The Monkey King

The Monkey King is a 2023 animated fantasy action comedy film directed by Anthony Stacchi from a screenplay written by Rita Hsiao and the writing team of Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman. It is a prequel to the classic Ming dynasty novel, Journey to the West. The film stars Jimmy O. Yang, voicing over the role of the titular trickster, with Bowen Yang, Jo Koy, BD Wong, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, and Stephanie Hsu in supporting roles.
The Monkey King was selected as the closing film at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on July 30, 2023, and was distributed and released three weeks later, on August 18, by Netflix. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
== Plot ==
One night, a monkey is born from a stone atop a tall mountain and disturbs the Jade Emperor. Just as the Emperor gives the order to eliminate the cub, Buddha appears before him and tells him to let him find his purpose.
Monkey finds a troop of other monkeys, but his unruly nature keeps him from fitting in. One of his escapades causes a feared demon to pounce from his mountain lair and grab one of the troop's cubs for food; as a result, Monkey is banished. To prove his worth to the troop, he trains to fight the demon. After many years, when he deems himself ready, he confronts the demon, but his training proves ineffective, and another cub is snatched. To fetch a more suitable weapon, Monkey dives into the sea realm of the Dragon King, where he finds the latter gloating over a glowing column which he means to use to eradicate all life on the world's surface. Communicating with the column, Monkey turns it into a staff and escapes.
With the staff in hand, Monkey returns to the demon's lair, defeats him, and rescues the cub. Then he crowns himself King of the Monkeys, but when the troop's elder cautions that his staff should only be used by the gods, the new Monkey King decides to kill 100 demons, thus gaining the right to enter the Heavens and become a god. Eventually, he comes to a village terrorized by the Red Girl. With the endorsement of a girl named Lin, Monkey King defeats Red Girl, and Lin pledges herself as his assistant. The Dragon King emerges from the nearby sea during the victory celebration to reclaim his prized weapon. After fighting him, Monkey King leaves the village; Lin tags along, even though he treats her condescendingly. Unknown to him, Lin is an agent of the Dragon King to help him reclaim the staff in return for saving her drought-stricken village.
The duo reaches a graveyard, where Monkey King opens a portal to Hell to get to the Archive of Souls and strike his name off his Scroll of Life and Death, thus gaining immortality. King Yama, the ruler and chief judge of Hell, recognizes them as outsiders and fights them. With Lin's help, Monkey King succeeds in erasing his name, but is only made ageless. He steals Yama's Book of Everlasting Life and learns that he must eat a peach from the Orchard of Everlasting Life to gain full immortality. The Dragon King subtly guides Monkey King and Lin to a peach tree laced with an intoxicating poison, but accidentally ends up eating one himself and running off.
After realizing that the peaches are fake, Monkey King learns from the book that Wangmu, the divine Queen Mother, brews an immortality elixir for the gods. He and Lin infiltrate the Jade Palace's pharmacy to create a sample of the elixir. Wangmu catches them in the act and attacks them, but Monkey King succeeds in consuming the potion, thus becoming fully immortal. Although Lin has several chances to steal the staff, she repeatedly returns to help Monkey King. Monkey King also demonstrates that despite his rude behavior, he cares about her too. Monkey King and Lin flee the Heavens, and in a following heart-to-heart, Lin admits that she longs to make a difference in the world and tries to encourage Monkey King to do the same.
When Monkey King remains aloof and boisterous, Lin outwits him and delivers the staff to the Dragon King. As soon as he has it, the Dragon King reneges on his deal and prepares to drown the world in a mega-storm, but Monkey King challenges and attacks him. Realizing her mistake, Lin tricks the Dragon King into blasting Monkey King with lightning, thus making him stronger and enabling him to beat the Dragon King. However, Monkey King becomes power-drunk, and Buddha prepares to intervene, but Lin wants to give Monkey King another chance. Acting as Buddha's voice, Lin challenges the Monkey King to leap off Buddha's hand to win rulership over Heaven, or suffer a period of penance if he fails. Monkey King fails and is imprisoned in a mountain. Before the mountain is fully closed off, Lin is allowed to say goodbye to Monkey King, who finally admits how important Lin has become to him, and leaves him his staff for company.
Five hundred years later, an enlightened Monkey King is freed from his prison by a monk, a pig, and a river spirit at Buddha's behest. They invite him to join them on a journey to the West, to which he happily agrees.
== Cast ==
* Jimmy O. Yang as Monkey King
** Dee Bradley Baker as Baby Monkey King
* Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Lin
* Bowen Yang as Dragon King
* Jo Koy as Benbo
* Nan Li as Stick
* Stephanie Hsu as Mayor's Wife
* BD Wong as Buddha
* Ron Yuan as Babbo
* Hoon Lee as Jade Emperor
* Andrew Pang as Mayor
* Andrew Kishino as King Yama
* Jodi Long as Wangmu
* James Sie as Elder Monkey
* Sophie Jean Wu as Red Girl
Although they were credited and performed crowd ADR collectively as "ADR Group", the cast of actors voicing over the film's various other characters included Artemis Snow (as a lost baby villager), Robert Wu (as one of the palace ministry and Pigsy), David Chen (as one of the palace ministry and Sandy), Kaiji Tang (as an old male villager), and Vic Chao (as a villager with a hat).
== Production ==
=== Development ===
In October 2017, Oriental DreamWorks, now known as Pearl Studio, announced the film with Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman as writers, but it did not materialize. Nearly four years later, on May 20, 2021, the film was revived by Netflix, with Peilin Chou as producer, Stephen Chow as executive producer, and Anthony Stacchi as director. Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Jo Koy, Ron Yuan, Hoon Lee, Stephanie Hsu, Andrew Pang, Andrew Kishino, Jodi Long, James Sie, and BD Wong were cast to voice over the film's characters.
=== Animation ===
Reel FX was initially tasked with the film's animation, but work was subsequently transferred to Tangent Animation. However, by August 4, 2021, Tangent shut down, with work on the film halting as well. Netflix was reportedly displeased with Tangent's work, so Reel FX's facilities in Montreal took over the production.
== Release ==
The Monkey King was selected as the closing film at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on July 30, 2023. It had a preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023.
The film later premiered on Netflix on August 18, 2023.
== Critical reception ==
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 46 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Often rousing, The Monkey King is an animated blur of tried-and-true -- but still appealing -- archetypes." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
== Videos ==
The Monkey King - Official Trailer - Netflix
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