The Movie: The Monkey King: Reborn
The Director: Wang Yun Fei
The Cast: Bian Jiang, Zhang Lei, Cai Haiting, Su Shangqing, Zhang He, Lin
Qiang, Liu Sicen , Wang Chenguang, Baomu Zhongyang, Zhang Bin, Chang Jin, Tute
Hameng, Zhang Yaohan, Bai Xuecen, Qiuqiu, Chang Wentao, Li Jiaxiang
The Story: After short-tempered trickster Monkey King is insulted while
visiting a temple with his master Tang Monk, he destroys a magical tree and
accidentally releases the ancient King of Demons, who kidnaps Tang Monk as
revenge for his long imprisonment.
The Review:
So, this is a really fun animated feature film that I would say is one that can be shown to kids even if there is a fair amount of martial arts fighting and fantasy style action. The animation is beautiful from start to finish with bold colors and vast landscapes that feature China itself as well as the history and culture the story is derived from. There are so many amazing stories like this that come from China, most of them focusing on being a good person and keeping evil at bay.
I have not watched the previous Monkey King movie so, at first, I wasn't quite sure what was happening although the creative team does a great job of filling you in on who's who and what each character is all about. Ultimately, this is a heroes journey as the Monkey King must learn the humility and responsibility that comes along with being the best fighter around. The story plays out pretty much as you would expect and in as satisfying of a manner as you would hope for with lots of high flying action paired with comedy to keep things light.
The home video release features the original Chinese vocal track as well as a brand new English dub so you can enjoy it either way you might prefer. I always like to go with the original audio and subtitles but I know some prefer the English dub so it's good to have it available. Image quality is fantastic so feel free to test your highest quality entertainment system for best results. The release has standard features like trailers and scene selections.
The Verdict:
The Monkey King: Reborn is a high flying visual treat that has some pretty intense fight scenes yet stays family friendly with good humor and a lighthearted tone.
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