It's been a while since I have watched an animation film though I have tried to watch some these past few weeks, but they all didn't impress me. I think the last animation I saw last year was ’Moana, Encanto and Nimona’ and I enjoyed watching them. They were all entertaining and fun to watch.
These days most of the animations I come across are always undercooked, rushed, and with disoriented production. I miss the good old days of animations/cartoons from the 90s down to the early 2000s. To me they are all classics. Though I still have some few ones that are super classic to me and free from societal new cultures.
’The Tiger's Apprentice (2024)’ is an animated fantasy film based on a 2003 novel of the same name written by Laurence Yep. It was directed by Robert Lorenzo and distributed by Paramount+. The plot revolves around Tom Lee, a Chinese-American boy who after the death of his grandmother, has to be the apprentice of a talking tiger, Mr. Hu and learn an ancient magic to become the new guardian of an ancient phoenix.
This animation film has an exceptional cast that I did expect. It stars Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Leah Lewis, Kheng Hua Tan and Sherry Cola. Almost all the actors here are on my favorite list and it is also part of the reason I decided to watch this animation regardless of some negative reviews I read online. I didn't let it stop me and in the end, it was actually not that bad the way people criticized this animation.
The animation starts with an early flashback to when Tom Lee and his grandmother were attacked by strange dark mythical creatures. Tom’s grandmother called on all the zodiacs (mythical creatures with superpowers) to help her and keep safe. The zodiacs came and protected them. Afterwards, we were meant to understand that Tom is a special child, the guardian of the Phoenix egg.
Fastwarded to when Tom now all grown up to a teenager, still he has no idea of who he really is. He was bullied in school a lot but one day, he unconsciously used his power against his Bully. This accidental incident exposed Tom’s location to his Hunters and his world turned upside down when he discovered that he was a talking tiger as his protector all his life and that his grandmother was also a guardian of the Phoenix stone just like him.
However, with the shock of so many secrets revealed, Tom's evil hunters located him as they were after the Phoenix stone necklace around his grandmother's neck. Tom's grandmother sacrificed herself so that Tom could live and fight another by giving the stone. Will Tom explore the magic world of being a guardian or will he avenge his grandmother's death?
My Review And Rating.
This was a great animation film for the family to watch together and create fun memories. I strongly recommend this film for children. It is safe, decent, free of recent community propaganda and your children will learn the value of teamwork here. If you have children this is a good choice.
However, I don't understand why a lot of people criticized this movie negatively, but I think I get it now. This movie was watched by the wrong audience. Hence why the animation is rated low. I wish children could have a site to rate their movies so it is not only adults deciding which movie is good or watchable.
Some people said this animation was cliché, and predictable. Well, I strongly disagree. Perhaps if the animation contained some societal propagandas we see these days that is normal, this film would have high ratings.
The plot was well written, engaging and interesting to me. I love that fact good themes like the value of family, friendship, value of teamwork, consequences of being power hungry was explored in the story. These make the moral lessons from which children can learn good things from and probably adults too.
The only thing I saw as a flaw in the plot was the fact that some characters lacked a backstory. Characters like, the grandmother, his parents, the zodiacs, and villains. From how the film ended It seems like an opening for a potential sequel in the future with more story to tell was left.
The voice acting was excellent, the music / soundtrack was great, and jokes / humor had me laughing. The tiger's humor was good. The scene arrangements were excellent, the animation and effects good but not “the wow amazing”. The CGI quality was good too. Not everything has to be "Dreamworks/Disney" quality CGI.
Rating this animation, I give it 8 out of 10 stars. It was nice, entertaining, interesting and fun film to watch with family, and children majorly. Will you see this film with your family? You should!
All images above are from the movie screenshots
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