* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Ann Wilson's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zdBwd1LAzI Best Man in The World]]", with music composed by Music/JohnBarry. There's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFxMJppOJ0g an instrumental version]] online conducted by Barry in his signature style.
** Along with "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVaJLgum-Ac Wisdom of the Ages]]" and the adaptation of "Puttin' On The Ritz" for the dancing tin can scene, the song was one of the few Barry pieces to actually remain in the film; Barry's original score was almost completely thrown out when [[ExecutiveMeddling it was decided]] that as an Eddie Murphy movie, it called for more Eddie Murphy-esque music. Thus Michel Colombier did a funkier score.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The dancing Pepsi can scene. While back in the day it can be considered SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome, by modern standards the scene is extremely jarring and comes out of nowhere.
* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Sardo Numspa]] is an EvilSorcerer who seeks to murder the titular "Golden Child" to [[HellOnEarth allow the hordes of Hell to overrun the Earth]]. Attacking a Tibetan monastery with his men, Numspa has the monks slaughtered and is revealed to have even ordered the [[WouldHurtAChild murder of children]] to get his hands on the Golden Child. Failing to get a dagger he needs for his plans from social worker [[TheChosenZero Chandler Jarrell]], Numspa has Chandler tortured and when he obtains the dagger, tries to have Chandler killed, murdering a young woman who tries to protect him.
%%* CultClassic
* HilariousInHindsight: Jarrel meets Kala, a HalfHumanHybrid whose ancestor was supposedly raped by a dragon. Creator/EddieMurphy later on stars in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' where he plays a Donkey that ends up in a loving relationship with a dragon that didn't quite start out consensually.
** And earlier played a dragon ''himself'' in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}''.
* MemeticMutation: The Creator/CharlesDance [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/614/729/e62.gif clapping gif with the "Applause" sign above his head]] comes from this film's dream scene.
** "I said I-I-I-I-I-I-I want the kniiiiiiiiiife..."
* SignatureScene: Bring up ''The Golden Child'' to someone, and the first reference point will certainly be "I-I-I-I-I want the knife".
* ToughActToFollow: For all intents the movie was a success, with a domestic total of $79 million on $25 million. Yet distributor Paramount treated it as a BoxOfficeBomb for not being a smash hit like Eddie Murphy's previous movie for them, ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'' (not helping was how studio bosses Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg left to Walt Disney Productions). Murphy himself, while showing CreatorBacklash, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20180712154245/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/eddie-murphy-call-him-money-82359/ highlighted]] [[PresumedFlop it was not a flop even if treated as such]] - "My pictures make their money back. No matter how I feel, for instance, about ''The Golden Child'' – which was a piece of shit – the movie made more than $100 million. So who am I to say it sucks?"
* SpecialEffectFailure: The StopMotion animation used for Numspa's [[OneWingedAngel demon form]] is really jarringly bad, which is atypical given that the effects were done by Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic.
** That there was a ''much'' better sequence with an animated Pepsi can dancing earlier in the film makes the terrible demon effects stand out even more.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The dancing Pepsi can.
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