YNOT at the Movies

Bigger, bolder, and more dazzling than ever, "Ne Zha II" (哪吒之魔童闹海 | China 2025 | in Mandarin | 143 min.) storms the screen like a myth brought to electrifying life. This is animation pushed to its wildest limits—bursting with vibrant color, kinetic battles, and jaw-dropping worlds where floating palaces drift through stormy skies and monsters roar with elemental fury.

Picking up after the catastrophic battle of the first film, Ne Zha (哪吒) and Ao Bing's (敖丙) souls survive, but their bodies disintegrate. With help from Taiyi Zhenren (太乙真人) and the mystical Seven-Colored Lotus, they are reborn into a new struggle involving ancient conspiracies, divine politics, and the fate of both gods and humans.

The film teems with characters and subplots, but it's also sprinkled with sly humor and absurdist touches, befitting the spirit of its director, Yang Yu (杨宇), who cheekily goes by the pseudonym "Jiaozi" (饺子), meaning dumplings in Chinese. It's remarkable that after the ground breaking "Ne Zha" (2019), this sequel is only the second feature from the talented director.

"Ne Zha II" doesn't just dazzle, it has also become the most successful movie ever at the box office, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and the top earner in a single market, raking in over US $2.2 billion worldwide on an $80 million budget. Yet the English-dubbed version blunts the impact, with flattened emotional beats and awkward tonal mismatches. Keeping the original Mandarin with subtitles would have preserved both its cultural richness and its emotional punch.

While the nonstop battles and elaborate set pieces can sometimes feel like watching a high-budget video game unfold in real time—thrilling but not always deeply engaging—this sequel remains a record-shattering cultural phenomenon: a visual tour de force that's as epic as it is mischievously fun. There is no question that a franchise has been born and with more sequels to come.

"Ne Zha II" opens in theaters on Friday, August 22, 2025.