It's a New Year and the beginning of the first full year for Popcorn From Outer Space. Let's think of the last 19 movies as the 'Pilot' and this year the beginning of the first proper Season. Or something like that. And I'm kicking off 2021 with a movie that I've been curious about ever since I subbed to Disney+ about erm... 2 months ago: The Secret of the Magic Gourd, a 2007 live action fantasy film and the first film Disney produced for the mainland Chinese Market.
Raymond is a slightly lazy schoolboy who wishes he could just get everything the easy way, and one afternoon whilst fishing he accidentally snags a talking, magic gourd who announces that Raymond is now his master and his magic can grant Raymond everything and anything he wants... Which almost immediately goes wrong when Bailey, the Magic Gourd, mis-interprets what he is actually wishing for: making Raymond eat chess pieces, teleport into a movie and be chased by a giant dinosaur, and have every single toy in the toy shop amongst other things. Meanwhile as things go wrong and Raymond's school work suffers he finds himself accidentally becoming part of the school swim relay team, thanks to interference from Bailey. And after Raymond gets caught for cheating on his Maths test, again when a Magic Gourd wish goes wrong, sends Bailey away and focuses hard on training to win the swim race. After finishing in first and winning gold with his team Raymond learns that getting everything he wants without working for it isn't as rewarding as he thought and he can do it on his own if he works hard, and understanding that he can't help Raymond any more, Bailey the Magic Gourd and he part company.
This was a curious little film, in that I've never seen or heard anything about it until I subscribed to Disney+ and whilst browsing articles on Disney+ Sci-Fi films I read a slightly throwaway reference to it and it being the first (and I think only?) film produced in China attributed to Disney. The film was actually produced by Centro Digital Pictures (of Hong Kong), and after watching through the credits looks to be an entirely Chinese (or neighbouring countries) produced movie with Disney having some final oversight over Post Production. It's also worth mentioning that the entire movie production was supervised by the China Film Group Corporation, I don't doubt with a very close eye.
But anyway, without deep diving too much into the history of the film or Chinese politics... what did I actually think of the movie? Well first off, the version on Disney+ is an English dub, and I prefer to watch Foreign films with original audio and subtitles. I just don't like dubs. But not holding that against it, it was... ok. The acting for the best part, so far as I could tell after a varnished layer of dubbing, was fine. Peisi Chen, the boy who played Raymond was alright, the school kids were all convincing, there wasn't really any bad acting to be found here. The gourd though was a little weird looking... really big eyes like a fish, but I guess if he lives at the bottom of a lake, he would need to develop really big eyes, and served to mostly just goof around and be entertaining. A bit like the Genie from Aladdin. Or the Flubber from... Flubber. The animation, for 2007, was passable and not glaringly awful like, say, some other movie I've watched recently, but there were moments that could have maybe used a little bit more polish and attention.
The plot did a good job of developing the story, although the main purpose of Bailey, the Gourd, was basically to be mischievous and cause trouble and I expected there to be an underlying resolution that that was what he was doing all along to teach Raymond the meaning of working hard to reap the rewards, but it never sort of came, and he just sort of left... It's obvious that the writers intention was to tell that story: that trying to cheat will get you nowhere, or worse, and that was told through the storyline but the resolution just felt a bit off to me? There was also no real developing of the relationship between Raymond and his parents. Whether that was lost in translation or not, I don't know, but it felt to me like a key part of the story that just sort of took a back seat?
So this was an odd little film, and reminded me of something else, that throughout watching and throughout writing this review I just couldn't quite put my finger on... that having the power to have everything you want will ultimately backfire and blow up in your face and I'm sure it's a really obvious, and super famous movie but I just can't think of right now. Maybe it'll come to me... But ultimately it was an enjoyable if not slightly bizarre watch so long as you can handle it being an English dub, let down only by a slightly unsatisfying resolution to the story and slight lack of development. 3 out of 5.
