Over the Moon (2020 film)

A girl named Fei Fei is being told the legend of the Moon goddess Chang'e who took a potion for immortality, causing her to become a goddess and ascend to the Moon without her lover Houyi, and awaits for him there. In preparation for the annual Moon Festival, Fei Fei and her family make mooncakes for the village. However, Fei Fei's mother falls ill, and gifts her daughter a bunny named Bungee, before passing away.

Fei Fei, who still believes in Chang'e four years later, is upset when she learns that her father is engaged to Ms. Zhong, and is annoyed by her son, Chin. Fei Fei's family joins them for the Moon Festival celebration, but during their meal Fei Fei realizes that her father no longer believes in Chang’e as her family dismisses the goddess’s existence. Upset, she runs away to the lake she used to go to with her family and remembers her mother. Inspired by a crane and the legend of Chang'e, she decides to build a rocket to the Moon to prove that Chang'e is real. She designs a rocket that resembles a Chinese paper lantern in the shape of a rabbit that uses fireworks to boost her speed. Her rocket almost succeeds until she realizes that Chin snuck aboard her rocket and they begin to crash to Earth. Suddenly, the rocket is captured in a mystical beam of energy and taken to the Moon. They crash land after being beset by playful spirits, who then rescue them and take them to Lunaria, a kingdom composed entirely of light on the dark side of the moon and Chang’e’s home.

They are introduced to Chang'e and her backup dancers, the Lunettes. Chang'e tells Fei Fei that she was supposed to deliver a gift for Chang'e to bring Houyi back. Fei Fei takes a photo with Chang'e to prove she is real, but Chang'e takes the photo from Fei Fei and demands the gift. Fei Fei doesn't know what she is talking about, and a frustrated Chang'e announces a competition to find her gift before the last of the moondust falls. Fei Fei gets upset with Chin and leaves him, getting a ride with the Lunarian Biker Chicks to the crash site. Chin sees some Lunettes with the photo and is captured by Chang'e who demands the location of the gift. Chang'e challenges Chin to a game of ping pong that Chin wins, where he chides Chang’e on her past selfishness of taking the potion for herself which caused her separation from Houyi in the first place, further upsetting Chang'e. In retaliation, she traps Chin in a chamber and refuses to give him the photo. Chang'e then cries in despair that she will never see Houyi again, causing a meteor show with her emotions. After Chin’s imprisonment, Bungee escapes and follows the Jade Rabbit into his workplace where they both fall in love with each other.

Meanwhile, Fei Fei and the Biker Chicks dodge the falling meteorites and head to her rocket's crash site, where Fei Fei meets an exiled Lunarian named Gobi. She discovers her Chang'e doll, which she suspects to be the gift, but the Biker Chicks grab the doll and leave Fei Fei and Gobi behind. Fei Fei and Gobi head to Lunaria on the backs of giant toads, where Gobi reveals that Chang'e exiled him due to a song he sang to her about moving on from Houyi. Fei Fei and Gobi catch up to the Biker Chicks, but during their scuffle, the doll is destroyed. However, Fei Fei discovers in one of her mooncakes a broken half of an open jade circle and realizes that it is Chang'e's gift. They return to Lunaria's palace, rejoin Chin and Bungee, and present the gift to Chang'e, who makes a full jade circle. Chang'e and Houyi are then briefly reunited, but Houyi explains that he cannot stay and tells Chang'e to move on before fading away. Refusing to accept this, Chang'e slips into a state of depression, causing all the light in Lunaria to extinguish.

Fei Fei tries to reach out to Chang'e, but the moment she enters Chang'e's state of sadness, she also becomes depressed due to witnessing a vision of her mother’s death, in which Fei Fei realizes she never accepted losing her mother. Realizing that they both must move on from their tragedies, Chang'e and Fei Fei encourage each other to find the love all around them, for Chang’e in the form of the Lunarians and Fei Fei in the form of Chin. This allows the two to accept their loved ones' deaths, restoring life to Lunaria.

Chang'e thanks Fei Fei and allows her and Chin passage back home—excluding Bungee, who stays on the Moon with Jade Rabbit—and lifts Gobi's banishment. Fei Fei and Chin bid farewell to the Lunarians and return home, where Fei Fei accepts her father and Mrs. Zhong's marriage and Chin as her brother. About a year later, Fei Fei is living happily with her new family and continues to look up at the Moon, watching as cranes fly up towards it in the night.

• Cathy Ang as Fei Fei, the 14-year-old girl who believes in Chang'e ever since the loss of her mother.
• Robert G. Chiu as Chin, Mrs. Zhong's 8-year-old son and Fei Fei's stepbrother.
• Phillipa Soo as Chang'e, the mythical Moon goddess who yearns to be with her true love Houyi again. The outfits worn by Chang'e in the film were designed and created by haute couture Chinese designer Guo Pei.[6]
• Ken Jeong as Gobi, a pangolin Lunarian and former royal advisor who was exiled a thousand years ago.
• John Cho as Ba Ba, Fei Fei's father.
• Ruthie Ann Miles as Ma Ma, Fei Fei's late mother.
• Sandra Oh as Mrs. Zhong, Ba Ba's new fiancée and Fei Fei's stepmother.
• Margaret Cho as Auntie Ling, one of Fei Fei's aunts.
• Kimiko Glenn as Auntie Mei, another one of Fei Fei's aunts.

The score was composed by Steven Price. Original songs were written by Christopher Curtis, Marjorie Duffield and Helen Park.[7]

On September 26, 2017, Pearl Studio hired Audrey Wells to write the script for the film called Over the Moon, which was based on an idea by Janet Yang about a retelling of the classic Chinese myth.[11][12] On February 6, 2018, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film and Glen Keane was set to direct.[13] However, during this, Audrey Wells died in 2018. The film was dedicated in Audrey Wells' memory.

While studios like Disney and Pixar have become known to use groups of people known as the Braintrust and Story Trust to help with the script, Keane said that "Creative decisions here aren’t made by committee".[14]

The city of Lunaria was inspired by the cover of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon and the paintings of Joan Miró.[15]

Animation was provided by Pearl Studio and Sony Pictures Imageworks.[16]

Steven Price is confirmed to be the film's composer while new original songs are being handled by Christopher Curtis (from Chaplin: The Musical), Marjorie Duffield and Helen Park (from KPOP the Musical).[17]

The cast was announced in June 2020.[18]

The film was released in select theaters[3] and on Netflix on October 23, 2020.[4] Prior to its October 23 debut, Over the Moon was shown at the Montclair Film Festival on October 17.[2] A day before its release, a book written by animation historian Leonard Maltin about the history about the film called Over the Moon: Illuminating the Journey, was released on October 22.[19]

According to Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 94 critic reviews are positive for Over the Moon, and the average rating is 6.90/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Although many of Over the Moon's narrative ingredients will seem familiar, the film's absorbing animation offers colorful compensation."[20] According to Metacritic, which compiled 22 reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews".[21]

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "Sometimes it's OK for an adventure to be just an adventure, and this one gets in the way of its own assets, while pointing to the potential of future journeys from the Netflix animation team."[22]

• Over the Moon on Netflix
• Over the Moon at IMDb