The Monkey King will be voiced by several well-known cast members, including Jimmy O. Yang, Stephanie Hsu, and Bowen Yang. The film will be released on August 18, 2023.
While centuries-old classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Bram Stoker’s Dracula have been adapted for the big screen time and time again, there’s pressure to revive characters while still holding on to the classics.
Now, imagine diving into a story that dates back to the 16th century and that’s the pressure Anthony Stacchi, director of animated films, finds himself under. the monkey king what will come.
Speaking as quoted by Collider, Stacchi explained how he passionately brought the 500-year history to life and how he and the rest of the team stayed true to history while forging their own path.
A project near and dear to his heart, Stacchi said,
“I never want to forget how I felt when I first read Journey to the West – it’s 500 years old and it’s hilarious! The satire and exaggerated characters are surprisingly modern.”
He added that his favorite character is Mono and that he respects his “anti-authoritarian courage and mischievous attitude”, going so far as to say that the character “puts many of our wise and shameful modern anti-heroes to shame”. The monkeys are the real thing.”
“The next challenge was to create new stories and find ways to “introduce this ancient tall tale to audiences who had never seen it before, making it entertaining and understandable while retaining, as authentically as possible, the culturally unique characters, motivations, and motivations.” ”. and stories.” .”
In essence, Stacchi wants to make sure that the persona of the “monkey king, the rebellious, obnoxious and utterly selfish anti-hero” shines through.
And if you thought this was going to be another anti-hero story where the characters come out right at the end, Stacchi insists that it won’t.
“It’s important to everyone, especially Stephen Chow, that we don’t compromise Monkey’s personality with accepting Western ideas or any kind of traditional story structure where he learns from his mistakes and eventually becomes a superpowered good guy,” said.
He added that there would be a lot of new chapters mixed in with the centuries-old story, but that kind of character wouldn’t be one of them.
One of the new additions comes in a character named Lin. Voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Lin, “a young farm girl… who dreams of making it big in the world” will become the “perfect match for a superpowered monkey who accepts any challenge and always fights against demons, dragons or gods”. that stand in her way.”
Speaking about the “spiritual journey” audiences will witness during the Monkey King movie, the director said that while the original book consisted of 100 chapters, the movie will only have around seven, marking the character’s “first step” on his quest. to become an “enlightened being”.
Along the way, Stacchi teases that audiences can expect to see “an extravagant nightclub singing Dragons…the two most powerful Gods in the Jade Sky, the King of Hell, and the dozen or more bizarre demons they dealt with.” Fight Monkey”.
In addition to all these colorful showdowns, created by action-packed choreographer and Peking Opera actor Siwei Zou, Stacchi says he’s very excited for audiences to be immersed in the bond between Monkey and Lin.
“My favorite scene is the quiet and emotional moment at the end between Monkey and farm girl Lin,” he explained, adding, “In that moment, Lin embraced everything she had learned while traveling with Monkey and put her newfound feelings to work. proof”. work.
Empowerment to take control of your destiny and fulfill your dream of “writing your own scroll” and doing something great in your life.
With several highly anticipated animated titles coming out this year, Stacchi remains convinced that the monkey king it will survive on its own. To this she said,
“Many of the people involved in this story have long dreamed of doing a Monkey King story and have tried many studios and failed.
Usually the reasons are that the story is too complicated, the world is confusing for those who didn’t grow up knowing the story, there are too many religious overtones, Monkey doesn’t like it very much, etc.
Monkey King could only happen now if there was an openness to more diverse stories, a need for more content, and an awareness from the studio that doing the same old stories just wasn’t going to work anymore. We benefit from all those trends.
He says, ‘Everybody’s in love with Monkey.’ Each generation has its own monkey. Hopefully we have contributed to that great legacy.”
the monkey king He will be voiced by Jimmy O. Yang, Nan Li, Bowen Yang, Jo Koy, Ron Yuan, Hoon Lee, BD Wong, Andrew Kishino, Sophie Wu, Jodi Long, James Sie, Andrew Pang, Stephanie Hsu, and Kuno Inghram.
the monkey king will premiere on Netflix on August 18, 2023. Stay tuned for the latest news on this exciting animated film only on Cineverse.
