There's a moment in the new Ne Zha 2 trailer—right around when the sky splits open and some ancient chaos demon starts doing ancient chaos demon things—when I actually paused and muttered, “Oh no… they're serious.” Not because it looks bad. Quite the opposite. It looks good. Big. Bold. Like a kid's fever dream after too much Red Bull and a crash course in Taoist cosmology.
But here's the rub: it also looks like A24's rolling the dice on whether Western audiences still care about mythological animated epics—especially ones with this much lore, yelling, and Michelle Yeoh.
Let's break it down.
Wait, What Even Is This?
Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to China's 2019 smash hit Ne Zha, which made an absurd amount of money ($2.2 billion and counting, because China doesn't mess around when it comes to their mythic bad boys). It's based on the same ancient folklore that gave us immortal swordsmen, exploding lotuses, and parents who give birth to fire-wheeled gods.
This time around, the titular boy-god, Ne Zha—equal parts emo and explosive—is still dealing with being feared by the gods, misunderstood by mortals, and… just generally having the worst puberty of all time. Now there's a bigger threat—an “ancient force” that wants to destroy humanity. Because of course there is.
Yu Yang (aka Jiaozi), who directed the first Ne Zha, is back behind the brushstrokes, and the English dub cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Vincent Rodriguez III, Aleks Le, Damien Haas, and Crystal Lee. So yeah, they're not phoning it in.
A24's Move: Risky or Genius?
Here's what's wild. A24 is not exactly the first name you associate with animated martial-epic blockbusters. They're the indie darlings. The “elevated horror” crew. They made Hereditary, not How to Train Your Taoist Reincarnation Baby. So the fact that they're pushing an English dub of a very Chinese movie that already made its fortune abroad… it's interesting. Unexpected. Maybe even desperate?
And releasing it on August 22, 2025, is a smart-ish play. Late summer is a cinematic wasteland—everyone's fried, the big IPs are wrapping up, and folks might be curious enough to see something weird and wild. But it's also risky. If this doesn't land, it'll vanish. Quickly.
The Dub Dilemma
Let's be real. Dubs are tricky. You've got cultural nuance to juggle, mythic complexity to untangle, and lip flaps to match. The trailer actually does a decent job—the animation syncs surprisingly well with the English delivery, and Michelle Yeoh could read me an IKEA manual and I'd call it art.
But still. There's always that nagging sense that something's been… flattened. Polished down for export.
Like, will Western kids (or adults) care about Ne Zha's existential crisis when they could just rewatch Kung Fu Panda for the seventh time? Not sure.
What's the Hook?
Honestly? It's the scale. This thing looks huge. And not in that Marvel-predictable-CGI-fest way. In that “we're going to weaponize classical Chinese painting styles and hurtle you into emotional oblivion” kind of way.
The animation is lush. Fluid. Almost too pretty to follow at times. Fire spirals. Floating palaces. Cosmic dragons. It's overwhelming—in a good way.
And that's maybe what gives it a shot over here. It feels different. Messy. Alive.
Final Thought… Maybe?
Will it work in the States? No clue. But I respect the swing. A24's leaning into global storytelling at a time when Hollywood's own mythmaking machine is running on fumes.
And hey—if it fails? At least it failed trying something cool.
Ne Zha 2 (English Dub) hits U.S. theaters via A24 on August 22, 2025. The original version premiered in China back in January 2025, where it broke records and scorched retinas.
Want to see if divine destiny translates? Or are you sticking with subtitles?
