Ne Zha II is truly a remarkable feat of animation. A little long, the film successfully builds on the first story’s limited focus on the development of Ne Zha and his frenemy Ao Bing. The story has many twists and turns and sets up audiences for a possible Ne Zha III.

Ne Zha and Ao Bing are children of the Chaos Pearl. Ne Zha was supposed to receive the Spirit Pearl upon his birth. Instead Shen Gongbao steals the Spirit Pearl to implant it into an egg of Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea leading to the birth of Ao Bing. Ne Zha is left with the Demon Orb as he is born. Ne Zha’s power is fire, and Ao Bing’s is water and ice.

After a climactic battle at the end of the first film, Ne Zha and Ao Bing exist as simply souls. As the sequel begins, the two entities must be restored to their spiritual form by a Sacred Lotus. This ritual is performed by the immortal Master Taiyi.

Ne Zha’s parents, Prince Li Jing and Lady Yin, have reinforced the Chentang Pass, their homeland, from invaders. Due to a mix-up, Ao Guang thinks that his son is dead and orders his minion Shen Gongbao to attack the Pass with demons. During the ensuing conflict, Ao Bing sacrifices his physical form to defend the pass.

A truce is reached. Ao Bing is able to enter Ne Zha’s body for a week. Ne Zha is to go to the immortal Wuliang, leader of the immortal Chan sect and pass 3 trials to become immortal. He will obtain an elixir as a graduation gift that will restore the Sacred Lotus and allow Ao Bing to be resurrected.

The problem is how to keep Wuliang from knowing that Ne Zha’s form carries demon energy. To avoid this, Taiyi gives Ne Zha sleeping pills that allow Ao Bing to be the dominant form in his body when he completes his trials. As one would expect, a lot of comedy ensues as the pills work and don’t work.

This becomes manifest in the first trial involving Marmot demons. Ne Zha as Ao Bing beats the leader up but then, as the pills alternate taking effect and not, Ne Zha is beaten by an underling. Then he becomes Ao Bing again and beats up the leader. This confusion continues until the Marmots are defeated.

Back at the Pass, Shen Gongbao, who despite being a leopard demon was like a brother to Taiyi, is visited by Shen Xiaobao, his brother. He states that their father, Shen Zhengdao, is teaching demons.

In Ne Zha’s second trial, he encounters Shen Zhengdao and is supposed to defeat both him and his demons. He succeeds but Ao Bing freezes off a hand with his powers. Shen Xiaobao, having returned, is mortally wounded but escapes to Chentang Pass.

After the trial, Ne Zha is informed by two guards that Chentang Pass has been completely destroyed. Finishing the third trial, Ne Zha gets the elixir and returns to the Pass. The destruction is savage. Taiyi begins the process to restore Ao Bing to a true form. Ne Zha leaves to confront Ao Guang, who he believes was the mastermind behind the devastation at the Pass.

Who really destroyed the Pass? Will Ne Zha emerge triumphant and at what cost?

I saw this advertised as a “global phenomenon.” From the production notes, I discovered that the film was released in China in February and by March had grossed $2.2 billion dollars. This makes it “the most successful animated movie and the highest-grossing non-English-language movie of all time, as well as the fifth highest-grossing movie in history worldwide”. Those are impressive credentials.

The film took four years to create. It employed 4000 people across 138 Chinese animation companies. It has 2400 animation shots and 1900 special effects shots.

The director and writer Jiao Zi’s vision is spectacular in scope. There are two scenes which stood out for me as masterworks. The first is the battle scene between the demon forces and the forces of Wuliang. The combatants fill the screen in long-distance shots. They seem to be in the thousands. This reminded me of the work of Akira Kurosawa.

The second scene is the devastation at Chentang Pass. The ruin is dark and frightening, almost otherworldly. People are frozen in death throes and the carnage is vast in scope.

The first film suffered from the growing pains of Ne Zha. He was often a brat, who frightened the inhabitants of the Pass when he escaped and caused havoc in the town. I got tired of the repetition of his “woe is me” persona. He was supposed to be killed by lightning when he turned three, and I began to long for this outcome.

Of course that never happened. The story here is nicely plotted. There are myriad twists and turns that keep the viewer engaged.

Because this is fantasy, dilemmas are often solved by magical forces that can be construed as deus ex machinas. The trick is to keep consistency in what each character is allowed to do. The movie mostly succeeds on this level.

The film does a good job of blending comedic moments with dramatic ones. The light-hearted times of course diminish as we approach the final reckoning. There is a little too much “brattiness” by Ne Zha for my liking.

Again, because this is a fantasy, I found it challenging to keep track of all the different levels of hierarchy of the immortals. The movie also contains a slew of characters, so much so that one needed a cast listing to remember them all. The picture does try at times to put up text explaining who is who, but if you blink, you miss it.

The landscapes are breath-taking in their beauty, whether it be rivers or waterfalls or pastures. Even the dark undersea realm of the dragons is illuminated by fiery lava. I appreciated the different ways in which humans were animated as well. Each of the main characters was distinctive enough to be recognized immediately. I did have a hard time telling the dragons apart though.

At two hours and twenty-three minutes, this is a very long movie. The main theme stays the same: Ne Zha and Ao Bing have to be themselves, no matter the consequences.

This actually is suitable for tweens and teens. There are both sad and violent scenes so be prepared.

Four out of five stars

A rebellious young boy, Ne Zha, is feared by the gods and born to mortal parents with wild, uncontrolled powers. Now he’s faced with an ancient force intent on destroying humanity, he must grow up to become the hero the world needs.

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Crystal Lee, Vincent Rodriguez III, Aleks Le
Written & Directed by: Jiao Zi