{"id":9977,"date":"2024-12-11T17:36:29","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9977"},"modified":"2024-12-11T17:36:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:36:29","slug":"abominable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/11\/abominable\/","title":{"rendered":"Abominable"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Abominable <\/strong>(2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some action, mild rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jill Culton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jill Culton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Edward Crawford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 27, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chloe Bennet, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Joseph Izzo, Michelle Wong.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $60.8M (US)\/$188.7M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u201cYeti phone home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0I kept waiting for somebody to utter the preceding phrase as I watched Abominable<\/strong>, an enjoyable if derivative computer-animated comedy-adventure in which three teens from Shanghai help a magical creature return home to his family. It\u2019s hardly surprising that the storyline is nothing new. It\u2019s like somebody took the script for E.T., set it to computer-animation and sprinkled it with elements of Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and Smallfoot. The result is an entertaining little family movie that the kids will like a wee bit more than the adults that brought them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yi (Bennet, Agents of SHIELD) keeps herself very busy doing odd jobs- e.g. walking dogs, babysitting, dumping stinky trash, etc.- around her neighborhood. Always in a rush, she barely has time for her family, Mom (Wong) and Nai Nai (Chin, The Joy Luck Club). She\u2019s trying to raise enough money to take the cross-country trip her recently deceased father always planned on taking them. One night, she makes an amazing discovery on the roof of her building. There\u2019s a Yeti hiding there. He made his way there after breaking out of a facility where bad people were going to bad things to him. Realizing the danger her new friend is in, Yi vows to help him get back to his home, Mt. Everest (hence his name \u201cEverest\u201d). She\u2019s joined on her quest by hyperactive, basketball-loving Peng (Tsai, Coop and Cami Ask the World) and popular classmate Jin (Trainor, Liv and Maddie). Hot on their trail are the villains, rare animal collector Burnish (Izzard, Mystery Men) and his assistant, zoologist Dr. Zara (Paulson, Glass).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The kids\u2019 odyssey takes them across China to beautiful places. Anytime they get in a jam, Everest uses his magical powers to help. He can communicate with nature simply by humming deep and low. When he does, cool things happen. Giant blueberries suddenly grow. The kids ride on a big yellow wave of flowers. They also fly around on a giant dandelion. While not as awe-inspiring as other CA images I\u2019ve seen, some of the visuals in Abominable<\/strong> are very nice to look at.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may be wondering why I\u2019m not coming down hard on a kid\u2019s movie as disposable as Abominable<\/strong>. It doesn\u2019t really have any distinguishing characteristics. Although humorous at times, it\u2019s not as funny and clever as other CA titles. There aren\u2019t any BIG talents in it. It\u2019s forgettable really. At the same time, it\u2019s so sweet and simple that criticizing it too harshly seems unnecessarily mean. It\u2019s a movie as innocent as its titular creature. Sure, it takes a few shots at our consumerist, social media-obsessed teen culture with Jin\u2019s character, but it\u2019s never mean-spirited or cynical. Yes, there are a few scenes with the villains that might upset smaller viewers, but the cuteness factor trumps all of it. You can\u2019t help but like Everest, a kid looking to reunite with his parents.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The CGI animation in Abominable<\/strong> is particularly good. Colorful and vibrant, it really shines when Everest performs his magic. There\u2019s a scene of the nightly \u201clight show\u201d in Shanghai (at \u201cThe Bund\u201d) that looks especially cool. The voice talents, especially Izzard and Paulson, do a fine job. The thing that really stands out about Abominable<\/strong> for me is the story arc about Yi coping with her father\u2019s death. They bonded over music. She carries his old violin with her everywhere and will only play in private. This aspect of the movie never feels maudlin or extraneous. It\u2019s half of its emotional heart, the other part being Yi\u2019s bond with Everest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really don\u2019t know what else to say about Abominable<\/strong>. It\u2019s as good a CA movie as you can expect in September. It\u2019s also quite harmless. It\u2019s cute, amusing and engaging. Is it worth full admission price? No, it\u2019s not. It is, however, ideal for a matinee showing. It\u2019s good but not epic. It should tide the kiddies over until Frozen II opens in November.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abominable (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some action, mild rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jill Culton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jill Culton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Edward Crawford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 27, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chloe Bennet, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Joseph Izzo, Michelle Wong.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $60.8M (US)\/$188.7M (World) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Abominable-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9977"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10339,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977\/revisions\/10339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}