Review: ‘Over the Moon’
Over the Moon lacks the imagination it needs to deliver on an interesting premise
A quarter of the way through Over the Moon, a glowing rabbit paper lantern begins to click forward on an impossibly long track before its launch into space. Inside this huge lantern is a young girl named Fei Fei, and she needs, desperately, to get to the moon. This image is the most imaginative of the movie so far, finally a visual that matches the emotion of the moment. Then, the delicate paper rips off to reveal a metal-clad rocket underneath, dashing any dreams that Over the Moon could be a film that captures the wonder that can be created through the art of animation.
Over the Moon, the new children’s animated film on Netflix, has the makings of a charming story, but never reaches its full potential because of its empty visuals and unbalanced storyline. In many ways, the film is stunning (you can see the moon dust shift when characters walk), but it falls into the trap of so many other American animated films, relying on perfectly rendered hair and ripples in the water instead of good old-fashioned invention and imagination.
If a child could build a spaceship that makes it to space, why must it look like a rocket? If glowing lions can fly around the moon, why is everything else so bogged down in Earth physics (minus one bizarre ping pong battle)? If Lunaria is a world unlike anything Fei Fei has ever seen, why must it be so boring?
The story itself is somewhat sweet and could definitely be useful (always worth noting in films made for children), touching on grief and loss without any of the usual hemming or hawing. Fei Fei as the protagonist is well-written and realistically prickly. However, the central character and symbol of the legendary moon goddess Chang’e gets so lost in the loops of the maguffin-after-maguffin plot, that we never quite get to understand her importance to the story or to our protagonist.
Chang’e is a figure from Chinese folklore who lives on the moon (aka Lunaria), mourning her lost love with her companion Jade Rabbit (who disappointingly appears as a dyed green rabbit, and not the living jade he could be). In Over the Moon, Chang’e is also accompanied by animated mooncake figures and plenty of glowing multicolored blobs who sometimes have personalities and sometimes don’t. Almost everyone (or thing) on Lunaria feels like an empty promise, somewhat charming, but lacking any substance that would make them actually likeable.
Which comes to the crux of the problem– most of what happens on the moon doesn’t further or flesh out Fei Fei’s central struggle with her grief over the death of her mother. There’s a fun pop concert number, a tense ping pong battle, and a strange, shoed-in heteronormative romance between Bungee (Fei Fei’s pink rabbit pet) and Jade Rabbit, but most of what’s important takes only a small fraction of the overall screen time.
Yes, Fei Fei meets people on her journey, but their help and emotional link to Fei Fei feels spurious at best. The only relationship that seems to hold any actual emotional weight is with Fei Fei’s little brother figure, Chin. Chin is a bright spot in the film, silly, loyal, and wholly unpredictable. His relationship with Fei Fei feels thoroughly unique to this story and represents well the idea of forging new relationships after loss, a central theme to Over the Moon.
Overall, there are things to like when watching Over the Moon, and younger children will certainly be entertained. But in every scene, the better film that it could have been is so clearly apparent, that it is almost frustrating to watch as an adult. While it’s clear that this film is trying to say something, it lacks the imagination to deliver its message in thorough and captivating manner. And, of course, wouldn’t it have been wonderful to see a rabbit lantern fly to the moon? – Tiffany Babb
Over the Moon is currently streaming on Netflix.