The Monkey King

Inspired by the beloved Chinese novel Journey to the West, this tells the origin of a powerful monkey born from a magical rock. Upon birth, he shoots light beams from his eyes into the palace of the Jade Emperor, lord of the immortals, who orders him eliminated. However, Buddha tells the emperor the monkey has an important destiny and should be allowed to find his way.

The wild monkey longs for the love of a mother and the acceptance of the monkey tribe. However, his attempts to belong backfire and he is shunned by the group. He learns to live alone and trains himself in martial arts. To help defend his tribe from demons, he searches for a weapon and finds a magic stick that has been waiting for a powerful rebel to use it. The monkey and weapon bond and become a powerful team. After getting rid of a demon that has been plaguing the monkey tribe, he is crowned the monkey king. He sets off on a mission to become immortal. Along the way, he meets a plucky and smart girl named Lin who joins his adventure.

This is highly entertaining and also somewhat informative for those not familiar with Chinese tales about immortals and demons. I, for one, didn't know that Buddha is considered higher in power and status than the immortal lord.

I normally get bored with movies/dramas that have a lot of action scenes, but this has other elements like defending weak mortals from demons and quest for immortality that held my interest. There is also something endearing about a powerful outsider who not only does not bear a grudge against those who shun him but even fights for them. This noble trait somehow makes his egocentricity bearable, though one can't help wondering whether he would gain humility thus become a real hero in every sense of the word. And that is a character development worth waiting for.

A monkey is born from a rock with light ray eyes. He gets banished from his troupe for his carelessness when a Demon takes another baby monkey. He tries to battle the Demon and fail. He steals a magical staff and intends to defeat 100 Demons to become a God himself. Village girl Lin joins him as his assistant.

The Monkey King is a traditional Chinese character and this Hollywood Netflix movie is trying to adapt it. I can't speak to the accuracy of the adaptation. The story is a series of energetic fights over some unknowable God/magic/fantasy. It all makes sense but it doesn't make it compelling. Mostly, I don't really like the Monkey. It may be easier to center the movie by using Lin as the lead. She seems to be the more relatable character. Maybe the kids will like a fighting monkey cartoon.

Set in a world overseen by Budha (BD Wong) consisting of Heaven, Hell and the world between, a monkey is born from stone (Jimmy O. Yang adult, Dee Bradley Baker baby) who is endowed with extraordinary powers but is an outsider from the rest of the monkeys. The monkey hones his abilities and after vanquishing a demon using his a stick stolen from the Dragon King (Bowen Yang) he is given the title of Monkey King. Convinced he's meant for a place in Heaven, the Monkey King sets out to conquer 100 demons in the hopes Heaven will extend an invitation to him. Along the way Monkey King has many encounters including from a young girl named Lin (Jolie Haong-Rappaport).

The Monkey King is a 2023 animated film for Netflix co-produced by Reel FX Animation and Pearl Studio. The film is an adaptation of the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (in part anyway) which is no stranger to adaptations with many Chinese or Hong Kong productions having been produced in the past 10 years alone as well as having served as inspiration for other stories such as Dragonball Z. While The Monkey King doesn't stray to far from prior adaptations, but it is an impressive animated effort in its own right that does adequate justice to the story.

In terms of the central character, the movie does a solid job of establishing The Monkey King as an arrogant character who while powerful is lacking in wisdom or humility and is brought to life quite effectively be Jimmy O. Yang's performance. The medium of animation works very well for this story with a strong sense of freedom of movement among the characters and fantastical environments. While the Monkey King is positioned as an arrogant prideful character, the movie does a solid job of keeping him in check from becoming too grating by counterbalancing him with his Stick weapon (who despite not talking is also a character) and Lin who work well against him. While the movie sticks pretty closely to its source material, it also does feel like it plays up some parts of silliness up a little more than it should. While I have no problem with Bowen Yang's performance as the Dragon King who's the primary antagonist, the movie follows a trend of European and Asian animated productions where the overplay the comedic sides of their villains at the expense of treating them as threats.

The Monkey King is a decent animated film that isn't especially ground breaking in its rendition of this story, but it's an agreeable experience with some engaging setpieces and performances and assuming the producers decide to continue this incarnation with a follow-up I'd be interested.

Just watched on Netflix

I am only familliar with the Monkey King concept through past games, anime, and movies. So really I can understand why this movie was positioned as more of a family friendly introduction to this kind of character.

We all know the Monkey King as a cocky, balls to the wall character who aim to achieve greatness alone and so on. Him being hated by the heavens, revered by the gods, the titels go on and on. Knowing that, this movie explained his character perfectly in the start. Mostly the reason why he is who he is and his origin for having this mindset.

Even so, the story of the movie is...kinda incomplete? Like they could of done so much more on a bigger scale. At times it was hard to tell was this a comedy or a cultural tale? This is one of those films that should of just stuck to one genre instead of appealing to several demographics.

Then again I'm not gonna judge a family friendly movie too hard, its okay but the flaws are there.

The movie looks decent enough but why oh why did they make the monkey such a self centered egotistical character. A certain amount of arrogance can be okay but some humor needs to be added if that character needs to be likable. This monkey is just completely unlikable. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. He's useless without his staff and everything is just way too easy for him.

Storywise it's okay. Never read the original story so i can't compare that. Lots of flash fightscenes with a metal soundtrack. I'm guessing this movie is targeted toward kids/teens. The kids liked the movie. The adults hated it.