Yesterday, I went to a theater in San Jose, California to watch the long awaited Chinese animated film, Nezha 2. This story is about a mischievous, yet powerful boy born as a demon, called Nezha. Because of this, he struggles to fit in as the townspeople are scared of his powers. At first, this movie seems to just be an ordinary animated movie, but as I walked into the theatre, nothing would prepare me for the pure cinema that I would soon witness. Since the writing of this article, Nezha 2 has risen to become the highest grossing Chinese film ever, and is set to become one of the 10 highest grossing movies in global box office history. I will be discussing the morals and lessons that have been highlighted in Nezha 2 that I’ve noticed.

One of the most important morals that is shown in both Nezha movies is the importance of family and friends towards success. One great example of this is Nezha’s parents, especially his mother, who loved Nezha for who he was. Despite the Demon Pearl “corrupting” Nezha, and everyone wanting to exterminate Nezha at his birth, his mom protected Nezha from a killing strike shortly after Nezha’s birth. Nezha’s family played an essential role in his growth. His father, Li Jing, is a loyal and strong figure, while his mother was nurturing. Their support, despite the initial fear and misunderstanding surrounding Nezha’s powers, contributed to his strength and confidence. There are many especially emotional moments in both movies, especially in the parts between Nezha and his family. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are some really heartbreaking scenes. Family scenes that don’t include Nezha were also pretty emotional, like Ao Bing reuniting with his father, and Shen Gong Bao’s little brother visiting him as well.

The greatest friendship in this series is Ao Bing and Nezha, the two reincarnations of the Spirit and Demon Pearl. They were born to be rivals of similar power but end up becoming great friends that both care for each other. They work together throughout the story, with Nezha saving Ao Bing’s life multiple times and Ao Bing sacrificing his own real body to fight against the heavenly lightning that was set out to kill Nezha on his third birthday. These two are really fun to watch as well, with Nezha being the complete opposite of Ao Bing both physically and mentally.

Another great moral that was emphasized in Nezha 2 was how Nezha broke free from his chains of fear and disdain by townspeople due to his powers and actions. When he was young, he was only kept alive with the condition that Nezha was kept in a mainly solitary life away from the townspeople. This caused him to develop confusion about what really was going on in his life. Through the constant support of his parents and friends, as well as the looming disasters and conflicts ahead, Nezha persevered and finally found who he was. Nezha says to his family that “I used to hide and hide. It wasn’t until I had no way out that I understood how to face the world.” This is a meaningful piece of advice because it shows that hiding is not the way, the problems will only get worse, so facing the world and working hard to solve the problems in your life is the only way to achieve true peace with yourself and others.

The animation in Nezha 2 is really good. This movie has a lot of action, with fight scenes every 10 minutes, so I expected some really detailed and beautiful animation, but I definitely did not expect the art in this movie to be the highest quality artwork that I have ever seen in an animated film. Not only was each frame of each scene perfectly drawn, with each character having unique facial features that gave me exactly what I needed to know about what they were feeling now, the artwork was realistic yet cartoonistic, which was a really nice touch. I don’t have much criticism to say about art, because it was fantastic, but the fight scenes were a bit chaotic at times, but I didn’t necessarily hate that.

Lastly but not least, a really unique part about how the storyline progresses in this movie was definitely the sheer number of interesting plot twists. With sudden changes in emotion and the villain often being at the brink of victory, Nezha 2 is really great when it comes to making the audience be on the edge of their seat at all times. Not to mention, the comedic remarks every once in a while, sets a casual tone, which makes the storyline later on much more exciting and thrilling to watch.

To conclude, Nezha 2’s beauty simply cannot be described in words. It’s an amazingly animated movie whose visuals are stunning to look at, emotional, humorous, and shines a bright light on the wonders of Chinese culture. It’s really not a surprise that this movie is breaking records left and right, as it transcends language boundaries and touches people emotionally from all around the world. After watching this movie, the only question I have is: “When will Nezha 3 come out?”

If you’re interested in this story, I highly recommend going to a theatre and watching Nezha 2 for yourself!