#15: Over The Moon

 I think this may be the first movie in my memory I've seen that comes from China that's CG. I know they exist, but they never quite had a wide enough reach into the US market for me to find them easily.

The closest may be...China's approval of "Kung Fu Panda"? If there are any you know of, please let me know!

This is about a girl named Fei Fei, who loves science and mythology in (sort of) equal measure. She has technical prowess enough for about 10 minutes and then is all pro-myth, which is fine.

I just learned that the costume design was done by Guo Pei. Which makes....so much sense if you know what she's created. (AKA; Rihanna's dress at a Met Gala).

There are too many instances where I'm like "So...what was the point of that?" Like when Chang'e does reunite with her lover before his moon dust goes away...but he still dies afterward. There's a green sidekick that shows up voiced by Ken Jeong who isn't annoying, but the film has about 3 sidekicks. Bungee the rabbit has next to nothing to do (Admittedly, I am not familiar with the original legend, but it did seem that the Jade Rabbit and Bungee were afterthoughts).

I particularly admire Fei Fei's open disdain toward the woman her father wants to marry. I feel with children's stories, the child is vilified for having feelings. While that makes them well prepared for dealing with LinkedIn users, it's not human.

The music has potential. There is only one song that's exceptional, in part because it's so unexpected and is sung by the amazing talent that is Philippa Soo ("Hamilton").

I notice a trend; Shows or movies that don't have black people have really bad raps in them. There was one terrible episode of "Elena of Avalor" where the villains were rapping and that's what I thought of when "Hey Boy" started. 

I'm not saying 'put black people in here' to justify it. Just...it's not great.

The moral ("Let go of the past") is great. It's hammered in emotionally and I admittedly cried a lot. If this came in at a cool 70 minutes, it would be tighter and I could overlook some flaws.