Over The Moon
Ratings: 3.5/5
Director: Glen Keane
Producers: Gennie Rim, Peilin Chou
Writer: Audrey Wells
Screenplay: Alice Wu, Audrey Wells, Jennifer Yee McDevitt
Release Date: 23 October 2020
Star Cast: Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Margaret Cho, Sandra Oh
Streaming platform: Netflix
Plot
The story revolves around a young girl named Fei Fei (voiced by Cathy Ang). Like any kid, she is very close to her parents, especially her mother. But then she is made to encounter one of the horrible losses of her life at a very tender age – the loss of her mother. Time passes but she is unable to come to terms with the reality that her mother is no more around.
To her dismay and utter shock, after about 4 years, her father (voiced by John Cho) who seemed to have moved on, considers marrying again. The Lil girl is yet to process the emptiness brought in by the loss of her mother, and now she is asked to welcome a new woman who would take the place of her mother. If this is not enough, the new mother would also bring with her an annoying little brother named Chin (voiced by Robert G. Chiu). All these events put Fei Fei in a grief loop.
Fei Fei fervently believes in the story of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess whose thwarted love for the archer Houyi was one of her mom’s favourite stories. She fixes her mind on going to the moon and proving that Chang’e is real and everything about her love story also holds good.
Using her science acumen, she builds her own spaceship to land on the moon. She, along with her trusted rabbit and her annoying stowaway future stepbrother Chin, gets on the spaceship and all get ready for the exploration of their lives.
Her homemade ship, cast in a massive paper lantern shell, surrounded by magnets, and powered by thousands of firecrackers, shoots into the sky and then begins to fall back to Earth. While in the downfall, the ship is caught up in a mysterious beam from the sky, which takes the three to the kingdom of Lunaria, a dream-like land presided over by Chang’e herself (voiced by Philippa Soo).
Visually, Lunaria is a marvel — a kaleidoscopic kingdom of surreal floating objects, angry birds, trippy giant frogs, tiny comet sentries, and such other riding things.
Chang’ e is waiting for her gift that she is hoping Fei Fei would have brought with her. But Fei Fei has no clue what gift she was expected to come with. So, Fei Fei is set on a mission to find the gift to give to Chang’e so that she can go home with a photo of her and Chang’e.
The whole and sole of Fei Fei’s visit to the moon is that if she can prove the existence of the mythical goddess on the moon, then maybe her father will wait a little bit longer to replace Fei Fei’s mother.
A child with utmost innocence delivers a very powerful lesson ‘on letting go and moving on’.
Review
Netflix has been trying hard to deliver good animated movies on its platform and this time it has hit the cord. In its latest volley to become an animation powerhouse, ‘Over the Moon’ might be the right fit.
The story is about the grieving daughter who has lost her mother and from there it becomes a boisterous techno-sci-fi extravaganza with the storyline playing in two worlds. The movie finds its beauty as it whipsaws between wildly different tones and visual styles, working the contrast between the earthly and the celestial, between debilitating grief and gonzo fantasy.
The movie is directed by Glen Keane of the Disney legacy, which makes the connection between the movie and Disney very blatant. He has worked on the script, along with the late Audrey Wells to whom the film is dedicated and brings a legacy of professional experience with himself.
Music composed by Steven Price is tender and soothing, however not impactful to catch the attention of the viewers, except one song near the end that directly addresses loss.
One might feel that visuals at times are overdone and are so polished and refined that they resemble a video game more than cinematic animation, and hence stands the test of time. Though, there will be moments when you as a viewer would silently pray to be a part of the animated world.
Current times are hard on everyone and one cannot rule out children from the list of victims. The movie has a positive message on how to process grief felt on losing someone you love. And so, this movie can act as a good fable for children who have lost their loved ones to the deadly virus.
In a nutshell, it is a good movie with pretty visuals, and a fairy tale kind of feel best suited for all age groups!
