OVP: Over the Moon (2020)

Film: Over the Moon (2020)

Stars: Cathy Ang, Robert G. Chieu, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Sandra Oh

Director: Glen Keane

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

One of the stranger categories at this year's Oscars is going to be Animated Feature film.  2020 largely eschewed big box office potential films, and that included animated features.  Animated films are one of the most consistent presences at the box office, and studios holding back on a few of their releases made sense as why give up a golden goose for nothing?  The strange thing about Animated Feature, though, is that very few of the foreign or independent films that came into the field as a result of this more open contest have attracted much buzz.  Companies like GKids and Studio Ghibli have films out this year, but none of them appear to be gaining traction, and as a result the Golden Globes nominations this year leaned pretty heavily into big brand work from Pixar & Dreamworks in this category.  Netflix (currently both a major studio and an Oscar upstart), though, always finds a way in 2020, and one of the less traditional blockbusters/sequels to get into the HFPA lineup was Over the Moon, which seems to be the streamer's best shot at repeating its success in this category from last year with AMPAS.

(Spoilers Ahead) For an animated children's film, there is a lot of plot in this one but I'll try to boil it down here.  Fei Fei (Ang) is a young girl who seemingly has it all.  She has a penchant for science, and with her parents she hears stories about ancient Chinese legends before bedtime, while spending all day baking delicious mooncakes.  But after her mother gets sick (and then dies), Fei Fei can't handle it a few years later when her father (Cho) becomes engaged to Ms. Zhong (Oh), a woman who comes with an annoying son Chin (Chieu).  Fei Fei becomes determined to prove that her favorite legend, one of Chang'e (Soo) and Houyi is true, and that Chang'e is still on the moon, waiting for her love, and her father should do the same for her mother.  Fei Fei builds a rocket to go to the moon, and since this is a fairy tale, she find Chang'e, but things aren't entirely what they seem when it comes to pining for a lover that will never come.

There's more to the plot, including Ken Jeong playing an over-eager pangolin, but you kind of get where this is going.  Fei Fei realizes that her father deserves to move on, and so does she, even if her mother's memory will last forever in their hearts.  The message of the film here is really lovely, and continues a weird trend in animated film (along with Soul and Onward) focusing on the shortness of life, and the pain of grief (and of holding onto something that can't return).  Obviously all three of these movies would've been greenlit prior to 2020, but man if that didn't end up being weird timing for a year where we realized the preciousness of time & loved ones.

The animation in the film is great, a wonderful blend of green, yellow, and pink (all meant to recall the vibrant imagery of mooncakes), though I will admit that occasionally it feels a bit too psychedelic for my tastes (and what was with with the hyper-realistic space dog?).  The movie is a musical, and the score is also filled with some humdingers (even if, again, the blending of multiple genres doesn't work for me); "Rocket to the Moon" was submitted but rejected for an Oscar nomination, and that's a damned shame as it's dynamite & is showing a bit of the music branch's prejudice against animated films from certain studios (you cannot tell me that if Onward or Soul had had a song this soaring that they wouldn't have gotten a nomination).

The movie is too long, and doesn't quite underline the brother-sister dynamic well enough for my tastes (considering the length, it might've been worth cutting one of the meandering gags on the moon to ground the relationship between Fei Fei & Chin a bit more on earth), but this is interesting considering Netflix's clear desire to get into the world of animation.  Over the Moon is nothing like Klaus from last year, as the former is sentimental & full of hope, the latter quite cynical (even if it has a the mandatory happy ending).  If they're headed in a direction, I'm curious which they pick-Over the Moon has some growing pains but is clearly trying to get onto Disney's playground, whereas Klaus was meant to be a counterweight to a Fox or Dreamworks.  We'll find out in the coming years which brand Netflix favors.