Wish Dragon - Movie Review

I love discovering new things, especially when it comes to ideas that are great, but don't get much attention. I'm a massive support for the "underdogs" out there, whether it be less-known TV, film, and games to playable characters and gear to just people in general. You never know what that little thing that you know can become a massive hit. Plus for me it gives me the satisfaction of saying things such as, "I liked this before it was cool." So for this week I'm going to talking about a film that barely has gotten any advertisement, yet was well crafted in terms of animation, story, humor, deeper meanings, and introducing people to non-American cultures: Wish Dragon.

Wish Dragon is a Chinese animated film about a young man named Din Song (Jimmy Wong) and a girl named Li Na Wang (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). These two meet when they were little and grew up to be the best of friends. One day though her father (Will Yun Lee) moves with her daughter into the big city for a big business reason and the two are separated. Years later Din has become a smart, hard-working, and poor man while Li Na has become a beautiful celebrity associated with a lot of beauty products and services. Din wants to see her again and renew their old friendship, but his class is a big hindrance towards his goal. That is until he is given a magic teapot containing a mystical dragon named Long (John Cho) who can grant three wishes to him! But there are others who are after this teapot and Din has to contend with these people while trying connect with his former best friend.

When I first saw the one trailer for this film I thought, "Huh... Chinese Aladdin? Sounds fun!" But that optimism seems to not have been shared by other people since Disney original animated Aladdin has become such an icon. I didn't mind the comparison though because the animation already looked really good and I was curious to experience some new culture. China's animation industry has been growing a lot in the past several years and they're getting better and better with each attempt at an animated film. Last year I had watched a recent Chinese animated film called Hedgehogs, which was weirdly animated and voiced, but was, in a ways, a step in the right direction when it came to creating an animated film. See Wish Dragon though I think China has really nailed it when it comes to making excellent animated films!

The animation of this film was very good! I'm not talking about how the textures look realistic, I mean the way the characters moved, how their faces emoted, how the textures and style of the movie blended so well together, and the effects were very. This is might be past Disney level when it comes to how good it is because none of it feels stiff, it is full of life and just the right amounts of exaggeration to make it feel like a cartoon. Seriously, when you look at past Disney films they keep trying to make their characters move as realistic as possible, with the exception of the occasional magic snowman or water dragon. There is very little stretching of bodies and that is kind of disappointing to realize after watching Wish Dragon. Just think back to the last animated Disney film you have seen and think about how little the bodies seem to emote or really pop out in terms of style. This uniqueness in character animation also greatly improves the action in the film. Not only does it feel like something that Jackie Chan would do in real life when he was younger, but the way everyone moves about improves the fights even more by letting them do crazy flips and tricks. It isn't just punching and kicking, but also using the environment as well.

To go into this further I'm going to talk about one of the main villains of the movie, this goon named Pockets. He's tall, doesn't speak much (unlike his two goons that are mostly comic relief) and his movies with his legs so much. What I mean by that is that he barely ever uses his hands or fists for anything and can move his legs like a contortionist. It was so hilarious to watch Pocket tapping people on the shoulder with his foot and doing a bunch of insane acrobatics with just his lower half. You'd have to make him very mad to make him use his hands as well (which does happen at a certain point). But the way he moves about is to odd in the right ways he became one of my favorite characters in the film!

But there are other characters that I thought were very fun in the film. Din and Li Na had very good chemistry with one another. They weren't romantic with one another like you'd expect from this type of story, but more really good friends that maybe one day in future could lead to romantic relationship. I also really liked Din mother (Constance Wu), who was an excellent parental figure in the film. The other goons besides Pocket, who don't have official names of their own, were fun comedic characters that had some nice traits to them. The main villain of the movie though was interesting. They were clearly the bad guy that Pocket was working for, but they also had a few traits that made them sympathetic to the audience, which is great. Though I would have liked more development out of them so I can understand their situation and beliefs more.

Long though was probably the most interesting character from the film. Unlike the Genie from Aladdin, who wants to be free from his lamp just so he can no longer be a slave and see the world, Long is more of a tragic character who learns and changes by watching Din's actions. He wasn't unlikable throughout the film however, John Cho put a lot of charm into his performance and fleshed him out. While Long wants to rush Din make his wishes so he can go to the spirit world, he also offers Din advice beyond just that (whether it's good or dated). Plus I loved how Long interacted with modern technology since it had been centuries since he last got out of his teapot. It lead to a lot of great comedic moments throughout the film. One of my favorites is when he learns about traffic and he asks if it's some sort of national holiday or something, which is just... amazing!

There are a few problems with the film though. Now I did watch the film with English voice acting instead of Chinese, but some of the lip syncing was bad for the English version. There was a scene near the start of the film with really, really bad lip syncing that I'm sure anybody would recognize. I have not watched the Chinese dub of the film, so I can't say how that is (especially since I have not watched a single Chinese film in the original Chinese audio). Even so, some of the voice clips could have been synced better or been given better fitting audio tracks in the English version of the film. Or maybe just that one scene because after that horrendous moment I was on my guard for any more audio problems.

I do also find that the story/ script could have been improved some. As I mentioned before the main villain, while strangely sympathetic, could have been developed a lot more. But there is more than that though that could have been improved. I could have used a little more development out of Din in seeing his life beyond just pining for his best friend because it's hinted that he's very good at school and is juggling that, a job, and his home life all at once. There is also a few moments with Din's mother that I felt should have been explain more, especially how her cooking later plays a big role in the film. There should have been a little more polishing in the script than what we got.

However, after watching Wish Dragon I find the comparisons to Aladdin to be minimal. The only real comparisons I could see was a poor boy and rich girl forming a relationship of sorts and a magical, wish granting entity that is trapping in a small, lidded container. There are no musical numbers in the film, the culture is very different, and a lot of plot points are different. For that I think the film deserves more praise than it has gotten because a few small comparisons to a well-known animated film shouldn't define this film for what it is. Seriously, I've seen a few reviews of this film, calling it an shameless ripoff of Aladdin and that's just wrong.

Lastly, I want to talk about the main theme of the film: Realistic expectations. Instead of focusing on love or something plain and obvious the theme is more grey in terms of how you balance it out. While Din is totally focused on reigniting his friendship with Li Na, he has to balance out his school life and future. This also applies to Li Na, Long, and a few of the other characters in the film and I found this theme to be effectively told in Wish Dragon. True the story could have been a little more fleshed out with this theme, but I found it to be a enough for younger audiences and for those who want a relaxing, yet fun animated film.

Wish Dragon is a great animated film that needs more notice. One of the main motivations of this movie was to show that the Chinese animation market can tango with the big animation studios like Disney and Pixar. And I believe that China has done just that! Not only was the animation really damn good, but the story was also fun, comedy was great, and it incorporated some of its culture into the film. It does need some polishing in some places, but this is a great step for Chinese animation! I'd rather watch Wish Dragon than Raya and the Last Dragon~

Tentative Score: 7.5/10

Definitive Score: 7.5/10

I hope to see more from China's animation industry in the future besides actually blatant ripoffs because China... there are a lot of nasty people who love to rip off our films there.