The Monkey King journeys to the Western streaming services once more with Netflix’s animated adventure from director Anthony Stacchi (The Boxtrolls, Open Season). As a notorious trickster figure of Chinese mythology, The Monkey King’s story is told time and again. His appearance in the 16th century epic Journey to the West, in which he atones for his misdeeds by aiding a Buddhist monk traveling to India in search of scriptures, makes him a mischievous yet reforming character who models and satirizes ancient Chinese values. Along with his trusted staff, The Monkey King awakens every so often to battle through a contemporary zeitgeist.
Netflix’s delightful retelling of The Monkey King’s story takes place before the events of Journey to the West. Hatched from a rock as a baby monkey with laser vision, our hero quickly learns he doesn’t fit in with the other monkeys. But tricksters are all outsiders, and The Monkey King (Jimmy O. Yang) embraces his liminal status, striking out on his own to meet his destiny. (Re)united with his staff, named Stick for this retelling (with sentient throat-singing by Nan Li), he foils the Dragon King (Bowen Yang) and sets off on a quest to join The Immortal Ones. But The Monkey King never ventures alone. This time he’s accompanied by Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), a headstrong young villager who is a bit of an outcast herself. Together they’ll journey to hell, heaven and back again, with a bit of havoc along the way.
Fans of executive producer Stephen Chow’s 2013 version of the Journey to the West will undoubtedly feel a kindred spirit with this version. 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. The Monkey King is as much a loving homage to him as to Chinese action and mythology, with winking references to Chow’s blockbuster hits like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Like those films, The Monkey King has barrelfuls of sharp satire, high-flying action, and lyrical sentimentality that are as shifting and entertaining as the myths they celebrate.
By fusing Chow’s sensibility with the animation experience brought by Stacchi and writers Stephen Bencich, Ron J. Friedman and Rita Hsiao, The Monkey King becomes a work of cosmic color that changes form almost as often as its main character. The animation styles whiz by in kaleidoscopic fashion. We break from Netflix’s house style of a smooth, rounded, Earthly world into a montage inspired by classic Chinese brushwork during a fantastical training sequence. Each realm Lin and The Monkey King encounter in their quest through the cosmos has its own distinct style. The animation of Hell’s bureaucratic order stamps a rigid, square aesthetic, while Jade Heaven has delicate soft free-forming cloud architecture.
It’s not just the scenery that transforms through its multiple genres. The few songs written by composers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are just as eclectic as the animation styles. Fresh off their Broadway smash SIX: The Musical, Marlow & Moss have proven their skills at changing genre on a dime, and they fully succeed here. The Monkey King’s theme is a properly tongue-in-cheek pastiche of heavy metal, and The Dragon King gets a comedic cabaret number, with driving pop interpolations glittered throughout.