Movie Review - Over the Moon (2020)

Glen Keane is a long-time animator who started working in animation back in the 1970's. He's mainly worked for Disney. He's had a hand in many of Disney's hits from The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992), along with many more. He didn't start directing films until his late 50's. Yet, he began with only doing short, animated films. Keane's third film as director got him his first, Oscar nomination, as well as his first win. Keane won Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards for his work Dear Basketball (2017), which is the film that Keane did with former NBA player, Kobe Bryant, marking the first time an African-American won in that category and the first time a professional athlete has been nominated and won an Oscar in any category. When it comes to quality animation and diversity in storytelling, Keane seems to be a filmmaker who could be trusted to tell the story at hand here, his feature debut.

We had the live-action remake Mulan (2020), which took a Disney animated film featuring Asian characters and put Asian leads in the forefront. When it comes to Asian representation, it's been lacking in mainstream, live-action, American films. It's arguably not the case in animation, mainly because Japanese animation or anime has been so dominant. Hayao Miyazaki is an Oscar-winning animator that has had much success globally. However, mainstream American films featuring Asian or Asian-Americans in leading roles has been in deficit. Four years ago, a push came from people to do more to end that deficit. The breakthrough in that regard was Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which was a major hit, so it seems as if we're seeing more in that vein, even in the animation space. I would say the animated film Abominable (2019) beat this one to the punch and does a better job.

Cathy Ang in her feature debut stars as the voice of Fei Fei, a teenage girl who seems to be living with her single father somewhere in China. Like with so many young protagonists from numerous animated films, particularly Disney films, Fei Fei's mother dies young. Four years go by and she and her father continue running the restaurant that her parents started. The signature dish at the restaurant is moon-cakes. The restaurant might actually be just a bakery, but the preferred product is the moon-cake, which is an actual Chinese delicacy. It's akin to Moon pies in the United States but is filled not with marshmallow but instead traditional Chinese sweet filling.

Fei Fei helps her father make these moon-cakes that come from her late mother's recipe. Along with the recipe, Fei Fei's mother also used to tell her a story, a myth not unlike the myth of Santa Claus, about a woman who lives on the moon and is a kind of goddess who is waiting for the return of the love of her life who went away. After Fei Fei's mother dies, Fei Fei continues to believe that this myth is true, so much so that Fei Fei gets upset when her father starts to date another woman because she wants her father to be like the moon goddess and wait for the return of the love of his life.

As a result, Fei Fei decides that she is going to prove that the moon goddess is real and that it's not a myth. She wants to do so not to prove that a seemingly magical being exists that would undeniably revolutionize the culture and society, but because she thinks if her dad realizes the myth is real, he won't marry his new girlfriend but instead pine away for his dead wife, ultimately living a lonely life without romance. Therefore, her goal is to ensure her father remains loveless and alone. She would argue that he has his daughter, but denying him romantic love forever would be like denying herself romantic love forever, a point that this film never bothers to consider.

This premise, which is established early in the film, sets the whole thing off on the wrong foot. It's a ridiculous goal for this protagonist because it's obvious that it's a goal that she shouldn't have, even for a self-absorbed child. It would be like a child trying to prove that the Tooth Fairy is real but wanting to prove it not because the child thought it would inspire people to live better lives or it would improve them in any way. It would be the child doing it to stifle the happiness of someone in particular. Fei Fei wants to stop her father from being happy with another woman. She wants to stop him from moving on. From the moment she articulates this in song, it's obvious that she's wrong and her goal is wrong.

It's not to say that a film, particularly a children's film, can't have its protagonist have a goal that is wrong or misguided. It's just that here her goal is so utterly and blatantly wrong that it becomes so obvious and predictable what she has to learn or experience. Therefore, it takes the dramatic tension out of the film. It takes the thrill or any excitement out of it, so much so that I felt bored and felt like watching the clock to what was going to be the inevitable conclusion. Arguably, this is the case with most animated, children's films, but it simply felt particularly worse here.

For example in the recent animated film Onward (2020), the goal of the protagonist turned out to be misguided if not wrong. The protagonist in Onward was also chasing a dead parent and was literally trying to resurrect that dead parent because he thought he needed to see his dead parent once more. Not to spoil the ending to that film, it turns out that he was wrong. He didn't need to resurrect the dead parent. He already had what he needed in his surviving family members. In Pixar's Up (2009) and Coco (2017), the protagonists in both those films were chasing dead loved ones either figuratively or metaphorically and again for both, they were misguided and had to learn that they had all that they needed in their surviving family members and they had to move on from the loss and grief, which were motivating them.

However, for both Up and Coco, the film didn't start off with their protagonists on such a wrong foot that it was clear that their journeys seemed so obviously misguided. Both those films had surprising and emotionally wrenching revelations that their characters were misguided. There is no surprise here. Fei Fei feels wrong from the start. The characters in Up and Coco didn't feel like they were wrong from the start. This is partly due to the fact that the characters in Up and Coco didn't have goals that involved hurting someone. There is no justification why Fei Fei would try to break up her father from her future stepmother. It would only hurt her father, voiced by John Cho (Star Trek and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle).

It would help if the action and adventure portion of the film were more engaging and didn't feel as derivative. The structure of the film is akin to The Wizard of Oz (1939) or Alice in Wonderland (1951). Essentially, Fei Fei goes to a magical land. Instead of it being Oz or Wonderland, despite the following of a white rabbit, Fei Fei goes to a magical land on the literal moon. The animation is very bright and colorful, as well as eye-popping, but only in a Candy Crush kind of way, as it's all in service of a story that doesn't compel. As usual in these kinds of films, Fei Fei gets a cute and wise-cracking sidekick. If that sidekick feels derivative of Olaf from Frozen (2013) or Bing Bong from Inside Out (2015), that's because he is derivative.

Phillipa Soo (Hamilton and The One and Only Ivan) co-stars as Chang'e, the so-called moon goddess. She comes across as a kind of pop star diva who just happens to have all these magical powers. She's supposed to be waiting for some gift, but it's by random chance that Fei Fei has it. Yet, if she had never made the decision to try to get to the moon, Chang'e never would have found it. It begs the question of what she was doing on the moon. The answer is just waiting and doing nothing. As a film that might purport to be feminist or about empowering women or young girls, it doesn't make Chang'e seem very engaging or active or interesting.

The film also has an undercurrent of science vs. legend where the film seems to favor legend over science. Given what's been going on the world in terms of the coronavirus and President Trump not favoring science, the message of the film felt a little off. I would recommend Abominable (2019), an animated film that incorporates Asian characters in a much better way.

Rated PG for some thematic elements and mild action.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 40 mins.

Available on Netflix.