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The Guardian Brothers

A Review and Commentary

By Spencer BarrettPublished 7 years ago 6 min read
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Yu Lei and Shen Tu

I wasn't sure what to make of The Guardian Brothers when I sat down and put it on. It's been nearly two years since it was released in China and it recently made its way to Netflix. I had no idea of the cast of voice actors that were going to be present until the opening credits began rolling. Names like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Mel Brooks, Dan Fogler, and a personal favorite, Mike Birbiglia.

The cast and the animation come together for an enjoyable little film. It's got some rather ridiculous parts, but overall it's a nice tale with some good morals and likable characters. Ahead, are going to be some spoilers.

Spoilers Ahead

This movie isn't without its flaws, and we'll get there soon enough, but let's start with a quick plot synopsis. In the Chinese Spirit World, the Spirits are facing "unemployment" issues since humans don't believe in Spirits anymore. One spirit comes up with a plan on how to fix everything.

Yu Lei and Shen Tu are Guardian Spirits who can move to the human realm to help others, as long as they hang posters of the Brothers on their door. As far as we can tell, only one family, that of a noodle shop, still does so.

The mayor of the Spirit Realm calls for a meeting of all the spirits. He seems to be doing some kind of "presidential" spin on their unemployment crisis, referring to it instead as a strike. He outs another spirit, Beckett, for entering the human realm and helping them, then he banishes him. They don't go into what banishment entails. He is last seen just slowly walking away, but not before he shows the brothers a painted wall of the Nian, an ancient shapeshifting beast that is sealed on earth.

Yu Lei decides that freeing the beast will make humans more reliant on spirits, and spirits will be in demand again. Yu Lei is given a magical leaf by Beckett that will guide the way to the three seals that must be destroyed.

Yu Lei leaves, Shen Tu does not follow him.

Remember that noodle shop? A little girl Luli is there with her mom. That night she was upset and ran off, some dogs started chasing her, and surprise, Yu Lei saves her with a Tron Discus of some kind, then gives it to Luli as a gift.

"Five minutes on Earth and I'm already helping people," Yu Lei says confidently to the little girl. (Now I'm gonna go release a demon, No Big Deal.)

The First Seal

Yu Lei goes Super Saiyan to fight a trapped fish

So Yu Lei finds the first seal. It's being guarded by another Spirit put there by the Mayor. His name is Collosus, but he's pretty irrelevant. He fakes a fight with Yu Lei, and quickly runs away. So Yu Lei opens up the lake and at the bottom is this pretty cool goldfish, trapped underneath some rocks. I'm not sure if this is a metaphor for anything, but Yu Lei hops down and frees it. It turns into a golden dragon, and sucks up all the water. The lake, the river, the town, and apparently some of Yu Lei's life. Right after, he looks like an old man.

So Shen Tu finally gets worried. He didn't want to break rules and such, but he's worried about his brother. He goes through the doorway and guess what? You guessed it. Luli is in trouble again, same dogs. Saved by both brothers now, Luli takes Shen Tu to the noodle shop where he helps out in light of the first plague; no water mo' problems.

The Second Seal

Another Spirit sucked away

Yu Lei comes to the second seal in a cherry blossom field, covered in snow. It's protected by another Spirit, appointed by the mayor of course. And it's Bloom. She's got kind of a soft spot for Yu Lei it seems, and more so pleads with him to stop his mission of freeing the Nian. She doesn't get through to him though as when they are resting together, breaks through the seal. The sky opens up and Bloom is sucked in. And that's the end of that. They don't talk about her any more. Yu Lei loses 20 more years or so, and moves on to the next seal.

Shen Tu has really helped turn things around at the shop, and I guess the last of Bloom's petals fly all the way to the town and make the 100 year old noodle soup taste amazing; more customers than ever show up.

Third Seal

Who the hell is this puppet master guy?

So way out in the middle of nowhere is this small shrine or dojo looking place. Even out in the rolling fields, there are still some unused highways in the background. Yu Lei shows up and an ominous man they only refer to as the puppet master who tells Yu Lei that the Nian chose him from the very beginning. Yu Lei goes into a rage, destroying all these statues of him and his brother, stopping halfway through destroying the seal. And he lets go of his sword, not breaking the seal.

Shen Tu bursts in with Luli on his back. Admitting his faults about not wanting to break rules to help humans; he now loves to help humans as it was his calling all along. Yu Lei admits maybe trying to free the Nian wasn't a good idea.

They begin to leave, and Shen Tu retrieves Yu Lei's sword. The seal breaks, and the Nian is freed.

I think the puppet master dies at this point.

The Resolution

So the Nian is free, both in heaven and on earth, amen. I mean, in the Spirit World. The Guardian Brothers live on this cliff with a big old tree. Turns out the tree is the Nian. On earth it's a great big dust monster that is scared of fireworks for whatever reason. So the Brothers unite and defeat the Nian then open up a Food Shop of their own in the Spirit world. More humans believe in them, but they still aren't needed as much as they were in years past.

They end it there. They don't talk anymore about the political aspect of the mayor and the strike. The Brothers aren't punished for their "illegal" activities. They don't talk about Bloom, or the puppet master. I know it was aimed towards a younger audience and so they glossed over some of the moral themes, but admitting your faults, being open to change, learning from your mistakes came through pretty strongly. I would have appreciated a bit more of the loose ends being tied up, but overall it was highly enjoyable with some good animation.

7/10

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About the Creator

Spencer Barrett

A 32 year old Fine Arts graduate with a career in hospitality, Spencer is a published Author, Poet, and artist; Streamer, GameDev, and creator in many mediums, with a guilty spot for animated cinematic movies.

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