Animated films with Netflix are often an afterthought, thinking more about having the content as a distraction for children instead of thinking about creating true art. There’s too much happening in Over the Moon, but even in a simple story, the visual artistry is dynamite.
Teenage Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) lost her mother years ago to an illness, and she’s uncomfortable with the idea of her Dad remarrying. To remind him of his lost love, she remembers the legend of Moon goddess Chang’e (Phillipa Soo), and embarks on a mission to the moon to ask for her help.
Once arriving on the moon, she embarks on an ever-changing quest to help Chang’e and her family find something missing. Yet the main focus of the plot seems to change every ten minutes of the movie, and a closer look might suggest it’s simply a modern Chinese version of Pixar’s Coco set in outer space. (Not an easy sales pitch, is it?)
The film is the last written by the late Audrey Wells, who died of cancer in 2018 (and who this film is dedicated to.) She’s done a great job showcasing both modern and mythical Chinese cultures with authenticity, but the plot doesn’t connect because Fei Fei’s goals keep changing again and again.
Is it a family drama about her new stepfamily? A business comedy about helping Mom and Dad sell moon cakes? A space adventure to find “the gift”? A musical romance to help Chang’e? Over the Moon is creative, cultural and colourful, but it’s trying to be too much all at once.
Director Glen Keane (a Disney legend and 2017 Oscar winner for his short Dear Basketball with Kobe Bryant) makes this his feature debut and can’t focus all the elements. Even though the purpose of the movie isn’t clear, it’s still fun to watch and interesting to see where Fei Fei goes next.
Some of the film’s better parts are all of the adorable animal side characters in the cast, including Bungee the rabbit and Gobi, the glowing green space pangolin. He’s voiced by Ken Jeong, known for annoying and unfunny performances in dozens of movies and shows (he was last known for Dynomutt in May’s disastrous Scoob!). But credit goes to Jeong: here he’s funny, sweet, and his best characters in years.
The rest of the almost-all Chinese cast is great, too. In addition to the principals listed below, smaller parts from women like Kimiko Glenn, Margaret Cho and Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles are stellar.
Where things get strange again are everyone’s vocal performances. Over the Moon is a musical, with nine original songs. All but two are grand, operetta Broadway epics, and the cast performs them as such. With subject matter like space travel, ping pong games, baking cakes and building a rocket ship, the style doesn’t match the topics at all. And there’s no good reason for it, either.
The musical overall is great, but the lyrics are horrendous. They sound choppy, most of the time with off-putting rhyme patterns. (The worst is in “Hey Boy”, when a fart sound is followed two lines later by rhyming the word “immortality.”)
Christopher Curtis’ (of the 2012 musical Chaplin) lyrics are overly repetitive and bad. Just bad. The rhymes Moon/Soon and Love/Above are each used multiple times in all of the first four songs. His work is lazy, and it’s a shame since the music to both the songs and score is so lavish and exciting.
Helen Park and Marjorie Huffield score the songs while Steven Price is brilliant in scoring the rest of the film. (Funnily enough, Price won his Oscar for scoring 2013’s Gravity, another fantastic space adventure.)
So is Over the Moon worth watching? For children, I’d say yes. Despite its faults, this is the best Netflix family film since The Willoughbys early this year. Most people will watch it at home, but if you’d like to see it on the big screen and support small theatres, Burlington’s CineStarz cinema is playing it all this week and next.
There’s too much happening for Fei Fei’s adventure to be “over the moon” magnificent. But the visual splendour of Chang’e’s moon world is so much fun, it’s maybe worth the trip.
Over the Moon
6 out of 10
G, 1hr 40mins. Animated Sci-Fi Family Fantasy Musical.
Directed by Glen Keane.
Starring Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Robert G. Chiu, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Sandra Oh and Ruthie Ann Miles.
Now streaming on Netflix for subscribers.
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