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The Monkey King is a 2023 Chinese-American animated film, produced by Stephen Chow, animated by Pearl Studio and Reel FX Creative Studios, and distributed by Netflix, and based on Journey to the West. It stars Jimmy O. Yang as the titular character, and also features Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Bowen Yang, Ron Yuan, Jo Koy, Stephanie Hsu, B.D. Wong, Hoon Lee, Jodi Long and James Sie.

"One hundred tropes coming up!!"

  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Hearing her pleas to spare the Monkey King when he becomes out of control, Buddha allows Lin to merge with him in attempt to put a stop to the monkey's rampage by sealing him into the mountain after he failed to win her challenge.
  • Above the Gods: As in the novel Buddha is the one greater than all gods, demons, and immortals.
  • Adaptational Dumbass: The Jade Emperor in the original Journey to the West novel wasn't the best authority figure, being prone to ignoring critical troubles, misjudging the events happening and worsening a lot of situations he tried to handle, but he was still depicted as powerful, well-informed and active ruler. This movie amplified the Jade Emperor's ineffectiveness by making him fully and completely ignore anything related to Monkey, rather focusing on organizing parties and feasts in Heaven despite receiving official complaints and warnings from the Dragon King, Yama and Wangmu.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • The Dragon King is based on Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, from the original Journey to the West novel. In the original story, the Ao Guang is not an outright enemy of Sun Wukong, though he is deeply annoyed by him - rather, Sun Wukong keeps forcing him and bullying him into giving him gifts and helping him, even when it breaks the rules of the Celestial Bureaucracy he obeys to. Here, the Dragon King is hellbent on getting back Monkey King's magical staff and killing him for the personal insult of being somehow better than him. Similarly, in the original novel Ao Guang was not an Omnicidal Maniac like in the movie, where he wishes to flood the entire dry world and kill all "air-breathers". Rather, he was part of the bureaucracy of the Jade Emperor to the point he feared punishment each time Sun Wukong asked him to cause rain when he didn't receive any imperial order to do so.
    • Wangmu in this movie is depicted as a hateful, sadistic antagonist with a visceral hatred for Monkey. A far cry from the more peaceful and benevolent Queen Mother of the West of Chinese mythology.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: More of peach-induced than one caused by alcohol. After consuming a peach that makes Babbo drunk, he later licks off a bark from a peach tree, claiming that the bark in the darkest tree is the tastiest.
  • All Part of the Show: While Monkey King steals Stick for the first time, the Dragon King and his servants think that it is all part of one of his shows, not realizing that Stick is in the process of being taken from its base.
  • And Starring: B.D. Wong is given an "And Introducing" credit as Buddha in the credits.
  • Art Shift: The montage of Monkey King slaying the demons is animated in a traditionally-painted style compared to the CGI of the rest of the film.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
    • The Dragon King becomes a Kaiju after regaining control of Stick, as part of his plan to invade the surface.
    • After Monkey King gets struck by Wangmu's lightning, he grows into a larger size, taking this opportunity to defeat the Dragon King and the Immortal Ones.
  • Becoming the Mask: Initially, Lin's obsession toward the Monkey King is simply just a facade in order to steal his Stick for the Dragon King, who promised her to give her "rains" for her crops in exchange and she shown to be annoyed by the monkey's antics several times the longer she travel with him. However, upon learning his backstory and get to know him better, Lin is slowly soften up toward the Monkey King to the point of being reluctant on continuing her mission and even telling him that she's his fan for real before departing with him.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Monkey King got his immortality and Lin's people are saved, but Monkey King is trapped under a mountain for five hundred years and Lin is probably long dead by the time he gets out. At least they got to say goodbye.
  • Black Comedy: When Monkey King sees a soul rejected by Yama for carrying a live chicken in Hell, he kills the chicken off-screen, and said soul is accepted into the Pit of Infinite Agony.
  • Bragging Theme Tune: Monkey King's theme boasts about how great he is.
  • Brick Joke: The cuttlefish musician that gets eaten by the Dragon King early on later appears as a ghost in Hell, even saying his last words.
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor Jade Emperor, always getting struck by the Monkey King’s antics.
  • Body Motifs: Hands. The motif of the "pebble in one's hand" is a recurring metaphor both the elderly monkey and Monkey King use to disdain respectively Monkey King as a kid and Lin. Of course, It is all Foreshadowing the ending, with Buddha-merged-Lin's test and defeat of Monkey King. But even beyond that, hand motifs can be found everywhere in the movie. The mountain Monkey Kid is born on looks like it has five fingers, the crossroad the protagonists reach when looking for a graveyard is shaped like a hand, and whenever we see outer space, the stars and constellations are also forming hands.
  • Cats Love Laser Pointers: When When a young Monkey King, shoots his laser eyes in the heavens, it catches the attention of the Jade Emperor's cat.
  • Crapsack World: How Ancient China is depicted in this movie. The Immortals in Heaven are unconcerned with anything that happens on Earth, only focused on hosting lavish parties. The Dragon King who rules the seas is an Omnicidal Maniac who wishes to destroy all "dry-landers" and drown the world in the biggest storm ever seen. Humanity suffers from both demons and natural disasters (such as the drought in Lin's village) - and whenever they are "saved" or "helped", it is either by manipulative lying beings such as the Dragon King, or by a would-be-hero that causes much more damage than anything such as Monkey King.
  • Dark Reprise: After growing to giant size and defeating the Jade Emperor, Wangmu and Yama, Monkey King later sings his theme in a darker tone.
  • Demon Slayer: As the old monkey told him he’d have to fight a hundred demons to be recognized by the gods, to which he accepted the challenge. He defeated all sorts of demons, namely the Demon Bull King, the Scorpion demon, the White Bone Demon, and finishing off in 100, Red Girl.
  • Destructive Savior: During Monkey King's fight with Red Girl fireballs get thrown all over town and Lin has to organize a bucket brigade to save any of the buildings. Even then there is much destruction.
  • Empathic Weapon: Stick, who mostly follows Monkey King's orders.
  • Eye Beams: One of the Monkey King's powers, and the first one introduced, having used it right when he's born.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Upon gaining full immortality, Monkey King just happily gloats about it to Lin... until he realized how sad his situation is.
    Monkey King: My thirst for challenges will never ends. I'll never be satisfied! I'll never be fulfilled! (Beat) ...which when I said it out loud, sounds incredibly depressing.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: The Monkey King and Lin initially doesn't really get along with the former being dismissive toward her and the latter secretly plotting to take his Stick for the Dragon King despite claiming to be his fan and trying her best to be supportive. However, the two are slowly bonding over their similar issues of being a lonely people (which the former actively denies despite otherwise) to the point of unable to leave each other in a face of danger.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Rather Fire, Water, Lightning. The supernatural forces of this movie seem to be divided between fire-oriented beings (Red Girl, Yama), water-manipulating entities (the Dragon King) and celestial beings using lightning as their weapons (Wangmu).
  • Flying Weapon: Stick can move on its own and Monkey King can even fly on it like a witch broomstick.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Monkey King jumps off the Buddha’s hand and flew past the Gods, he soars by the Moon, and if paused, you can see the Moon Rabbit on the Moon.
  • Foil:
    • Lin and the Monkey King are explicitely designed as such, both being lonely people who were rejected or disdained by their community and family, and who try to do their best to make a difference in the world. But Lin is a rational, logical, intelligent human being, where the Monkey King is a rash, excentric and impulsive supernatural beast.
    • The Monkey King and the Dragon King are both selfish and destructive rulers with massive egos, a showman personality and the desire to flip the world upside-down to reach their goal. Both treat Lin as their assistant. The Dragon King's song also hints at his villainy coming from the experience of being rejected by others, similarly to the Monkey King himself. But one is a watery scheming planner who is purely motivated by hatred and disdain, whereas the other is an earthly being who doesn't think anything through and merely acts out of whims and pulsions. The line is even more blurred when, during the climax, the Monkey King defeats the Dragon King... only to take his place as the new Kaiju threatening to destroy the world.
  • Gender Flip: The demon Red Boy is here a demoness called Red Girl, though the movie plays with the audience's expectations by presenting at first a demonic-looking boy that turns out to be the human victim of Red Girl.
  • Hates Being Alone: Monkey King's motivation to be immortal, defeating demons, and moving in with the gods was all so that he wouldn’t be alone, as he was born this way from the stone egg he hatched from with no one like him around.
  • Immortality Inducer: Monkey King's quest after defeating 100 demons becomes seeking one after another. First he goes down to Hell to cross out his life scroll, but that only makes him The Ageless. So he goes looking for a sacred peach grove, which turns out to be a trick by the Dragon King. And after that he breaks into Wangmu's house to steal her elixir of immortality.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: Stick communicates by glowing and making grinding sounds that Monkey King can somehow understand as speech.
  • Key Under the Doormat: Subverted, Monkey King finds a key under a statuette on Wangmu's front porch, and uses the statue to break a window.
  • Me's a Crowd: Yama and the Monkey King can create clones of themselves out of thin air, as seen in their fight on Hell.
  • Metaphoric Metamorphosis: During the climax of the movie, the Dragon King becomes a giant, bloated version of himself by gorging with sea-water until he has the Toon Physics of a water balloon. This symbolizes his own inflated, bloated, excessive ego and self-image, that Monkey ends up literaly bursting. And in return, the fact that the Monkey King gains the same glowing eye and an even bigger size than the Dragon King reveals that he is even more dangerous and destructive than him.
  • Mighty Roar: Monkey King unleashes a ferocious roar after his fight with the Dragon King.
  • A Minor Kidroduction: The Monkey King is introduced as a baby monkey that hatches from a rock atop a mountain, being treated as an outcast by a family of monkeys.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Wangmu might look like an old lady, but she is still the only one of Monkey King's many enemies that almost manages to kill him for good.
  • Not His Sled: Buddha stops Monkey before he pees on his fingers, as he does in the book.
  • On Patrol Montage: Once the elder of the monkeys tells him he has to defeat 100 demons to be noticed by the gods, and defeat he does with an Art Shifted scene.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: This version of the Monkey King has a habit to show glowing demonic red eyes whenever he feel really pumped or sufficiently angered, which is especially prominent when he becomes the next Kaiju after the Dragon King.
  • Primate Versus Reptile: The Monkey King and the Dragon King clash over for the Stick This even becomes more of an epic battle when they both become Large Monsters, or Kaiju at the Final Battle.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: This is how the Dragon King mostly talks, including his Villain Song.
  • Sequel Hook: After being imprisoned for 500 years in a rock created by the Buddha, Monkey King is found by a monk, a pig, and a river spirit, who invite Monkey King to a "Journey to the West".
  • Shout-Out:
    • During Monkey King's fight with Yama, he shouts out "Shaolin Soccer!" while kicking a pot, another film that that producer Stephen Chow directed and starred in.
    • The character of the Mayor's Wife seems to be a reference to the Landlady of Kung Fu Hustle, yet another Stephen Chow product.
  • Tail Slap: Monkey King uses his tail to smack Red Girl's face while on mid-air riding Stick.
  • Toon Physics: During the climax of the movie, the Dragon King becomes a giant version of himself by gorging his body with sea-water. This, however, backfires on him when Monkey understands that the Dragon King turned himself into an enormous water balloon, and he defeats him by twisting his limbs and body like a balloon animal before making him "explode" with one hit of Stick.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Dragon King can't stay on his own on dry land for too long, and has to be carried around in a tub, because as a sea-being he dries out when he is exposed to low humidity. And it isn't pretty, with him losing his colors, his scales, his voice, all the while itching terribly. Later, during the climax while he solves this problem by gorging his body on sea-water like a sponge, this results in him obtaining the Toon Physics of a water balloon, and Monkey can easily defeat him by merely twisting him like a balloon animal and making him explode.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: After Monkey gets his full immortality, he begins to realize what comes next is sort of depressing.

 
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Monkey vs Dragon

This is the final battle with Monkey King and the Dragon King, with both of them kaiju-sized.

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