On 21 April 2022, my movie watch was the 2021 Netflix-released, Columbia/Sony-produced, computer-animated movie Wish Dragon, written and directed by Chris Appelhans, and which I absolutely loved!!
Think Aladdin, but with a pink wise-cracking Oriental ancient teapot-inhabiting dragon who grants a poor Chinese boy named Din three wishes (but cannot make the girl he loves fall in love with him) instead of a blue wise-cracking Middle Eastern ancient lamp-inhabiting genie who grants a poor Arabian boy named Aladdin three wishes (but cannot make the girl he loves fall in love with him) and you have the central plot of this immensely funny film, set in modern-day Shanghai, but there are plenty of novel twists and turns along the way too.
Its palette of dazzling colours and its fast & furious pace mean that you can't take your eyes off the screen, literally! As I've mentioned before, my test of how much I enjoy a movie is how many times I look at my watch or clock – the more times I look, the less I'm liking it. At the end of this 98-min movie, I realised that I had never once looked at my watch or clock!
This was no doubt also due in no small way to the ceaseless flow of highly humorous but blink-and-you'll-miss-them sight gags, holding your attention in a vice-like grip throughout. My personal favourites were Long the Wish Dragon (voiced drily by John Cho) riding inside a car (a taxi, to be precise) for the first time in his 1000-year existence and sticking his head out of the window with tongue lolling manically exactly like dogs do (see photo-still at the end of this review); and Long drinking thirstily out of a toilet, again just like dogs do...until he discovers what toilets are actually used for! Incidentally, in the Mandarin Chinese dub of Wish Dragon, Long is voiced by none other than Jackie Chan, who is also one of this movie's producers (another one is Aron Walker, who famously produced the Shrek movies). And Long's full name is Long Zhu, which is Mandarin for Wish Dragon.
As in Aladdin, Wish Dragon also includes some poignant scenes amid the slapstick. Notable among these is when Long's young but noble master, poverty-stricken young student Din Song (voiced when a youth by Jimmy Wong, by Ian Chen when a child), reveals to him that there are more important, worthwhile things in life – such as family and friendship – than the wealth and power that Long's previous nine masters had all craved.
In particular, Din clings tenaciously to his happy memories of joyful times spent with his childhood best friend Li Na Wang (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). She originally lived with her father Mr Wang (Will Yun Lee) in the same humble run-down neighbourhood where Din still lives with his elderly mother Mrs Song (Constance Wu), but she was abruptly taken away by her father 10 years ago to a much more upmarket area where she has subsequently grown up to become a world-famous model with an exceedingly affluent lifestyle. Even though she now inhabits a very different social world, one that is ostensibly unattainable by him, Din has never stopped missing Li Na, and now that he has a bona fide wish dragon to magically provide him with whatever he chooses or needs, surely there must be some way for him to re-enter her life on an equal footing and restore their friendship?
Unfortunately, however, as Din swiftly discovers, there is also the inconvenient but not inconsiderable matter of staying one step ahead of a very persistent, pernicious band of violent villains intent upon stealing the teapot, and thence Long, for their mysterious employer, whose identity turns out to be a major surprise…
Wish Dragon is an excellent feel-good movie, with John Cho's Long a suavely sardonic yet truly hilarious tour de force throughout, ably augmented by Jimmy Wong's/Ian Chen's Din as an immensely likeable, honorable underdog, sometimes naïve but always noble, whom you root for from the very first moment he appears on screen.
Although it took me ages to track down this enchanting film's official English-dubbed DVD, it was well worth the wait, because Wish Dragon is one animated movie that I'll definitely be rewatching. And if you want to find out what it's like to deal with a dragon of the wish-fulfillment variety, be sure to click here to watch an official Wish Dragon trailer on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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