I’m aware of Monkey and Journey to the West story in broad strokes but I’ve never seen any filmed adaptation. I was curious but skeptical about this Netflix animation so I decided to give it go.

The film is about Monkey (a trickster of Chinese mythology) who wants to get the attention of the gods. He joins forces with a young girl and his stick to prove his worth.

I have no idea if this version of Monkey’s story is actually part of Chinese lore. I watched the flick baffled and unamused… wondering if a staff that communicates with the voice of a throat singer is part of the canon (for example). My ignorance is real so I feel a little bad about bagging on any of the story points.

But I will bag on how unfunny and annoying the film is. It’s loud and noisy and Monkey is a terrible character… He’s meant to be insufferable, but I bet he’s also meant to be cheeky fun. An adorable rapscallion I did not think he was.

Plus the art style is ugly and cheap. The animation isn’t bad, but man does it look like they got the Z team of modern CGI to put this together.

I actually kind of liked the ending. It brings back an important deity and and they impart a pretty good message onto Monkey. More importantly, I could see the clever way it sets up the actual Journey to the West. If only the whole movie would have operated on this level.

But it didn’t and I found so much of this boring and insufferable. Maybe those familiar with the mythos will get more out of it… maybe its full of references that those in the know will find hilarious. I didn’t.

Score: 63