Director: Jiaozi
Cast: [English] Crystal Lee, Griffin Puatu, Aleks Le, Michelle Yeoh, Vincent Rodriguez III, Rick Zeiff, Damien Haas
Screenplay: Jiaozi
144 mins. Not Rated.

2025 has had a number of strange cinematic achievements. For example, the fifth-highest grossing movie OF ALL TIME is about to open in American cinemas this weekend, courtesy of A24, and I’d bet most American audiences aren’t aware of its existence. Ne Zha 2, sequel to the 2019 animated film, is about to open following a massive box office in China and a very swift limited release in cinemas earlier this year. Now, in partnering with every film nerd’s favorite studio, A24, the film is releasing with an English dub featuring voice talents like Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and even employing 3D and IMAX formats. Ne Zha 2 is a remarkable achievement in animation and an improvement upon the original, though its story is deep and overly dense at times, which may create a barrier for some American audiences less familiar with the source materials from which this story is derived.

Picking up immediately after the end of the first film, we join back up with Ne Zha and Ao Bing, who have both had their bodies destroyed, so Master Taiyi uses the Sacred Lotus to regenerate their physical bodies. When both now have physical forms, they are in fragile states and can be easily damaged. Just then, Shen Gongbao arrives with a demon army under the rule of Ao Bing’s father Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, who wishes to destroy Chentang Pass, where Ne Zha’s people reside, in response to the believed death of Ao Bing, unaware that his son still lives. In the ensuing battle, Ao Bing’s new body is damaged, but Ne Zha allows him to inhabit his new body and share it. They now have precious time to rebirth a body for Ao Bing, so Ne Zha and Taiyi set off for Yuxu Palace to make Ne Zha an immortal and retrieve a potion that can save Ao Bing, but he must get over his cockiness to complete three dangerous and difficult trials first!

That description sounded like a mouthful, and it is. Ne Zha 2 has a lot going on, and it can be difficult for audiences unfamiliar to the mythology (the film is loosely based on the novel “Investiture of the Gods”) to grasp all of it. There are so many names, locations and references that are nicely labeled in the film, but the strength of Ne Zha 2 is that it does actually feel more streamlined than its predecessor. While the first Ne Zha film felt very much like a lot of heavy-lifting set up for future installments, focusing on a number of elements of the titular character that I found to be uninteresting, Ne Zha 2 gets going at the beginning, has a nice pacing to the first two acts (though the finale feels rather bloated), and does commit to a hero’s journey as Ne Zha tries to free his friend while working through their familial complicated history. There’s still a lot of over-exposition to the events, but there’s a more interesting story this time around.

The animation is simply stunning. Though I’m still not won over on the design of the titular character, who doesn’t seem to fit within the design style of the rest of the film, the movie’s vistas, landscapes, and the lush presentation packs each frame with gorgeous, animated cinematography. I wish half of American animated films looked half as good as Ne Zha 2. There are epic battle sequences with seemingly hundreds or more animated characters maneuvering about, and yet it never feels like a crowded vantage point. Beautiful when it needs to be, Ne Zha 2 looks hardened and gritty when the action call while simultaneously soft and inviting for its emotional beats. The animation here aids the story as well or even better than the screenplay.

Ne Zha 2’s American release by A24 features a new dubbing track for its audio, and while I’m not able to speak on the original version or make comparisons to a subtitled version, the audio work by the English voice cast was pretty solid, and it didn’t appear to have any difficulties in translating the language to English in any notable way.

Ne Zha 2 is a lot of movie, in the best and worst ways. It’s run time is jammed with characters, locations, and exposition, but it’s a more refined story than the original. It should be noted that it’s improved by having seen that original film, so while I wasn’t a big fan of the original, I also see the necessity of it as homework for this much better follow-up. If you are a fan of animation as an art form, you can’t go wrong checking out Ne Zha 2, as I was frequently shocked by the immensity of what the animation team was able to accomplish here with what is arguably one of the biggest spectacles you’re likely to see on a film screen this year.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe