love and to share with other people, and the character of Nezha has frequently appeared in Chinese mythology and ancient Chinese literature, and this animated film tells the story of one of these Chinese legends.

The story begins with Li Jing, a military leader of the Chentangguan Pass, who is informed that after a three and a half-year pregnancy, his wife has given birth to something that looks like a cross between an egg and a lotus flower. Before Li could strike the egg or flower with his sword (as he considered it to be something unnatural), the bud opened and revealed a small boy. Not long after, a sage named Taiyi Zhenren comes to express his congratulations. He names the boy "Nezha," gives him the Firmament Ring and the Armillary Damask Silk, and accepts Nezha as his disciple.

When Nezha is seven years old, the Chentangguan Pass is afflicted with a severe drought, and Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, turns a blind eye to the offerings he receives from the people that are suffering from the drought. And worse, he orders Li Gen, his Yaksha guard (an evil ogre-like spirit in Buddhist religion), to hunt and kidnap the town's children so he can eat them. Li Gen managed to kidnap one of the children, who were Nezha's two friends, who were riding Nezha's deer friend along the beach. Of course, Nezha defeats the Yaksha, and in a rage over Nezha's defiance to his authority, the Dragon King sends his third (and probably favorite) son, Prince Ao Bing, to capture and kill Nezha. I won't give you any more details; you'll have to see the film for yourself.

So overall, this is one of the best animated movies ever made. With plenty of fantasy, adventure, humor, shocking surprises, and beautiful animation, I loved it!

I saw this ages ago when i was a kid. The animation was great and so was the story .. based on some old Chinese legend i think; a boy prince battling 5 tyrant dragons that plague the land. I only have vague memories of the movie but i recall i enjoyed it a lot. Several searches for a DVD version have yielded nothing :/