By Nick Nitkowski 

I’m pretty confident in saying that this is most likely the first time most of you, if not all of you reading this review, have ever even heard of the movie “Ne Zha”, let alone aware that a sequel just got released in American theaters. My fandom towards “Ne Zha” started unexpectedly in September 2019. I was seeing a different movie, I can’t remember which, and I saw a giant IMAX poster for an animated movie that I  had ever heard of called “Ne Zha’. It was advertised in IMAX 3D , nd and th me being a massive fan of 3,  I had to check it out. I saw no trailer or anything for it. I only had the poster to go off of ,ndd anden I finished watching it, I walked out of that auditorium as a brand-new fan of the film. The animation was great, the story  was ngaging, the comedy was humorous, and it had a lot of heart. And now here we are a little over five years later , and we have a sequel that I personally have been anticipating, “Ne Zha 2”. So ,ow howw this new sequel?

For some context, the movie is about Chinese folklore and is about a boy named Nezha who was inadvertently born of a source of demon energy known as the Demon Pill that was split from the Spirit Pearl that together created the Chaos Pearl. Feared and hated by all due to his chaotic antics, except for his parents, mentor, and newfound friend Ao Bing, Nezha attempts to defy his fate and strive to become the hero instead of a monster despite everything being stacked against him. The sequel picks up almost immediately where the first film leaves off, so watching the first movie is a must before watching the second one.

As I mentioned earlier, I was already a fan going into this second film. I even went dressed up as my own version of the title character , hicwhichs met with many compliments. And I can honestly say that I believe “Ne Zha 2” is even better than “Ne Zha 1”. This sequel really expanded the story of the first and made everything even more grand and epic in scale. They even gave certain reprised characters more fascinating character development from the first movie. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold.

Speaking of wonderful sights, the animation in “Ne Zha 2” has greatly improved over the first one. Not that the animation in “Ne Zha 1” was bad at all. The animation in the first film was actually pretty good, but over the course of five years, the animators really improved on it. The movie displayed so many vibrant colors and details on not just the backgrounds and set putces, ut butso on the characters that look really refined from the first film. It really makes me wish that I could have experienced this sequel in IMAX, which unfortunately was only available for a single day in which I chose the 4DX experience.

This movie also provides a lot of action and humor throughout. The action in this movie is top-notch Ev. the fight scene was very engaging and exciting , and I am astonished when I say that there are a lot of fight scenes. As the movie goes on, each fight scene greatly improves over the last , leading up to a finale that doesn’t let up. In addition to the action, the humor in this movie really had me laughing out loud. From verbal jokes to slapstick comedy and a lot of visual gags, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t funny. And just like the first movie, this sequel also provides heart. So much so that I was in tears watching this movie , nd and know I wasn’t the only one. I heard the sniffles throughout my auditorium. 

Overall, you can tell that the makers behind this movie really cared about the story they were telling. They went above and beyond to create something very special with “Ne Zha 2” and I can easily say without hesitation that they have greatly succeeded. At the time of me writing this review, I have already seen the movie twice. That’s how good it is, in my opinion. This movie clocks in at around 2 hours and 23 minutes, which is a little over 30 minutes longer than the first one and during that time twice, I can say that I was never bored watching it. There’s still a lot of the Chinese lore that I need to catch up on, but as someone who has watched the movies without knowing any of the lore beforehand, you will not be lost or confused watching it. I certainly wasn’t. I only took in what the story of the movie gave me , nd and was perfectly fine.

I know it’s difficult to convince most people to watch a movie with subtitles these days, but I’m telling you that these movies are definitely worth it. I highly recommend seeking out the first “Ne Zha” movie, last I checked you can buy it on Amazon Prime or Fandango at Home for only $8 or rent it for less, and then go to your local theater and watch “Ne Zha 2” on the big screen. The movie has already crossed over $1 billion in the Chinese box office alone. I don’t want to hype it up too much, but I truly believe that this movie deserves all of the recognition and praise and box office revenue that it’s getting.

5 stars