Brief Story Line
Din (Jimmy Wong - Mulan live version etc) was a college student living with his mother Mrs. Song (Constance Wu - Crazy Rich Asians, Hustlers etc) in a crowded but friendly neighborhood. His long time dream was to reconnect with his childhood best friend Li Na (Natasha Liu Bordizzo - Guns Akimbo, The Society TV series etc) who had move out from the neighborhood and became a wealthy & famous celebrity.
As luck would have it, Din somehow acquired a magical tea pot where a dragon named Long (John Cho - Searching, The Grudge US 2020 version etc) could grant the tea pot holder 3 wishes. However, a group of bad people led by the bald man (Aaron Yoo - Disturbia, The Tomorrow People etc) were aware of this tea pot and they did not hesitate to use force to get it.
So what would happen to Din and how would the story conclude? You could find them all in this fun movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was pretty fun and enjoyable. This movie had quite a lot of quality that would entertain people looking for some light fun moments. Since the start of the film, we were already shown the closeness of Din and Li Na from their childhood years and you could not help to feel sympathy especially towards Din. But things started to become really funny when Long appeared. I thought John Cho did a fantastic job portraying this cynical dragon and his facial expressions were priceless. You could definitely see when he was annoyed, bored, frustrated and even emotional.
Now the animation of this movie was not the beautifully done type like what you would see in Disney or Pixar films. I think it is more like those Despicable Me series with really small legs and ridiculous body elasticity (but not in annoying manner, rather quite funny actually). It is an American-Chinese production movie which would explain the voice cast were mostly Chinese-Americans with Asian-American. Only thing was I somehow felt it be nicer if they were speaking in Mandarin since the story was set in China. And I read on the internet that there was indeed a Mandarin version where Long was voiced by the famous Jackie Chan but not available in Netflix.
I only saw Jackie's name as one of the producers during the closing credit. It did not have any mid or post end credit scene, but it did have some cute puppies animation, though after a while it became a bit boring as they were too repetitive and did not do anything else. There were few pop songs playing in the background but one very oldies song was heard during one of the scene in Din's home where their neighbors were hanging around together. That was one of the nicest moment in the movie.
Now the story might seemed a bit too familiar for people, as it was after all inspired by the famous genie in the bottle story. And even though we could have guessed how it would end, but the journey itself was entertaining to watch. I loved the interaction between Din and the dragon and I also loved how the story still showed us how important family is, plus a message that did not seem to patronizing for us. It also has an ending that I really liked. But if I have to be critical, I thought the 3rd wish was a bit out of reach and not really following the "general principal" of a wish.
I said above that I really liked John Cho's voice characterization in this movie. However, I could not help feel some of the others sounded like they were just dubbing and not gave any real characteristics. Btw, I did not realize Constance Wu was Din's mother until I saw her name during the closing credits. Perhaps my memory was filled too much with her rather irritating voice in Fresh of the Boat comedy series. Aside from the names I mentioned earlier, there were also support cast like Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley TV series etc) and Bobby Lee (The Dictator etc) as the two goons, comedian Ronny Chieng as Pipa God and Will Yun Lee (Altered Carbon TV series, The Wolverine etc) as Li Na's father, Mr. Wang.
Overall this was a fun movie and quite heart warming. It has a good moral message about family, friendship and loyalty. And while the animation might not be the really beautiful type but they were still enjoyable. Long the dragon was the star of this movie but the scene stealers for me were those neighbors of Din and Mrs. Song. There were some funny moments and few touching moments as well. So if you are looking for fun and light movie to lift up your mood, you can certainly give this movie a try.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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