Mystical animated Chinese adventure Ne Zha has already spawned a spin-off (2020’s Jiang Ziya), now comes Nezha: The Demon Boy Churns the Sea, released in America as simply Ne Zha II.
The sequel starts where the first film ended: with the protagonist, demon spawn Nezha (voiced by Lee), mostly dead after being struck by divine lightning. However, his spirit is still around, as is that of his best friend and mystical other half, the angelic Ao Bing (Le), so their first task is to enter new bodies assembled from mystical lotus root paste. This is mere precursor to a huge and convoluted story about the two friends who were born from the division of the cosmic Chaos Pearl. That essential bit of backstory is recounted at great speed by the oafish but amiable immortal Taiyi Zhenren (Zieff) because there’s a lot to come: demons imprisoned in lava, devious dragons, magical devices, gigantic battles, a farting pig that flies by flapping its ears.
Really grasping Ne Zha II requires not simply watching its surprise success precursor but also a reasonable grasp of Chinese mythology and folklore. Also helpful is a passing knowledge of the epic Investiture of the Gods, a Ming dynasty novel of gods, immortals, demons, and destiny of which Ne Zha is a small but pivotal part (imagine if Peter Jackson hadn’t cut Tom Bombadil out but made him the central character of The Lord of the Rings). However, most American audiences will definitely need to catch up with the first film, since it was a minor blip on original release in the U.S., taking only around $3 million at the box office. Yet it was a monster success in China and the sequel even more so, taking it to nearly $2 billion in ticket sales. A version was already released in American cinemas in February with subtitles, but now A24 has gotten behind an English-language dubbed version – the studio’s first fully animated feature, and their second kid-friendly title after this year’s The Legend of Ochi.
Between Ne Zha II getting two releases, and Sony and Netflix planning a theatrical sing-along release for streaming smash KPop Demon Hunters, American distributors are undoubtedly getting behind non-anime Asian and Asian-influenced animation this year. Ne Zha II is significantly bigger than the original, with the animation massively more complex and gorgeous. (There’s a similar change in the English language actors, with A24 recasting most of the voice talent from the first film’s Well Go USA release.) In his attempt to turn the story into so much more of an epic, writer/director Jiao Zi has overstuffed and overstretched the story. The first film was much more of a comedic jaunt, while the sequel is often positively bleak by comparison, with at least one act of onscreen genocide. The multitudinous battles are almost too epic, with vast hordes of sea demons flying into cloudlike formations of massed demon hunters. The size is so vast that it’s less armed combat, more fluid dynamics. As for individuals, there’s barely any room for several of the peripheral characters from the first film, with the kid Demon Hunters and jade Temple Guardians who provided so much of the first film’s comedic relief relegated to the briefest of cameos. Meanwhile, new characters are introduced at a rapid clip, at least one of whom is seemingly solely there to humanize one of the villains.
Luckily, Ne Zha II still retains the charm of the best parts of the original, with the young rapscallion Nezha still a hyperactive bundle of mischief, hand stuffed down his pants like Dennis the Menace, waddling through jade palaces as he defies his destiny. May he stay as chaotically endearing for the inevitable part III.
This article appears in February 7 • 2025.
