Over the Moon (2020)

This Netflix feature hasn't received great reviews, but the aesthetic in the stills drew me in. Besides, while I expect the next Academy Awards ceremony to be a nothingburger, I wanted to know what might be competition for Onward in the animation category, and A Whisker Away didn't seem mainstream enough. (Update: I was right on all counts.)

In modern China, preteen or possibly early teen Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) is an A student, which leads many to wonder why she still believes a tale of Chang'e, the woman who became the moon goddess. Her reason is personal: She learned it from her late mother (Ruthie Ann Miles). When her more science-minded father (John Cho) starts getting serious with widow Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh), Fei Fei feels that he must have lost faith in Mom. Mrs. Zhong's hyperactive eight-year-old son, Chin (Robert G. Chiu), doesn't make the prospect of remarriage any more palatable to Fei Fei. She gets the idea that Dad will call it off if she can just prove Mom right...by building a rocket to the moon and bringing back a photo of Chang'e.

Yeah, that's the moment the story starts getting absurd. This young girl secretly, single-handedly, succeeds at that level of rocketry. And her family's only income is from baking and delivery, so what she has can hardly be state-of-the-art. Oh, it doesn't look downright easy; she has to do a lot of exhausting trial and error. But the only way the final launch goes wrong is in not accounting for the weight of -- no surprise to me -- stowaway Chin.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too concerned about playing fast and loose with physics, because the overt fantasy elements soon take over. Not only is there actually quite a bit of life on the moon, but some of it has the power to let earthlings breathe there. Most of what we see, such as anthropomorphic pastries, looks too silly to have roots solidly in Chinese folklore. At least it's colorful, literally if not figuratively.

Anyway, yes, Chang'e (Phillipa Soo) shows up before long, but she's not much like Fei Fei envisioned. She is currently appreciated in her kingdom of Lunaria for her concert performances, not for being kind or generous anymore. Fei Fei will not be allowed to leave with a photo unless she brings something that Chang'e sensed on the ship -- something key to reuniting her with her long-ago lover. Other Lunarians set out to grab it first so they can claim a reward instead.

See my "animals" tag? Yep, there are a bunch on the moon, some of whom talk, most notably a friendly pangolin, Gobi (Ken Jeong), who rivals Chin in his ability to annoy Fei Fei. We also have two earth animals along for the ride: Fei Fei's bunny and Chin's frog, neither one speaking but both far more humanly expressive than their real counterparts. The legendary Jade Rabbit of the moon, who looks more like a hare to me, also plays an important role. These elements are cute enough, but I can't help feeling they're thematically all over the place.

If the humor, well-paced adventure, and general visuals aren't doing much for you, you might still get something out of the eight songs. They vary too: Most have a gentle Disney-esque quality, but a few, thanks particularly to Chang'e, evoke current popular music. I'll give the makers credit for using the songs effectively, not just filling quiet moments. I just wish they had lyrics that could make more sense out of context.

Indeed, I think that this production, by Pearl Studio without DreamWorks for a change, tries hard to evoke Disney and maybe Pixar. It may do best at this in becoming ultimately tender, however predictably. That was enough for me to decide on a thumb up in Netflix's obnoxiously binary rating system.

I wouldn't put OtM on the same tier as a lesser Pixar flick, but it's no Animal Crackers either. It makes a fine viewing for kids, having low violence, no total villains, and a nice lesson. I can picture the involved people going on to something great if they haven't already.