Over the Moon

Started of very well, nice and gripping story. And then comes the moon with neon colors and a stupid pop star God. Is this what we really want to show the children? There are better ways to tell a story about loss and progress with life.

Young Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) over the course of her childhood is told of ancient legends of moon goddess Chang'e (Phillipa Soo) by her mother (Ruthie Ann Miles). After her mother passes from a terminal illness Fei Fei is shaken by the prospect that her father (John Cho) will marry Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh) and believing the stories told by her mother hold the key to preventing this Fei Fei builds a rocket to the moon to find the moon goddess Chang'e only for her soon to be stepbrother Chin (Robert G Chiu) throwing a monkey wrench into her plans and setting them on an unplanned detour.

Over the Moon is the third feature film co-production from Netflix's animation division following Klaus and The Willoughbys. Klaus was probably in my top 10 list for that year, and while I didn't think The Willoughby's was in the same league, I still appreciate the craft and care that went into it making it look as good or better than some films that got a theatrical release. With Over the Moon co-produced with Pearl Studio (Abominable), I'm pleased to say this film is closer to the former than the latter.

The film is the feature length animated debut for John Kahrs (director of amazing short Paperman) and Glen Keane (Dear Basketball) and both have work in the industry coming from Pixar as well as back to the early days of the Disney Renaissance. Needless to say, their A game has been brought and delivers. The animation in this movie is simply incredible. The vibrancy and life of Fei Fei's home town, the energy brought to the comic relief characters (of which there maybe a few too many), the emptiness of space, and some scenes of sheer awe and wonder that deserve to be experienced so I'll avoid spoiling them, save for saying they're as imaginative as anything Winsor McCay created for his Little Nemo comic strips back in the early 1900s.

The story is absolutely amazing showing the importance of family, but also the threat of getting stuck in the past and refusing to move past it (with some eerily effective imagery in the film's climax. The movie is a musical with Christopher Curtis, Marjorie Duffield and Helen Park serving as the song writers, and the score they come up with is as vibrant and powerful as the upper levels of the Disney Renaissance. The songs range from more traditional melodies to more modern compositions to sometimes skirting the lines and being compositions of both, in this way it's very much enhancing the theme of appreciating the old while allowing acceptance of the new.

Fei Fei makes a likable lead as we see her emotional jounrey and it parallels nicely with the Chang'e legend as presented in the film. Fei Fei is brought to life by not only great expressive animation but also by Cathy Ang giving a great VO performance that hits all the right notes. The rest of the voice cast do a terrific job and play their parts well. Some of the comic relief do flirt with becoming grating and overbearing, but luckily what annoyance there are to the characters feel (mostly) true to life and feel earned in relation to the rest of the movie that surrounds them. There are also a few lowbrow gags, but they're luckily used sparingly and never overstay their welcome.

Over the Moon is a terrific film that shows that both Pearl Studio and Netflix Animation are worthy contenders among the crowded animation field. With fantastic visuals, likable characters, a dynamic musical score, and a story that strikes the right emotional chords, the movie is able to overcome the few minor drawbacks keep it from being perfect. While some of the comic relief feels unnecessary, it's balanced out by a cohesive whole of ingredients that make for a beautiful and moving animated visual feast.

There's not many animated movies anymore that perfectly captivate the soul and imagination like Over the Moon. Directed by legendary animator Glenn Keane (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, to name a few), Over the Moon transports you to a colorful world of love and wonder.

The movie starts off with a gorgeous 2D animation sequence of the Chinese Moon goddess myth, it's extremely reminiscent to the animation from classic 90s Disney films. The songs are melodic, catchy and full of heart (minus the short rap song, but even then, that song is good and fun too).

By far the MOST significant and iconic part of the entire film (this scene honestly carries the entire film tbh) is when the Moon goddess, Chang'e, sings Ultraluminary in what could be described as a spectacular concert performance. The visuals are BREATHTAKING and gorgeous. It's on par with the grotto scene from The Little Mermaid (Part of Your World), the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast, A Whole New World, The Cicle of Life (you get the idea).. Let It Go doesn't even compare to Ultraluminary. It truly deserves a place in animation history and it would be a travesty if it isn't nominated for a Grammy.

The story really pulls at the heart strings as it deals with loss and grief, something too many people are dealing with this year due to the pandemic. So if your little one is dealing with grief from losing a loved one, you may want to watch this first on your own to make sure it won't be too much for them.

Sadly this movie will be slept on and invalidated by the corporate powers at Disney who desperately refuse to let go of their monopolistic grip on the animated movie industry. The hoards of Disney loyalist are also trashing this movie very unfairly, its a movie they will love to hate, thats how you know its good.

Criticisms in regards to the "logic" of the movie kinda flew out the window when the protagonist built a rocket and literally went to the moon. It's laughable that the things these Disney loyalist are criticizing this film for they completely ignore and look the other way in their favorite films. For example Frozen was filled to the brim with plot holes and was incoherently illogical beginning to end, it was a fantasy movie anyways, but when it comes to Over the Moon, no, "it doesn't make sense" ok. Frozen wasn't the first movie to feature an annoying "tag-along" character (Olaf), there are COUNTLESS animated movies that have an annoying/endearing comic relief character, but they're all, including this one, "ripping off Frozen". Also Disney by far, didn't make the first animated movie to deal with death and loss (Coco). Over the Moon deals with grief much differently than Coco, I really don't understand how the comparisons to Coco are even relevant to this film.

This movie is proof the Disney is destroying animation because not only do people dogmatically cling to the name "Disney" but their standards also stem from their movies, most of which are rip-offs of other movies and feature recycled and stolen visuals from other animated foreign films.

While this movie shines on its own as a stand alone film, it really shines a light at everything wrong with Disney right now in their shadows. Their rabid cult-like fanbase refuses to let any other animated movies shine, even when they're directed by Disney legend Glenn Keane. Disney can't make an appropriate movie based off Chinese culture without bowing down to the CCP and endorsing genocide (Mulan 2020). Disney has the corporate money to pay for bad reviews to silence their competitors. Disney also decided to release a trailer for their new southeast Asian "princess" movie the same day Over the Moon was released. So because of the powers that be, this gorgeous film is unfairly being compared to the Emoji Movie and Trolls when in reality it's on par with the Disney classics from the 90s and their latest films (Mooana and Frozen).

I highly recommend this movie, if anything at least stick around till scene when they arrive at the moon and the Moon goddess, Chang'e, sings Ultraluminary, you won't regret it.

As a Chinese person, I LOVED seeing so much wonderful cultural representation and the all-Asian cast. As a kid, there was very little of this type of thing available to me and I'm happy that my four year old enjoys this movie and sees positive representations of this part of her heritage.

I thought the visuals were stunning, and the animation and character design were lovely.

Otherwise, it was... fine. I feel like the movie started off strong. I got teary during the first part. Then the story just got kind of confusing and I felt very little emotional connection to the characters. The singing is good, but I didn't find the music as catchy or memorable as some other recent musicals. I'll watch this again with my kid and I prefer it to something like Frozen, Cars, or The Good Dinosaur, but I don't think it's as good as my favorite Pixar films like Wall-e or Monsters, Inc.

Top notch animation. but if you've seen as many animated films as i've done then the plot won't stand out in any way.