After being shunned by his fellow monkeys, due to his special abilities and disruptive behaviour, a monkey goes in search of a magical weapon to prove his worth to his tribe. Upon retrieving the weapon, the monkey battles the Demon of Havoc and is dubbed the ‘Monkey King’
However, despite his best efforts to show his heroic side, he is still not accepted by his peers, with one monkey suggesting the Monkey King would need to defeat 100 demons to be a hero. The Monkey King takes this comment on board, and sets out to reach the magic number, which he also believes will give him immortality.
After completing this challenge, the Monkey King prepares to ascend to a higher realm where he can be truly appreciated. But as he soon discovers, he has other obstacles to overcome, including his own ego.
There are good animated movies, there are bad animated movies, and then there are merely OK animated movies. The Monkey King firmly operates in ‘OK’ territory.
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. It’s never terrible, yet it’s never exceptional.
The story is uninspiring but fine, the animation isn’t amazing but it’s pretty decent, and there’s enough action to keep young audiences entertained. I’m not entirely sure this film was designed specifically with young audiences in mind, but it is certainly the target demographic this picture will appeal to and should meet their approval.
As for anyone else, well, I think you’ll be fine with it, but you may struggle to maintain 100% concentration. Either way, unless your 7-year-old has this film on repeat for the remainder of the summer holidays, The Monkey King will be a one-off watch and not much more.
In terms of everything else, all the main voice actors (Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang, and Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) are good, and director Anthony Stacchi keeps things ticking along fine. The central message of the story is also nice enough…
…but yeah, there’s nothing particularly amazing going on here.
However, I don’t want to be harsh about The Monkey King, because I think it’s perfectly fine for what it is. It did absolutely nothing for me, but I’m sure others will find it more appealing, and that’s probably all that needs to be said.
Should you wish to take a look at the film, The Monkey King is now streaming on Netflix.
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