Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Ne Zha Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 10, 2020

Well Go USA has been slowly moving into the 4K UHD market, as evidenced first by their release of Shadow 4K and now Ne Zha , which Well Go USA is releasing in both “standard” 1080p and 4K UHD formats. But with regard to Ne Zha in particular and a number of other Well Go USA releases of Asian fare over the past few years, diehard fans of “another” technology may wonder why Well Go USA doesn’t ever deign to release 3D Blu-rays of films which were at least at times exhibited theatrically that way. Any number of fantasy laden Asian films that Well Go USA has released for the United States market originally screened overseas in 3D, but none of them (to my recollection, anyway) were granted 3D Blu-ray releases by Well Go USA (this is admittedly a phenomenon that is not limited to Well Go USA Blu-ray releases of Asian films released in 3D, as will be discussed in a moment). Even before I started doing background research in preparation for writing this review, I sensed that Ne Zha was yet another film that must have been released in 3D due to all the obviously “dimensional” effects the film offers (albeit in a “flat” presentation in either 1080p or 2160p). The character of Ne Zha (sometimes transliterated a bit differently as Nezha) has been in countless films, often but not always consigned to “supporting character” status, and kind of interestingly among the films where the character has appeared are some that were released in 2D here for the North American market, but which were granted 3D releases on Blu-ray in foreign markets, like The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace (released stateside by Cinedigm) and The Monkey King 2 (which actually was a Well Go USA release). My The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace Blu-ray review gets into some of my personal winding history with the various Monkey King films while also offering links to at least some of the 3D Blu-ray releases that are out there for those with region free players, but the bottom line is for those who feel that 3D Blu-ray is (to quote a certain famous Monty Python joke) “not quite dead yet”, the unfortunate lack of a 3D release of Ne Zha may offer some disturbing evidence to the contrary.

Note: Maybe a bit surprisingly, I haven’t been able to track down a complete list of voice actors on the English language version, and therefore I can’t authoritatively identify any performers in the following comments.

A narrator (who returns to elide things at certain moments) quickly gives an overview of a heavenly realm where two divinities, Taiyi Zhenren (who turns out to be the narrator), a drunkard who rides a flying pig, and his brother Shen Gongbao, whose snarling demeanor instantly identifies him as one of the film’s chief villains, are going into battle against a nefarious entity known as the Chaos Pearl. Both Taiyi and Shen fail spectacularly in their quest, leading “head honcho” divinity Yuanshan Tianzun to kind of encapsulate the Chaos Pearl and then to split it into two equal but opposite parts, a Spirit Pearl (the good part) and what in the subtitles here is called the Demon Pill (the bad part), though I’m wondering if someone misheard Demon Pearl. In any case Tianzun comes up with a preposterously complex “fate” for each of the pearls and/or pills, with the Demon Pill consigned to dying by being hit by lightning in three years, and the Spirit Pearl consigned to reincarnate as the third son of warrior Li Jing and his wife Lady Yin. Now there are a couple of funny things about even this basic setup: this is a patently insane amount of convolution that requires a “give up and just accept it” amount of exposition, but it’s also presented in the film in about 30 seconds, which may be a hint that some Chinese audiences are more familiar with the underlying mythology informing this film and so don’t need to be “schooled” as thoroughly as some Westerners may feel they need to be.

Because of Tianzun’s perhaps less than godly lack of prescience about Murphy’s Law (if such a thing exists in China), things of course do not go according to plan. Shen obviously wants the nicer Spirit Pearl for himself, even though it’s been put under Taiyi’s guardianship until Lady Yin can give birth (and she’s been pregnant for three years, which in and of itself seems to contradict the need to wait three years for the Demon Pill to be hit by lightning, but I digress). His machinations evidently end up with him in possession of the Spirit Pearl, which he ultimately delivers to the Dragon King, a kind of stand-in for Lucifer or Hades in this mythology, as the “keeper” of the “lower echelons”, in this case an underwater realm from which the Dragon King desperately wants to escape. It’s part of the Dragon King’s plot to have the Spirit Pearl incarnate as his son, thereby hoping to convince Tianzun to let all the dragons finally get out of their prison in the watery deep.

In the meantime, the Demon Pill ends up incarnating as Ne Zha, the son of Li Jing and Lady Yin. Lady Yin in particular, not unlike a certain Mrs. Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby, feels she can influence her “demon child” toward the good side of his nature, and that sets up the central conflict of Ne Zha, wherein both Ne Zha and Ao Bing, the son of the Dragon King, have a whole “nature vs. nurture” thing going on, with the film perhaps making the obvious case that everyone tends to be a concoction of both positive and negative aspects.

This is an incredibly bright and colorful enterprise, but perhaps more importantly Ne Zha tends to capture more of the kind of traditional “Chuck Jones” anarchic flavor of some of the better American animated comedies from the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks, something that has tended to be sorely missing from some other overseas animated properties. That said, the film feels overpopulated with sidebars, several of which have been obviously designed with some visual overkill in mind, an aspect the film deserves some recognition for achieving. That said, there’s very little emotional connection to any of the characters here, something that is manifestly different from some of the better American animated comedies that may otherwise share some of Ne Zha’s design hyperbole and goofy humor.

Ne Zha Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ne Zha is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is by and large a knockout presentation on Blu-ray, one which provides really good accountings of what are admittedly kind of "rubbery" looking characters, though one which can also provide a rather nice level of fine detail on things like the almost ice crystal ambience of the Chaos Pearl in the opening sequence, or some later elements like the obvious crosshatched pattern on some of the "linen" like outfits some characters wear. The palette is really riotous at times in this film, especially once Ne Zha is kind of sucked into an "alternate world" by Taiyi which is kind of the animated film equivalent of the "living paintings" in What Dreams May Come. Both very vivid primaries and some lovely pastel hues coexist quite winningly, and things are generally beautifully suffused throughout the presentation. Once again, I did notice some passing issues with banding on a Well Go USA release: the first time was on some of the production mastheads (there are some very funny little masthead "videos" for this film, for those who enjoy such things), but later when the film ventures underwater to introduce the Dragon King, there were some minor but noticeable "ripples" aside from any supposed liquid.

Ne Zha Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ne Zha features a really enjoyable Dolby Atmos track (in English) that provides some very fun overhead and general surround activity, along with some very forceful bursts of LFE, starting from the slew of production mastheads that gallivant by at the film's opening. But from the first "duel" sequence with the Chaos Pearl, a conflict that ends with a huge kind of metal urn descending to encapsulate the beast, there are clear wafting effects the help to establish verticality quite noticeably, along with regular engagement of the side and rear channels. Directionality is recurrent throughout the sound design, including a lot of ambient environmental effects but even simple placement across the soundstage as in one sequence where a young Ne Zha's playing with a kind of hacky sack type object leads to calamity. Dialogue and effects are both rendered with superb fidelity and without any problems whatsoever on this often pretty bombastic track.

Ne Zha Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer A (US) (1080p; 2:31)


• Trailer A (International) (1080p; 2:30)


• Trailer B (1080p; 1:16)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Trailer A (US) is essentially a Play All button). After the Trailer B for this film plays, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Ne Zha Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ne Zha is certainly both an eyeful and an earful, which may be enough of a distraction to keep people from caring all that much about a lack of emotional connection to the characters. This story will probably resonate more with those who love the more fantasy laden kind of stories that are a regular component of Asian cinema. Technical merits are solid, and Ne Zha comes Recommended.