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Dropped quickly and unceremoniously onto Netflix around 2016, The Guardian Brothers, or Little Door Gods as it’s known in China, is a film that takes place in two worlds: The real world, where all us boring humans live, and the Spirit World, home of the Guardians. Guardians are exactly what it says on the tin, spirits whose purpose in life is to help humans. Trouble is, times have changed and humans no longer care about spirits. In retaliation, the spirits have decided to go on strike, even going so far as to start demolishing the portals that lead to the human world. Work stoppages are far more effective when the other party knows you exist, however, so it seems the spirit world is en route to a slow and undignified demise.
In this middle of all this are the Guardian Brothers, headstrong Yu Lei and easygoing Shen Tu, divided on the issue of helping humans. The issue comes to a head when the brothers discover the existence of a horrific creature known as the Nian, which terrorized both worlds until the combined forces of spirits and humans were able to seal it away. Believing that the return of a mutual enemy is what will reunite humans and spirits, Yu Lei sets off to the real world in order to locate and break the seals containing the Nian. It is while on Earth that he meets a young girl named Rain, whose mother has inherited an old soup shop, and whose will turn out to be far more important to his quest than she might seem.
Not much to say about the art style and animation, if you’ve seen any kids movie since the switch from hand-drawn to CGI then you’re getting the same here, but I’d say the biggest difference between The Guardian Bros. and your average Disney release is in how it tells the story. The chief antagonist of the film for example, the Nian, is far less of an active presence that Jafar or Hades are in their respective films, serving more as the end result of Yu Lei’s stubbornness and reckless actions than an actual villainous character. The secondary antagonist, the comically greedy businessman Rogman, is by contrast more active, but his actual relevance to the plot also feels negligible. In his moment of greatest influence on the story, his scheme is thwarted a scene or two later and he is immediately punished for his actions. They are antagonists in the most basic of terms, obstacles that the protagonists overcome on their journey. Fancy roadblocks, essentially.
The role of Rain in the movie is also a very noticeable shift in storytelling. In similar films, Rain would likely be the focus of the film; the story would revolve around her, somehow she’d probably get into spirit world which would lead to generic shenanigans, and in the end she’d be best friends with all the Guardians. Not the case with The Guardian Brothers. While she is an important character and integral to the plot, she’s also a little girl and and her position in the story reflects that. She’s not fighting monsters, she’s helping her mom run a soup shop and worrying about not having friends, and happens to meet a couple of magical beings along the way. I’ve often said that child actors can either make or break a movie, and that belief goes for animated films as well. To have a movie where a child isn’t pushed into being some sort of overdone saviour of mankind role but also isn’t a burden on the competent characters, similarly, is like getting a homerun off of a bunt. Quite refreshing.
What isn’t as refreshing however, is the voice acting. While at first glance the cast list seems to be cavalcade of stars, Nicole Kidman, Ed Norton, Mel Brooks, right away you realize why voice acting is even a thing. It just sounds so bad so quickly is the thing, that minutes after I heard Bella Thorne’s obviously adult woman voice come out of couldn’t-be-older-than-eleven Rain that I just had to switch it to another dub entirely. French seemed to work out okay, although as a former anime loving loser I would have preferred to have English subtitles with the original Chinese. If only to see the changes, if any, in the voice direction across the international versions.
The use of music is also not very inspired, in my opinion. Their soundtrack consists of what feels like 4 songs, two of which (‘Celebration’ by Kool & The Gang and ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas) are re-used in other scenes. I can understand why they felt the need to throw in popular music, and I know licensing music is an expensive pain the ass, but much like Bella Thorne it just sounds awkward. It probably would have been better off sticking with an original score, maybe rounding things out with some local talent. It maybe not snag those international points, but at least it wouldn’t feel as weird as watching a Chinese movie that plays ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ without batting an eye.
Although likely not as high action as you’re used to in your kids movies, The Guardian Brothers’ almost magic-realist take on old folklore still manages to entertain in less than 90 minutes. Recommended, especially for those looking for some family-friendly films this Halloween. And if you’re a parent in a country that primarily speaks English, you might want to do so with a glass or two of hard cider. Makes the viewing experience a lot easier.
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