While
this has a lot of the trappings that can make kids’ movies annoying – gross-out
humor, handwavy plotting, at-times comically-broad acting – and, by all
accounts, this sequel isn’t as good as the film that preceded it, I still found
myself liking it a lot, almost to a surprising degree. Beneath the goofiness and nonsense, there’s a
lot of charm and heart.
Okay, so
Wuba is a baby monster who is super-important to both the monster and the human
worlds – there’s an evil monster king constantly sending minions after him,
various humans are willing to pay big bucks to get their hands on him, and
there’s some sort of prophecy that he’s the one being that can bring harmony to
the monster and human worlds. But Wuba
doesn’t feel important; he just feels like a baby monster who misses his
parents, the two humans who cared for him and, at the end of the first movie,
sent him back to the monster world because they thought it was best for him. Now, though, they’re missing him as much as he
misses them, and between a lot of action, hijinks, and adventure, the
unconventional family tries to find their way back to each other.
That’s a
pretty long summary, and there are definite points where I was running to keep
up. I’m sure it follows better if you’ve
seen the first movie, but overall, I had a fairly good understanding of what’s
going on, even if some of the plot hinges on just-go-with-it logic. There are easy jokes, fun sight gags,
slapstick action as well as martial-arts action, inventive quirks, and dubious
tangents, and it all adds up to something that’s surprisingly-compelling to
watch.
Much of
that comes down to the heart of the film, the central family that’s trying to
reunite. Wuba is very clearly designed
to be too cute for words, and it’s no wonder that nearly everyone he meets
falls in love with him. For me, though,
I was even more charmed by Xiaolan and Tianyin, Wuba’s human parents. Despite an occasional, aggravating tendency
on Xiaolan’s part to emasculate Tianyin (especially since he’s the one who
evidently “gave birth” to Wuba in the first movie,) the young couple is,
frankly, adorable, and I love what they’re about. She’s tough and he’s sensitive, but he’s
always brave when he needs to be and she has a bigger heart than she sometimes
lets on. If I at some point decide to go
back and watch the first movie, it’ll be because of these two.
But of
course, Tony Leung Chiu-wai is only in this movie. He plays Tu Sigu, who I can best describe as
a kids’-movie-set-in-a-fantasy-world-based-on-ancient-China answer to Han
Solo. He’s a voracious gambler and
small-time con man who’s found a variety of ways to cheat at dice and mahjong
by creatively using monsters and their powers.
When he and his monster sidekick stumble upon Wuba, Tu sees in the
little guy a big payday that can get him out of debt, but Tu isn’t quite as selfish or callous as he makes
out to be, and if there’s anyone who could tug on his heartstrings, it’s
probably Wuba.
Acting,
for the most part, plays by different rules in kids’ movies, and some of what
we get here from Leung is silly and overdone – a comic antihero whose
competence level veers at times to mildly bumbling (this is another film where
Leung’s Mandarin is dubbed, so I’m not sure what he would’ve done with the
dialogue, but his physical performance can be pretty broad, too.) But Tu is also more grounded at times, both
comically and dramatically. I enjoy the
relationship between him and his long-suffering monster buddy, with both often
seeming equally exasperated with each other, and it’s fun to watch him fight a
losing battle against Wuba’s charms and cuteness. Overall, this is a fairly enjoyable
character/performance, and to be perfectly honest, it was more than I expected
going into this film.
Recommend?
In
General
– Yeah. If you enjoy kids’ movies at
all, you’d probably enjoy this one. It’s
not Pixar, but it’s fun and sweet.
Tony
Leung Chiu-wai
– I think I would. This is a different
variation on the sort of charismatic schemer that Leung played so often in the
‘80s and early ‘90s, and Leung does well with it within the limits of the
story.
Warnings
Gross-out
humor, violence/scary moments, suggestiveness, and drinking.
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