Ne Zha 2 (2025)

 

Ne Zha 2 (2025)

5/10

Starring the voices of 

Lü Yanting

Han Mo

Lu Qi

Zhang Jiaming

 

Directed by Jiaozi

 

Now I liked the first Ne Zha, but this second one, for me, is just boring. For like the first hour, nothing really happens that makes you go, hmm!

Then I started worrying if this would be it, just the boredom of watching these characters trying to revive their body. But then the story takes a twist when you are halfway in, which brings some energy back into enjoying the movie. The problem is, even though that energy saw me through to the end, it couldn't save the movie for me.

Ne Zha 2 is Chinese animated box office giant, and to me what works is the graphical drawing, movement, and effects in this movie are actually very good. It's colorful, and you’ll love the ideas when it gets to the fights. The way the characters morph and stuff, intriguing. To me the voice casting was not bad, but it was not grand enough to save the boredom of this movie.

The plot continues from the first movie, if you recall what happened at the end of the first Ne Zha, lightning struck the two boys (Ne Zha and Ao Bing), but their spirits were saved.

So Master Taiyi Zhenren uses his Sacred Lotus to regenerate their physical bodies, though they are still fragile. Ao Guang, believing his son Ao Bing is dead because nobody bothered to tell him the spirit was saved, orders Master Shen Gongbao to attack Chentang Pass. Ao Bing, in his fragile state, defends it, but his new body can’t take the battle and disintegrates.

To save Ao Bing, his spirit is placed in Ne Zha's body for seven days, allowing Ne Zha to complete three trials to become a xian (immortal). In doing so, he will win a potion that can restore the Sacred Lotus and create a new body for Ao Bing.

While Ne Zha is on this journey, Ao Guang imprisoned Chentang Pass all around, waiting for Ne Zha to complete the task and revive his son.

Things do not go according to plan, as you’d expect, and soon we see there’s more to the story than just this shallow task.

Bad pacing is one of the main issues of this movie, with too many scenes that don’t add up to anything. Like the whole "he needs to pee" sequence, or the long dialogues before a task — too many things like that drag the animation way past the two-hour mark.

It ends in a way that makes it clear there will be a third animation in the works. If you want to see this one, I’d advise you get some coffee in your system. You’ll need it to stay awake during the first hour, but if you are patient enough, it pays out.