My movies-for-kids medley has continued, and yesterday I finished a movie I'd love to tell you all about.
Let's talk about "Wish Dragon" (2021)!
The premise of "Wish Dragon" is that, after losing touch with his childhood best friend Li Na (voiced by Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Din (voiced by Jimmy Wong) hopes to reconnect with her using a magical teapot gifted to him by a god (played by the Daily Show's Ronny Chieng) containing a wish-granting dragon (played by John Cho).
Interestingly, the film bears many structural similarities to Disney's "Aladdin" (1992) that any millennial will instantly recognize: a young, good-hearted, plucky, poor yet resourceful hero gets access to a magical, wisecracking wish-granting entity straining and eye-rolling against the bonds of servitude. The hero aims to use his three wishes to win the heart of a beautiful and strong-willed young woman of higher status, be it a princess (as with Jasmine in "Aladdin") or the famous daughter of a titan of industry (as in "Wish Dragon" with Li Na). There are even the same constraints on what wishes can be granted: no making people fall in love with you, for example. Villains closely pursue our hero, hoping to claim the power of magical wishes for their own greedy and megalomaniacal aims. The hero uses at least one of his wishes to assume the identity of a wealthy, flashy would-be suitor, and with all of these promising plot elements, adventure ensues.
While "Wish Dragon" seems to owe a healthy helping of inspiration to "Aladdin", it successfully repurposes this basic structure into something delightfully new. Dimension is added by the fact that Din and Li Na have a history going back to childhood. This allows the movie to mercifully sidestep a protracted mistaken identity arc, which cannot be said of "Aladdin". While Princess Jasmine only briefly departs her cloistered and privileged palace life and the movie concludes with Jasmine and Aladdin, presumably, with a luxurious future ahead of them, Li Na fondly recalls her childhood in the poorer shikumen houses where Din, his mother (played by Constance Wu), and their neighbors still reside and longs for the sense of community she felt as a girl and lacks as a feted but lonely young woman.
Additionally, "Wish Dragon" benefits from extremely fun and well-animated fight sequences that follow Din's first accidental wish to know how to fight. He uses his newfound incredible skill in martial arts to both dramatic and comedic affect for everything from defending himself against his adversaries to quickly setting up his single-room apartment to make it appear to his mother that he's been home studying all night. Intriguingly, the foremost villain, Pockets (voiced by Aaron Yoo) fights exclusively with his hands sheathed in his pockets until the battle at the movie's climax. This lends a menacing fascination to his character as we watch him navigate the world and battle competently with Din using only his feet.
The character arc of the titular dragon, Long, further enhances the film. We learn that Long's state as a wish dragon is actually the result of a curse from the gods, who are punishing him for his heartless greed and selfishness in his human life by requiring him to serve ten masters with three wishes apiece before he can enter paradise. Because Din is Long's tenth master, Long is initially--and perhaps understandably--extremely impatient for Din to use up his wishes so his sentence can finally be served. However, as Din and Long form a friendship, Long finally learns the value of caring for others before oneself and in fact uses his own misspent human life in an attempt to dissuade Din from misusing his final wish for wealth.
After being trapped in his teapot for a thousand years, Long also has moments of learning about and enjoying modern life that are sweetly silly, but also serve to further open him up to rethinking his views of the world and therefore further round out his character.
Long's discovery of a deeper meaning of life is mirrored by Li Na's father (played by Will Yun Lee), who has striven so arduously for success that he misses his daughter's birthday celebration and entirely misses the fact that Li Na wants not wealth and status, but simply to be with her dad. Thankfully for both of them, Long is able to intervene at a crucial moment to give Li Na's dad the second chance Long never had in his human life.
The greater theme of "Wish Dragon", that what matters most in life is our connections to other people, is thusly beautifully emphasized in moving moments, but also alluded to in more subtle ways. I knew right away I was going to like this movie because a sequence early on features moments of everyday life mirroring the advertisements for luxury goods that form their backdrop. It's a clever and effective signal of the core message of the movie.
All this to say: I absolutely adored this movie. It is charming, beautifully animated, funny, fully child-friendly, and has heaps of heart. I gave it a 5.
{Heart}
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