Ne Zha’s Magic Boys in the Sea Movie Introduction

Basic Information

Ne Zha’s Magic Boys Trouble the Sea (hereinafter referred to as Ne Zha 2/nezha: the demon boy havoc in the sea) is an animated film produced by Cocoa Bean Animation and Ray Ray House Pictures, written and directed by Dumpling, with Yan Ting Lu, Awkward Sensei, Han Mo, Chen Hao, and Green Cherry serving as the main voices. The film was released in mainland China on January 29, 2025, in North American theaters on February 14, and in Hong Kong and Macau from February 22.On February 19, the film will be extended to March 30….

The film is the second installment of the Ne Zha film series, which tells the story of Ne Zha and Ao C. After a heavenly calamity, Ne Zha’s and Ao C’s souls are preserved, but they will soon be dispersed. Tai Yi Zhenzi intends to remake their physical bodies with the Seven-Colored Treasure Lotus, but encounters difficulties in the process, and the fate of Ne Zha and Ao Beng is about to be challenged even more.

On January 11, 2025, the film was honored as “Weibo’s Most Anticipated Chinese New Year Movie” by Weibo Night 2024; on February 6, the film topped the box office charts of Chinese cinema history; and on February 7, the film became the No. 1 film in the global single-market box office charts, and was the first 10-billion-yuan box office film in Chinese cinema history [187]. As of 14:43 on February 13, 2025, the film’s viewership broke 200 million, becoming the first movie in Chinese film history to break 200 million viewership, and has broken dozens of records in Chinese film history.On February 18, the film’s total box office (including pre-sales and overseas) exceeded 12.319 billion yuan, surpassing “Mind Tricks 2” to top the global box office list of animated films, and ranked 8th in the box office list of global film history, meaning that the film broke Disney’s box office record. This means that the film broke the monopoly of Disney and Universal on the animation list.

Synopsis

After the apocalypse, Ne Zha (voiced by Yan Ting Lu) and Ao B (voiced by Han Mo) have their souls preserved, but will soon be scattered without their physical bodies. Tai Yi Zhen Zhen (voiced by Zhang Jia Ming) intends to use the seven-colored precious lotus to remake their bodies. However, the process of remodeling their bodies encounters many difficulties, and the fate of Ne Zha and Ao B will be challenged even further. When Shen Gongbao (voiced by Yang Wei) releases the four imprisoned Dragon Kings, Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East China Sea, reveals his human form and says, “If I go to war, no one will be left behind at the Chentang Pass,” and Ne Zha will fight the four Dragon Kings to defend the pass.

Narrative

In terms of narrative dimension, the movie continues the overall core of its predecessor while further expanding it effectively. In terms of storytelling, in addition to subversion and rebellion, the film further focuses on Ne Zha’s fatal entanglement with Ao Bi, deepening the philosophical exploration of “the symbiosis of good and evil”, and emphasizing propositions relevant to everyone, such as how to find one’s own place in a complex world. In terms of narrative richness, the creators have further introduced the grand worldview of the Feudal God universe, and built a more extended story framework through the dragon tribe’s struggle, the power of the heavenly court, and other subplots.

Traditional Culture

Nezha, as he is known in the film, is mainly portrayed in two Ming Dynasty novels, Journey to the West and The Enchantment of the Gods. This Hindu-Buddhist deity has been interpreted through Chinese folklore and “localized” literary creations, and has gradually become a heroic young man, Ne Zha, who stands up to the heavens and the earth. Ne Zha is a young hero who stands up to the heavens and the earth. Based on the traditional story of Ne Zha, the “Magic Boy” series of “Ne Zha” is infused with new emotional values of contemporary society. In the movie, the audience is reminded of the courage of the new generation of “Ne Zha” to grow up and pursue their dreams in the new era, with the boldness of “If there is no road ahead, I will make a road”.

The film makes the audience realize that Chinese culture has an incomparably long, rich and thick ideological resource. In the film, the Junction Beast inspired by the Sanxingdui civilization, the huge Tianyuan Tripod, and the bronze mirror decoration on the case of Lady Shiji take the audience back to the Bronze Age of Chinese history, which was a childhood of human beings that was as fiery as fire, as fierce as taotie, and at the same time as primitive, naive, and simple. In the plot, the Mixed Pearl splits into two, and the Magic Pill and the Spirit Pearl grow up separately, triggering a series of stories. This basic setting is similar to the fable in Zhuangzi, in which the Chaos is killed by a man-made chiseling of its seven orifices. The movie’s battle scenes between the immortal and demon worlds continue the theme of awakening from the 1979 animated classic Ne Zha in the Sea.

As for the many threads of the plot, the mix of beauty and ugliness in the design, and the characters portrayed in the film, it seems to be overloaded and cluttered, but if you look back at Yuan miscellaneous dramas and popular novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, you will realize that the romance and power of the secular torrent is enough to propel the narrative forward. The movie takes over this secular aesthetics that the people are happy to see, and integrates and innovates it, refining and recreating it. In fact, we can also find some influence from Western animation and Japanese animation in Ne Zha 2. The fact that Western culture, which has entered China in recent times, has been used in the construction of China’s contemporary culture is in itself one of the cultural stories in the process of Chinese modernization.