The Monkey King Parent Guide

The Monkey King (Jimmy O. Yang) is not like other monkeys. He was born from a rock and the Buddha himself (BD Wong) has declared that he has an important destiny. Thanks to these unusual origins, Monkey King is ostracized by the other chimps and consoles himself by learning martial arts and dreaming of joining the immortals. After being gifted a magical fighting stick, Monkey King sets out to kill 100 demons as his payment for immortality. He is joined on his quest by Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), a young girl determined to make a difference in the world.

One of the most important aspects of a hero’s journey is the protagonist’s character development. Writers need to walk a fine line here, beginning with a flawed hero – but one who’s not so flawed that the audience won’t root for him (or her). Unfortunately, I think the writers of this film missed the mark on that critical element of character design and plot planning. Monkey King is not a likeable character for most of the runtime. He has charming moments here or there but they’re always brief and immediately undermined. It’s hard to root for him which makes this a difficult movie to watch. In contrast, the main villain, the Dragon King (Bowen Yang), is so delightful that I found myself cheering him on instead. That is in no way a reflection on Jimmy O. Yang’s fantastic performance; it’s more an error in the story and writing.

The film’s pace is frenetic, moving from action sequence to action sequence, which makes the plot hard to follow. However, for young audiences this might be a good thing, since it doesn’t give short attention spans any chance at boredom. There is a really good movie in here somewhere. It just needed a few more script drafts and some room to breathe.

Despite my many complaints, I wouldn’t call The Monkey King a bad movie. It’s perfectly serviceable and has some good messages around selflessness and interpersonal relationships. But it’s also generic and poorly paced, which doesn’t allow it to move past the mid-tier of children’s animation. Parents should be aware that fantasy violence is present throughout the film, and some of the demons could be scary for very young or sensitive viewers. The demons won’t scare adults – but the prospect of spending 90 minutes watching yet more uninspiring kids’ movies just might.