Sean Nishi

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It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a kid’s movie in theaters, so I forgot how bad these things can be. Let’s be clear: this movie is full of talented and noteworthy actors. And Timothy Chalemet. The boy tried too hard to be whimsical when the role should’ve gone to a comic actor instead. And he’s not much of a singer so the movie drowned his vocals in auto-tune. From the moment he opens his mouth to sing in the very first scene I realized this was a mistake. Thankfully I fell asleep during the entire second act so the whole thing went by a lot faster. It’s a typical origin story with lame jokes and generic dialogue. The supporting cast is pretty good and everyone gets to really “chew” the scenery (if you see what I did there then that’s sums up all the humor in the movie). One star for a Mighty Boosh reference. Another for Keegan Michael Key in a fat suit

As the title suggests it’s very easily digestible with fun (slightly offensive) cartoons about the Communist revolution in China. Therein lies the problem: It presents a very surface level depiction or Mao that borders on propaganda. The book glosses over his role in the famine and massive deaths that followed. The book portrays him as infallible. Read the book for a general idea of what was going on in China at the time. Just be aware that the author is clearly very biased in favor of Mao.