The Monkey King

Name: The Monkey King
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Animation
Released: August 18, 2023
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 59
Cast: Andrew Kishino, BD Wong, Bowen Yang, Hoon Lee, James Sie

2023

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Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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5.9

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5.9	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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The Monkey King

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Movie Details & Credits

Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): August 18, 2023 | PG

Starring: Andrew Kishino, BD Wong, Bowen Yang, Hoon Lee, James Sie, Jimmy O. Yang, Jo Koy, Jodi Long, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Ron Yuan, Stephanie Hsu

Summary: Inspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy, a Monkey and his magical fighting Stick battle demons, dragons, gods and the greatest adversary of all — Monkey’s ego. [Netflix]

Director: Anthony Stacchi

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Animation, Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 92 min

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Critic Reviews

B. Panther

Aug 16, 2023

Though aimed at a slightly younger audience, The Monkey King still has the mix of high-stakes peril and high-reward comedy that has become part of Chow’s signature style. Read full review

Collider Arezou Amin

Aug 15, 2023

The film's central thesis, that everyone needs somewhere to belong, seems simple on paper. However, it winds up being much more nuanced in practice. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Aug 18, 2023

The animation is sharp, the animated action beats fluid and fun. Read full review

The Guardian Leslie Felperin

Aug 16, 2023

The latest in a 10,000-mile-long line of adaptations of Journey to the West, the 16th-century Chinese novel attributed to Wu Cheng’en, bounces along energetically, and has some exceptionally fun frills around the edges, such as a flouncy vocal performance from Bowen Yang as spiteful, effete baddie the Dragon King, who gets to sing the film’s best musical number. Read full review

Amy Nicholson

Aug 17, 2023

The rare moments in which an image pauses to catch its breath can be stunning, such as a shot of an endless expanse of flaming lanterns dangling over countless white ghosts — how the artist Yayoi Kusama might have designed the afterlife. There’s enough gags that a dozen land. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Brian Tallerico

Aug 18, 2023

Aggressively mediocre, Netflix’s “The Monkey King” takes no risks and offers too little humor, heart, or action to entertain all but the youngest in the family. Read full review

Screen Rant Alex Harrison

Aug 15, 2023

The heart of the problem is The Monkey King makes its central character, whose story has been told and retold for hundreds of years, uninteresting. Without that spine to hold it together, everything collapses. Read full review

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User Reviews

MovieReviewMave

Aug 31, 2023

IN A NUTSHELL:
This adorable animation was inspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy. A special monkey uses his magical fighting stick to battle demons, dragons, gods, and the greatest adversary of all: his own ego.
The film was directed by Anthony Stacchi.IN A NUTSHELL:
This adorable animation was inspired by an epic Chinese tale, translated into an action-packed comedy. A special monkey uses his magical fighting stick to battle demons, dragons, gods, and the greatest adversary of all: his own ego.
The film was directed by Anthony Stacchi. Writing credits go to Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman.

THINGS I LIKED:
I’ve been to China many times and can tell you the legend of the Monkey King is very much alive and well over there today! You can walk through a park and find a random guy dressed like the Monkey King in order to get money from people. Ha ha
I love all of the little Chinese details in the film that will introduce kids and their parents to Chinese culture.
Voice talents include BD Wong (Buddha), Jimmy O. Yang (The Monkey King), Stephanie Hsu, Hoon Lee, Bowen Yang (I have a son named Bowen!), Jo Koy, and many more. They all do a fantastic job.
The movie is extremely colorful and creative.
The sound effects are often hilarious.
There’s an action sequence that looks like it came straight out of the Spider-verse movie with quick 2D movements. Cute and fun.
The color palette is rich and detailed.
Lots of visual and spoken humor.
There’s mention of Chinese egg tarts. YUM! They’re originally from Portugal, but SUPER popular in the Canton region of China. THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
The Monkey King’s personality is overly confident and cocky.
There are some random musical numbers.
Some of the musical numbers sound like heavy metal, which didn’t quite fit the movie. How about something with a Chinese vibe, eh?
I can imagine that some parents will tire of all the loud, chaotic fight scenes. TIPS FOR PARENTS: You’ll need to talk to your kids about who Buddha was.
Lots of fighting sequences and animated violence.
Lots of destruction.
No profanity. Instead, words like “heck” are used. “What the heck?”… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

HealingToolbox

Aug 19, 2023

7/10 is you don't enjoy modern commercial animated features. 8/10 or 9/10 if you do. This is movie theater quality animation and voice work. A short experimental animation section is also stunning. This is about as good as recent Pixar-Dreamworks-Illumination feature animation gets. It7/10 is you don't enjoy modern commercial animated features. 8/10 or 9/10 if you do. This is movie theater quality animation and voice work. A short experimental animation section is also stunning. This is about as good as recent Pixar-Dreamworks-Illumination feature animation gets. It should have had a theatrical release because it's more respectful of the imagination of children than most all corporate-made child-oriented animated features. The only better animation is perhaps Netflix's Nimona (2023) which is a very rare event not to be missed if you ever enjoyed animation. I do agree with another reviewer Monkey King, the main character is flat as a character. He lacks any backstory to give him depth (emotional dimension) to make us care about him.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

infraRecon

Aug 20, 2023

I am a little confused with this one. The monkey king is a good-looking animation, with good action, and characterisation but is plagued by the worst pacing I've seen.
Not only that the story and the motivation of the characters are a bit off, all due to pacing.
It's different, as the mainI am a little confused with this one. The monkey king is a good-looking animation, with good action, and characterisation but is plagued by the worst pacing I've seen.
Not only that the story and the motivation of the characters are a bit off, all due to pacing.
It's different, as the main character "Monkey" is quite an @sshole, but it's done on purpose. I don't have a problem with the main character being unlikable but there needs to be a full and lasting reason as to why he is. They try to add a lot of them, but the problem is we don't necessarily get to feel it, as the film is just rushing to fit as much content as possible.

This movie could have taken notes from Kung Fu Panda but it didn't. Let us spend time with the character. Even if the movie stopped for a bit to let the audience think a little about what he went through it would have done wonders.

Only at the ~50 min mark did I start to see the relatability, and from there onwards it was becoming solid.
So half the film is in rush mode and the other half kind of saves it.

It took me two sessions to finish this film, which shows that it didn't grab me at first.

Ratings:
Visuals: 8/10, not too bad, but maybe there could have been a little bit more particles, magic, and atmosphere in some scenes, maybe an overall design rework of some characters, but overall the animation is clean and excellent to look at.

Characters: 6/10, Nice set of characters, spoiled by pacing issues.

Story: 6/10, Not bad, I can see this working, if again the movie wasn't rushing in the first half.

Plot and Pacing: 5/10, Half Right, half wrong.

Action and Adventure: 6/10, it's above standard.

Overall we have a 6/10, The animation is better than Nimona, I was thinking maybe a 7/10, but I thought to myself, would I watch this again? Probably not, there aren't scenes where they satisfy the Audience completely. They were alluding to something near the end showing the true scale of his power, but it never happens. (I honestly would have liked to see the destruction of the h.....s).

Anyway, this is a step up from Nimona, there is no wokeness here, just a nice animation to waste some time with. This is something you would watch when there is nothing to watch. Also, it has a nice message, you'll have to sieve for it a bit but it's there.

Would I like a sequel to this movie? Probably, I think if it's done right the sequel can overthrow its predecessor.

Now a little nitpick I have is with the Monkey Kings'Design, I don't like it so much, I dig the armour he is wearing but his face is weird looking.
Hopefully, the designers can revise everyone's look just a little so it's better to understand their designs and the history and folklore behind them.

Ok, that's all, this movie is safe to watch and enjoy.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DukeJon

Aug 24, 2023

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Flashes of action and some occasionally strong scenes do not save this movie. The big problem is that the main character, the monkey king, is so unlikeable. Vain, arrogant and completely self-centred I found myself cheering for the bad guys more often than not. He's not out to save the world, he's out to rule over it. His girl sidekick is also not worth supporting. She betrays the monkey king all the way through with her rationale being "I had no choice!". Yes, you did actually have a choice. I know it's based on an epic Chinese tale, but the plot was still confusing and all over the place. Found myself quite bored throughout.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

royalguy07

Aug 28, 2023

A loose and standard animation offering from Netflix, sets up a grand scale but stays small and focused with minimal intrigue.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

alanpotter17

Aug 22, 2023

Pensando estritamente enquanto homenagem ao conto chinês, talvez posso funcionar. Mas também tem seus méritos no quesito técnico, com traços modernos e criativos. Tirando isso, o filme é uma bagunça, os acontecimentos vão ocorrendo de forma apressada e mal desenvolvida, sem nenhumaPensando estritamente enquanto homenagem ao conto chinês, talvez posso funcionar. Mas também tem seus méritos no quesito técnico, com traços modernos e criativos. Tirando isso, o filme é uma bagunça, os acontecimentos vão ocorrendo de forma apressada e mal desenvolvida, sem nenhuma disposição para apresentar dignamente os personagens.
O macaco nascido de uma pedra encontra uma menina órfã também, ambos carentes de afeto. Enquanto ele busca explorar o mundo que tanto o renegou até criar a ideia fixa de correr atrás da mortalidade, ela vai se deixando envolver pela companhia do macaco até que ficamos sabendo de suas verdadeiras intenções, não lá muito nobres.
Ocorre que a edição parece estar acelerada, com pressa. Não há tempo para respirar. E ainda que as cores estejam bonitas, o cenário naquele mundo é estranho, parecia mesmo o "mundo estranho" da Disney, meio caótico, sem um controle de profundidade e de espaço cênico.
Ainda assim pode ser que essa loucura divirta, tem algumas piadas mais adultas com certa malícia, mas tudo é muito bobo. Até mesmo a mensagem de seguir os seus objetivos, de redenção pela amizade, faz com que tudo ganhe o contorno genérico a que o longa está fadado.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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