ANI-MOVIES, *Deep Sea

After doing yet another one of the infinite animated adaptions of Journey To The West, Monkey King: Hero Is Back director Tian Xiaopeng wrote this CGI-animated movie that he co-produced with his own studio of October Media and Coloroom Pictures that was released in 2023. Deep Sea is an explosion of 3D art and colors that does a fantastic job of telling a tale worthy of Studio Ghibli. This film is literally "Spirited Away meets Spider-Verse" as the Miyazaki-inspired story and characters are mixed in a broth of contrasting animation styles that flow together beautifully. The Chinese movie didn't exactly reach Ne Zha levels of success but was a large foot-forward for Chinese animation.

Shenxiu is a young girl whose is gone, afterwards her father remarried and had a son. The family goes on an ocean cruise leading to Shenxiu apparently falling overboard during a storm. The rest of the film is either told from the point of view of a dream, a near death experience, or a real magical journey where she goes underwater to a submersible restaurant where walruses and otters serve fish eccentric dishes. The only other human here is Nanhe, the strange clownish owner of the eatery under the sea who captures a strange blob creature called the Hijinks that could lead Shenxiu to her mother. All this while a mysterious entity called the Red Phantom stalks the crew which is later revealed to be Shenxiu's repressed feelings. How the story ultimately unfolds is up to the perspective of the viewer as the movie itself tells you it's time to wake up as it comes to an end.

Deep Sea can be a hard movie to understand with the constant movement of the entire picture including the background. To watch this is like watching a 3D oil painting continuously changing with bizarre character designs that move back and forth with topsy-turvy friction where the forces of gravity are regularly out to lunch. The dub is acceptable, even though you'll probably get a better feel for the intended dialogue if you see in the original Chinese language. At 105 minutes long, there are some scenes that get drawn out longer than needed, so that can be frustrating from time to time. Despite the Studio Ghibli influences, this is not something your children would probably enjoy until they're a little older as there are heavy themes of death and child neglect throughout the film. Chinese animation has advanced to the next level with this new digital phenomenon.