El aprendiz del tigre

The Tiger's Apprentice is a mediocre book adaptation where it had good opportunities, but was not exactly as good as I would expect. It does have the right tools to be a good film with the direction the movie is going for with the respectable Chinese representation, decent animation, and action scenes being the best part. But it ended up being an easily forgettable film with a disappointingly dull and rushed story, weak looking human characters, and pretty bland characters. I know not everyone will have Paramount Plus and I agree that their exclusives aren't that great. So I won't see any rush to watch this one. I have never read the book, so I'll just say that maybe those that have read it may be interested in this. It is disappointing that Paramount is not releasing original animated films in theaters, but this one does feel like it fits for streaming.

This movie had so much potential: it had actual writing as base material, it had a great cast, the animation team was decent and it was released in a period of not much happening. It could have been like a new (old) Pixar movie release. Instead, it was a lazy, formulaic, brain dead production, more focused on making female characters look cool and superior than actually telling a story.

I have not read the book, but from the synopsis, it was completely different from the film. Also, it features the most rancid clichés ever: the boy who doesn't know who he is because someone sheltered him, but he's totally special because of his blood, with a wonderful all knowing mentor that dies just before they impart their wisdom and the adolescent American who can't stop and think for a single minute, doing dumb thing after dumb thing, but with a lot of people around him to tell him it wasn't his fault and finding excuses for him, because feelings.

The ending was the worst part, though. After failing miserably in doing ANYTHING, the hero finds in himself - without any effort, really - the one thing he has to do to defeat the evil overpowered opponent. A stroke of luck, followed by a lot of boasting about how he saved the day.

The story was beyond childish. Just think for any amount of time at anything in the film and it either makes no sense or it completely invalidates what it supposedly indicating. The cast was criminally underused. There are basically four characters with actual roles, Michelle Yeoh stealing the show, even with the sorry dialogue they gave her, with the others having a few lines each. I think Patrick Gallagher just says something about slobbering shower, once! The pacing was all over the place, with everything either feeling rushed or glacial. Even the editing, which should be quite fixed and done before any other work starts in animation, was poor.

I had to end the review because I felt like I had to remove stars the more I thought about it. They just appropriated (badly) elements of Chinese culture, turned them into a show even 7 year-olds would probably find nonsensical, then released them as a feature film that cost 300 million dollars. How is that even possible?

Bottom line: stupid.

A woman wants a "Phoenix" egg McGuffin (because she is "bad"), and twelve Zodiac human-animals need to protect it's new Guarding. That's it! The characters are introduced, they fight and the movie ends.

While it has some good environmental and visual effects, the contrast between the overly-designed characters with the lack of personality or likeability, is really noticeable.. As if all their effort was put into making the trailer first! And the rest is a rather-shallow-production that lacks in everything non-visual. There's also a lack of world building, flat and boring voice acting (not to mention the boring dialogue), generic action, rushed development, uninteresting story (with some very slow parts), poor music choices.. and constant slow-motion shots.

Sadly, I don't think this offers anything at all as a movie.

It's 2009 Hong Kong. Mrs. Lee and her baby grandson Tom are being chased by yaoguai. They are saved by the 12 Chinese Zodiac. Tom is the chosen one. It's 15 years later in San Francisco. Tom is now a bullied high school kid. His grandmother had kept his powers a secret. They are attacked by the wicked magician Loo who is after his Phoenix stone. The 12 Zodiac gather to protect the boy.

The story is pretty simple as in good versus evil. There is a thing to get. There is the boy savior. The difference is mostly the Chinese culture. I would use more generalized English terms for some of these Chinese things. I would definitely give some of the Zodiac better powers. For example, the rooster crows in the sunrise. Why not have him throw off rays of sunlight? Instead, he's throwing feathers like darts. The pig rolls in mud. Why not give him earth power or throwing around mud? It seems random that the monkey can shrink things. The monkey should be super-smart. So on and so on. Finally, it's a French animation company and they are at least a generation behind. The surface work and the designs are all a little off. It's lesser animation.

Here's The 4K Lowedown on "Tiger's Apprentice" (PG - 2024 - Paramount+)

Genre: Animated/Family

My Score: 6.7 Cast=8 Acting=5 Trailer=7 Ending=7 Story=7 Visuals=7 Direct=5 Sounds=7 Genre=7 Sub-genre=7

After the death of his grandmother, a Chinese American boy has to be apprenticed to the talking tiger Mr. Hu and learn ancient magic to become the new guardian of the phoenix.

"Your grandmother was a guardian...sworn to protect humanity." I liked this, but it was not well written. It was like Wish Drago and Kung Fu Panda had a baby but it was born in captivity. This movie plays better to a younger audience...with its colorful animation and simple dialogue. But unfortunately, animals born in captivity are generally not as exciting as those in the wild. If you have a season pass to the Paramount+ Zoo though, this is worth seeing.