Netflix is getting worryingly good at "suggesting" things I should be watching.
"Stay in with me tonight, my precious. You don't need the sunlight, it buuuuurns. Look! I have cartoons. You like cartoons, don't you precious. No, don't go! It's cold and windy. Quick, he's leaving, give me the tape! No, obviously not bloody Drag Race, we want him to stay in, not cancel his subscription. Yes, that one! I mean, oooh, looook at thiiiis. How about a nice evening of Wuxia?"
So, I found myself watching The Guardian Brothers. (Also called Little Door Gods in the original Chinese showing - I watched the English language dub.)
Rain and her mother run a soup shop, (after the obligatory Up-inspired family death in the starting scene) and have no small amount of trouble from the competing fast food enterprise next door.
At the same time, the Spirit Gods of Chinese mythology have become withdrawn from humanity, finding no place for themselves in the increasingly secular modern world. This isn't helped by the Spirit Mayor deciding that they should be cut off entirely and going around removing all of the portals to the human world.
This doesn't sit well with Yu Lei, who has realised that the two worlds need each other and decides to embark on a quest to release the demon Nian, in order to unite the gods and shake them out of their complacency. It's the Ozymandias plan.
What follows is a relatively traditional quest plot, as Yu Lei hunts down the three seals he must break to release Nian, and Shen Tu, his brother, attempts to hunt him down and stop him with the power of brotherly love. At the same time, he has to fulfil his function as a helpful god by saving the shop. He is not a good cook.
Luckily, it is also rather hilarious. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. The Mayor's minions are a weird combination of cherubs and goons, and tend to come out with ridiculous threats and asides. The misadventures of the competitive cooking is decently entertaining and it's not an overly sappy story, with the emotional element being fairly restrained. There are a couple of bits of incredibly stilted dialogue though. I don't know if it's the intricacies of translation but there were one or two clunkers. That was redeemed with an excellent tortoise pun, however.
It's also got a few surprisingly big names in it, with Meryl Streep narrating and Nicole Kidman and Mel Brooks taking large roles. And they're paired with entertaining music choices a fair amount of the time (except for the very first piece, which is just horribly contrasted).
The animation in general is good for the CGI style, but there's an absolutely beautiful moment early in the film with a bit of backstory to Nian. It's this amazing hand-drawn looking segment, in which Nian is very reminiscent of Hexxus from Ferngully. If they could make an entire film of that it would make a shedload.
An unexpected treat.
Recommended.
Tagged: Film Animated comedy Gods and demons Fiction Netflix