Xiao men shen

Prior to sitting down to watch "The Guardian Brothers" (aka "Xiao men shen") I had not heard anything about it. Actually, I didn't even know it existed. I read the synopsis and decided to watch it. Plus, it was set in an Asian setting, which also appeals to me.

This animated movie had a very nice story to tell, and it is very enjoyable even if you are not overly familiar with Chinese mythology. You quickly and easily immerse yourself into the storyline and the world in which the story takes place.

The art style used in this animated movie was quite good, as it was definitely unique and lovely at the same time.

It was just a shame that it was an English dubbed version that I saw, although they had some pretty good voice actors on the cast list for the English dub.

"The Guardian Brothers" is definitely worth taking the time to sit down and watch, whether it is by yourself or with your family and kids.

I don't choose to watch dubbed versions but in this case, Netflix didn't exactly give me a choice. Nicole Kidman's awful attempt at voice acting was awful. Literally sounded like she had just received the script and read it during recording.

An animated gem which is a pleasure to watch. Expect great visuals, a cool story and family-friendly fun with lots of soul. Looking forward to the next installment by the creators. I highly recommend this movie!

When it comes to children's animation I usually like to cut the film makers some slack for making an attempt at family films. But there is little to love about this film. From the poor choice of music to the head-scratcher story (what exactly was the moral trying to be portrayed here?) to the ultra-cliche characters, this one misses on just about every cylinder.

The real problem was the plot and story line. Exactly what were the writers and directors trying to teach here? That the way to accomplish good is to create extreme bad? Such philosophical nonsense is not a story to teach young children. It's a little difficult to tell who is the good guy and who is the bad here. The sub-plot of the bad-guy competitor is unnecessary to the main story... or is the main story a sub-plot of the evil competitive restaurateur? Hard to tell.

While the sight-gags are understandable for young children (the fart gags might gain a laugh from the 7-&-under audience), they might leave older children and adults cold. (Characters fighting over a lone bathroom because they all have quote "diarrhea" unquote... isn't all that funny.)

The cliche characters and questionable theme serve to make this an hour and a half wasted. The animation is good, the sound is well-mixed (except for the iffy American song choices). Beyond that, one can give this a pass. I don't know whether this is a case of Asian film lost in the Americanization... or if it was simply poor to start with, but it was a yawner by the 20 minute mark and didn't much improve in the remaining time.

I tried watching this on Netflix today and the English voice acting was absolute garbage. I had to give up watching it after only 5 minutes. I don't understand how they could release like this. The little girl sounds like she is 20. If only they had the Chinese version but they don't so I guess I wont be seeing this movie.