bEcause the unruly and unpredictable Monkey King, a sort of god with
great magic powers, has tricked the Dragon King out of his magic pillar,
he is brought to be tried by the Jade Emperor. The Emperor however figures
he can't just punish a being as powerful as the Monkey King the
old-fashioned way, so instead he lures him to heaven, to make him master
of the Heavenly Stables - and in no time at all, the Monkey King
has tamed all the heavenly horses and made the place his own - to no
delight to the minister of transportwho wants the Monkey King's obedience
...
Soon enough, the Monkey King and the minister of transport fall out
with each other, and the Monkey King returns to his realm and creates
havoc wherever he can. Plus, he proclaims himself Great Sage, the Equal
of Heaven, much to the dismay of the Gods, who challenge him one after
the other but are all defeated.
Eventually, the Jade Emperor and his court decide to lure the Monkey
King back to Heaven, and this time they make him master of the Heavenly
Peach Garden. This goes quite well for a while, untilthe Monkey King
finds out his peaches are to be delivered to a banquet where he is not
invited ... so he retaliates by devouring all of the banquet himself, then
he makes a visit to Laozi's house to steal all of the Emperor's long
life pills. Eventually, the Emperor sees himself forced to send his
strongest warrior Eran Sheng after him, who is even able to capture the
Monkey King, however, when Laozi tries to burn him in his oven, he is
tricked by the Monkey King, who this way escapes captivity once more and
has his vengeance on all those who have wronged him before returning to
his realm ...
Elegantly done and colourful animation film based on the legend of the Monkey
King, maybe a bit too traditional and not quite as excessive and
surreal as its source material would have allowed, but on the other hand
very well-crafted , fast-moving and pretty amusing. Sure, it's a tad
childish, but then it was made for children ...
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