To become one of the Immortal Ones, the famous Monkey King, or so he fancies himself, must fight 100 demons.
The Monkey King, available on Netflix’s YouTube channel, follows the title character, Lin, and Stick on an action-packed mission to battle 100 demons and rise to paradise.
Shunned from an early age, the trailer’s opening statement describing Monkey King as “the bravest, most powerful, most spectacular-terrific, amazing-derful” relates to the film’s narrative arc of conquering ego to become a hero and draws parallels to Sun Wukong, a hero of Chinese history.
The First Trailer For “The Monkey King” Features A 500-Year-Old Legend Flying High!
The trailer begins with a narcissistic introduction to the Monkey King, who feels he is the greatest of all monkeys.
Despite being expelled from his home clan for being too different, he appears unbothered and tries to join the far more powerful Immortal Ones, considering himself more than worthy.
However, he’s been warned that he’ll have to battle 100 demons to catch their attention. He shakes off the difficult task and finds areas needing protection from demonic terrors.
After defeating one, he meets Lin, a young girl who aspires to do great things by making a difference in the lives of others around her. She begs the Monkey King to be her mentor, and he grudgingly accepts.
Lin begins to mentor Monkey King along the way, reminding him that conquering everything isn’t the solution, but helping others is. Monkey King starts to take this to heart as the Dragon King threatens the kingdom and its innocent citizens until someone can stop him.
Also Read: Gamera: Rebirth Netflix Release Date: When Is It Coming?
The Cast and Crew!
The Monkey King’s voice cast includes:
Jimmy O. Yang as Monkey King
Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Lin
Jodi Long as Wangmu
James Sie as Elder Monkey
Nan Li as Stick
BD Wong as Buddha
Andrew Kishino as Demon of Havoc & King Yama
Sophie Wu as Red Girl
Andrew Pang as Mayor
Stephanie Hsu as Mayor’s Wife
Kuno Inghram as Mayor’s Son
Bowen Yang as Dragon King
Jo Koy as Benbo
Ron Yuan as Babbo
Hoon Lee as Jade Emperor
The Monkey King is directed by Anthony Stacchi, co-director of The Boxtrolls, and produced by Peilin Chou of Abominable and Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer. Ron J. Friedman, Stephen Bencich, and Rita Hsiao wrote the script.
The Monkey King’s production crew includes people who have worked on films like Hercules, How to Train Your Dragon, Mulan, Kung Fu Panda 3, and Shaolin Soccer.
The Monkey King will be available on Netflix on August 18, 2023. The film was announced in 2017 by its major animation company, Pearl Studio, before being connected to Netflix in 2021.
