CHINESE GHOST STORY: THE ANIMATION
Chinese animation, or at least what small amount is available for sampling, has proven to be high on imagination and somewhat rudimentary in execution. Actually, OK. I’m no Chinese animation expert. Before seeing A Chinese Ghost Story: The Animation, my only exposure to an animated Hong Kong movie was the same as pretty much every other American Hong Kong movie fan’s exposure: Bruce Lee and the Chinese Gods. But heck, what that movie lacked in terms of accomplished animation it more than made up for with sheer weirdness. I mean, there you were with Chinese deities ripping around ancient China on motorcycles made of clouds. People were getting burned alive, and then Bruce Lee shows up with a third eye, makes weird noises, and battles all sorts of multi-headed demons and dragons. Indeed the quality of animation was on par with those “Stories from The Bible” shows, but maybe if those had been less about Jesus helping people and more about Jesus battling a saucy fox spirit, we would have overlooked the shoddy animation in those as easily as we overlook it in Chinese Gods. Hell, it’s not as if The Bible doesn’t have enough weird stuff in it. I’d pay good money for animated feature film of the Book of Revelations.