With a box office of over $1.8 billion in China alone, it's safe to say that “Ne Zha 2” has turned into something of a phenomenon. It’s become the highest grossing film ever in China, the highest grossing film in a single country ever, the highest grossing animated film ever, the highest grossing film of 2025 so far, and the fifth highest grossing film of all time. To say the film has become a phenomenon would be an understatement, and after a theatrical run earlier in the year, A24 has now released an English language dub with an all-star cast as an attempt to capture the small sliver of the market that has yet to see this new hit.
Picking up directly from the end of the first film, this sequel follows the mischievous demon child Ne Zha, voiced by Crystal Lee (“Barbie Dream Besties,” “Kageki Shojo!!”), and his friend, the good-hearted Ao Bing, voiced by Aleks Le (“Demon Slayer,” “Solo Leveling”). After Bing’s body is destroyed, Ne Zha agrees to complete a trial to become immortal and win a potion that can create a new body for Bing to hold off Bing’s father, Ao Guang, voiced by Christopher Swindle (“Ultraman (2022),” “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations”), and the villainous Shen Gongbao, voiced by Daniel Riordan (“Transformers: Robots in Disguise”), from attacking Ne Zha’s home as revenge. Ne Zha enlists in the help of his master, Taiyi Zhenren, voiced by Rick Zeiff (“The Tom & Jerry Show,” “Olivia”), to help him complete the trial, while sharing a body with Ao Bing to prevent his soul from being lost.
The first and most important thing to understand is that “Ne Zha 2” is a sequel in the truest sense, meaning it makes no accommodations for those who haven’t seen the first film. While a brief summary of the first film’s events appears at the beginning, it will still be quite difficult to piece together what is going on for the first fifteen-twenty minutes. Once things get going, it picks up enough for things to be relatively intelligible, although it's obvious that this is the sort of film that will play best to those readily familiar with each character, location, and previous story beats. Things are still plenty entertaining though, as the material has its roots in the basics of the “Hero’s Journey” trope, and are easily understandable by all with a little bit of paid attention. Director/writer Jiaozi (“Ne Zha”) flows smoothly, and the English translation keeps things moving just as briskly. Each scene manages to be a thrilling display of Ne Zha’s childlike sensibilities and raw strength, while also working as individual pieces of the evolving larger narrative, full of twists and unexpected turns.
The tradeoff for that brisk pace though is that, like many films dubbed like this, there are numerous moments where it feels as though the English cast is rushing to say their lines as quickly as possible. It’s a verbal whiplash at times, and it’s one of the reasons the film can be hard to parse for its initial fifteen-twenty minutes. The sense of humor is something else though; while it can be entertaining to watch Ne Zha poke fun at stuffy gods and angels, numerous moments of the film grind to a halt for fart and pee jokes that feel straight out of the kiddiest of kid’s films. They feel so out of place that you’d think they were added by an American studio if not for the fact that they were fully animated scenes.
Crystal Lee’s vocal performance is one of the highlights of the film, a wonderfully spunky bit of antihero and preteen boy mischief. She brings her vocal talents to bare and turns what could have easily been an annoying protagonist into a lovable little ball of spitfire chaos. There’s a heart of gold underneath his brutal exterior, and it makes the film’s eventual emotional arc work wonders. Aleks Le provides a great balance as Bing, and the both of them bicker and spar back and forth, providing a yin and yang of the film’s central conflict and sense of humor. Zeiff is a charming bit of comic relief as well, and he’s a delightful bit of raspy voiced respite anytime he appears.
The vocal performances across the board are all generally good, with each filling their spots well. Riordan, for example, plays a menacing reluctant villain and delivers the exact kind of vocal performance you’d expect for a role like that. Oddly enough, the weakest performance of the bunch comes from the most well-known actor: Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) as Ne Zha’s mother Lady Yin. She isn’t bad but compared to a cast full of performers giving full-throated, over-the-top voices, her reserved nature seems out of place. Even in the moments where she attempts to match the nature of the others, she just falls flatter than them.
What certainly does not fall flat is the film’s action and visual style. This might not be the most detailed looking film in the world, but it makes up for it in sheer grand size. It’s an ever-expanding sense of space and world, with each action sequence taking place with seemingly hundreds of thousands of characters on screen. Battles erupt forth with mobs of people moving more like dust clouds or liquids than individuals, leading to a greater sense of scale and epic combat. Characters appear, made of jade, mist, ice, fire, and it all feels remarkable to behold. It’s a dizzying sense of scale, and each subsequent event builds on the previous ones. Quite simply, it's the kind of film made for as big a screen as possible. The musical score from Wan Pin Chu (“Ne Zha,” “Rainbow Sea Fly High”), Rui Yang, and Roc Chen (“The Wandering Earth,” “Autumn Cicada”) isn’t particularly incredible, but it underscores each moment with thrilling intensity. It’s a truly awesome kind of film, pushing the animated medium in what it can showcase on a pure scale level.
“Ne Zha 2” certainly has had an unexpected journey in the theatrical landscape. Beating “Inside Out 2” to become the biggest animated film of all time in just three weeks, it's clear there’s a fervor behind the film. And for good reason, as it takes a well-worn style of storytelling, drenched in the “Hero’s Journey” tropes, and dresses it up with some exceptional animation and thrilling battle sequences. The script and vocal performances might be slightly rushed, more a factor of the English dub than anything, and it's certainly not the kindest to blind viewings, but it’s the kind of film that justifies its existence on a visual level alone, with everything else simply being icing on the cake. 4.5/5
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