Review: The Magic Gourd 宝葫芦的秘密

Disney's answer to the Chinese market, albeit simplified.

In the US of A, The Magic Gourd, a collaboration between Disney and Centro Digital Pictures Ltd would be something direct-to-video. In its simplicity, its a simple story of a rather imaginative boy who's lazy in schoolwork. His life changes when he accidentally "fishes" a magic gourd who can help the boy to accomplish whatever he wants. The problem is, our Magic Gourd will do exactly as told, putting the boy in a lot of hilarious and embarrassing situation. And so the boy learns that there's no shortcut in life and he has to work his way if he was to become the person he imagines to be.

The story is straightforward and predictable, coming from a tried and true Disney formula. Its pacing is something like The Bridge to Terabithia, but it doesn't deliver the magic of the former. Maybe this works better at delivering the message to kids (it could be too that i haven't seen simple movies for quite some time). The captivating moments come from Lau Ching Wan's voice acting as the wacky Magic Gourd. His mature deep voice contradicts with the timid Gourd but Lau was flawless in his delivery of quirky lines, sometimes filled with a bit of sarcasm.

The Magic Gourd reminds me a lot of the relationship between Nobita and Doraemon, and i could only guess if the writers got a bit of idea from them too. But unlike Doraemon, The Magic Gourd lacks depth in characters as both the boy and his gourd seems detached at times. Anyhow, we see Doraemon hundreds of times so i guess its no fair comparison. So at the end, Disney's first Chinese foray was a regular simple one. Maybe they wasn't going to risk anything for the potential millions of viewers, a lot of them were already fans of the world's most beloved mouse.

no-fark!