Inspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy, a Monkey and his magical fighting Stick battle demons, dragons, gods and the greatest adversary of all - Monkey's e... Read allInspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy, a Monkey and his magical fighting Stick battle demons, dragons, gods and the greatest adversary of all - Monkey's ego.Inspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy, a Monkey and his magical fighting Stick battle demons, dragons, gods and the greatest adversary of all - Monkey's ego.
- Awards
- 1 win total
- Monkey King
- (voice)
- Dragon King
- (voice)
- Lin
- (voice)
- Mayor
- (voice)
- Mayor's Wife
- (voice)
- Child Monkey
- (voice)
- …
- Jade Emperor
- (voice)
- …
- Demon of Havoc
- (voice)
- …
- Palace Minister
- (voice)
- …
- Sandy
- (voice)
- (as David Jordan Chen)
- …
- Elder Monkey
- (voice)
- Cage Baby Monkey
- (voice)
Featured reviews
The Monkey King is a 2023 animated film for Netflix co-produced by Reel FX Animation and Pearl Studio. The film is an adaptation of the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (in part anyway) which is no stranger to adaptations with many Chinese or Hong Kong productions having been produced in the past 10 years alone as well as having served as inspiration for other stories such as Dragonball Z. While The Monkey King doesn't stray to far from prior adaptations, but it is an impressive animated effort in its own right that does adequate justice to the story.
In terms of the central character, the movie does a solid job of establishing The Monkey King as an arrogant character who while powerful is lacking in wisdom or humility and is brought to life quite effectively be Jimmy O. Yang's performance. The medium of animation works very well for this story with a strong sense of freedom of movement among the characters and fantastical environments. While the Monkey King is positioned as an arrogant prideful character, the movie does a solid job of keeping him in check from becoming too grating by counterbalancing him with his Stick weapon (who despite not talking is also a character) and Lin who work well against him. While the movie sticks pretty closely to its source material, it also does feel like it plays up some parts of silliness up a little more than it should. While I have no problem with Bowen Yang's performance as the Dragon King who's the primary antagonist, the movie follows a trend of European and Asian animated productions where the overplay the comedic sides of their villains at the expense of treating them as threats.
The Monkey King is a decent animated film that isn't especially ground breaking in its rendition of this story, but it's an agreeable experience with some engaging setpieces and performances and assuming the producers decide to continue this incarnation with a follow-up I'd be interested.
The humor is what I can only describe as being "Netflix Humor", the type of joke that tries too hard to make you laugh. By the third line spoken by Monkey King I was already sick of him. He's not funny. He's boring, one-note, and painfully egotistical, and not in a way that lends to him being any sort of three dimensional.
My only positive is the animation is fluid and clean, but even that is not without it's flaws. The character design is terrible, the texturing worse. I applaud Wukong's face design being a reference to his appearance on stage but he looks like he should not reasonably be able to exist with a lower body the circumfrence of a pole with the upper body resembling the shape of a curled dorito. His head is shaped somewhat like a dinosaur, the best example being something like a Parasaurolophus, complete with the most unreasonably pointy and long swoop of hair I have ever seen. Having to look at him during the run time of this movie was painful. As an artist myself, it was like having cardiac arrest. I'm not dissing stylized animation at all, in fact, I approve of it. A better example of a stylized, eye-pleasing design of a monkey is Monkey from Kubo and the Two Strings. In fact, that movie is just better. Go watch Kubo and the Two Strings instead.
If you're still looking for a Journey to the West themed show aimed at children, watch Lego Monkie Kid. It is beautifully animated and the fight scenes are WELL done. It's overall funnier, better-looking, and offers a more faithful yet still original adaptation of the original JTTW.
I loved the animations in this film (especially the one in 2d at the beginning of the film), with a perfect choice of colors that fit to better represent the various scenes, and really amazing and functional camera movements.
For the soundtrack we have excellent music accompanying all the sequences in the feature film.
The acting is excellent does its job, believable voices.
This is an excellent film for those who love the legend of the Monkey King.
The Monkey King is a traditional Chinese character and this Hollywood Netflix movie is trying to adapt it. I can't speak to the accuracy of the adaptation. The story is a series of energetic fights over some unknowable God/magic/fantasy. It all makes sense but it doesn't make it compelling. Mostly, I don't really like the Monkey. It may be easier to center the movie by using Lin as the lead. She seems to be the more relatable character. Maybe the kids will like a fighting monkey cartoon.
Storywise it's okay. Never read the original story so i can't compare that. Lots of flash fightscenes with a metal soundtrack. I'm guessing this movie is targeted toward kids/teens. The kids liked the movie. The adults hated it.
Did you know
- TriviaThe Mayor's Wife character is an homage to Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, specifically echoing the landlady with curlers.
- Quotes
Lin: I couldn't be more dead. Fresh corpse here.
Demon of Havoc: How did you die?
Lin: Old age. No, I mean scurvy. Earthquake? A duel. Two duels. He're the story. I fell... off a cliff into a hole filled with sharks. Rabid sharks. And then a house fell on me, and I drowned. Yeah.
Demon of Havoc: Okay! You're in. Chamber of Ridiculous Deaths. Fifth floor down the hall.
- ConnectionsFeatured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: The Nominees of the Big 50th (2023)
- How long is The Monkey King?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 37m(97 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1