‘Abominable’ takes kids on delightful adventure

MOVIE REVIEW

“ABOMINABLE”

Rated PG. At AMC Loews Boston Common and South Bay Center, Regal Fenway Stadium and suburban theaters.

Grade: B+

The Chinese-American animated “Abominable” is a splendid, scenic fantasy in which a magical, mystical Yeti — the legendary Abominable Snowman — arrives to change a teenager’s life.

Shanghai teen Yi (Chloe Bennet) hasn’t adjusted to her dad’s death and has fashioned a whirlwind of a life with school and odd jobs that leave her mother and grandmother puzzled and cut off.

When this very large, blue-eyed, immaculately white furry animal is discovered on her roof, Yi hides him, feeds him grandma’s pork rolls and is soon, literally, carried away, over rooftops and the tallest buildings as they’re chased by a black-suited squad bent on recapturing the big guy.

Yi names him Everest because she’s intuited that that is where he wants to go, to the highest peak in the distant Himalayas.

They’re joined by her childhood friend Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor), who has become the coolest hot guy in high school, and his energized younger cousin Peng (Albert Tsai) as they impulsively hop on a tanker.

Everywhere they go, including the Gobi Desert, the odd quartet is pursued by the elderly tycoon Burnish (Eddie Izzard), an animal acquisition nut who wants that Yeti dead or alive, and his fearsome redheaded British aide Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson).

What makes “Abominable” is not that it’s gorgeously animated with spectacular Chinese vistas and wondrous, inexplicable events but that its human trio is so fully realized as complex kids.

Abominable too becomes an enigma with his amazing abilities to “meditate” and produce a bounty of blueberries that quickly grow into basketball size, making a mighty mess.

“Abominable” doesn’t do fart jokes or go for cheap laughs. It’s reverent toward the “hero’s journey” these children take and the many splendid sights along the way.

There’s a salute to the majesty of the heavens and nature, even a troupe of whooping snakes that get laughs.

While everyone speaks English, everything we see is in Chinese (including, of course, the local McDonald’s).

Bennet, who sounds older, maybe a bit like Emma Stone, is a smart choice to voice Ji, with her suggestion of a maternal presence with not just Everest the childlike Yeti, but her male cohorts.

Bennet, best known as Daisy ‘Skye’ in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” is ideal for the multiculturalism on display. The actress was born Chloe Wang in Chicago to a Chinese father and white mother.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2n3E0ti