I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
In an unnamed Chinese city, a teenaged girl, Yi (the voice of Chloe Bennet, who is Chinese-American, yay!), discovers a yeti hiding on the rooftop of her apartment building. The creature, an escapee from a government research lab, is more cuddly than fearsome — more the love child of Sesame Street’s Snuffleupagus and Monsters, Inc.’s Sulley than an abominable anything — and Yi resolves to take the monster safely home to *checks notes* Mount Everest.
Okay, then.
Even grading on the curve of children’s animated adventure fantasies, Abominable isn’t overly concerned with plausibilty even within its own context. I mean, either Everest is so remote and inaccessible that the existence of its indigenous animals is pretty protected, or a woefully unequipped teenage can just stroll up there. Difficult to have it both ways.
There are charms to this DreamWorks film, from writer and director (with Todd Wilderman) Jill Culton, her second feature after 2006’s unexpectedly delightful Open Season. It’s great to see a nonwhite female protagonist, especially one as full of a spirit of adventure as Yi, and a nonwestern setting; the Chinese landscapes that Yi and her kid neighbors Peng (the voice of Albert Tsai) and Jin (the voice of Tenzing Norgay Trainor) travel through with the yeti are gorgeously rendered. There are gentle lessons to be learned about grief and family — Yi’s father has died, and she’s very sad — that are handled with poignant tenderness. And the yeti himself, whom Yi dubs Everest (whose nonlanguage verbalizations are provided by Joseph Izzo: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) is genuinely cute.
Yet the plot is basically aping that of E.T., with Nai Nai’s (the voice of Tsai Chin: Now You See Me 2) delicious bao standing in for Reese’s Pieces, and scientist Dr. Zara (the voice of Sarah Paulson: Glass) after the yeti for reasons that may or may not be nefarious, but which will certainly keep Everest from returning home to his family. And the film strives so much for wonder that it becomes a crutch, a convenience that never feels organic: the yeti can do literal magic, harnessing the power of the natural world when useful by the story, or for a bit of kiddie-style humor. (A sequence featuring blueberries made enormous by Everest’s power recalls Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but it’s nothing but a sidebar.)
When the movie was over at my packed-with-kids weekend-morning screening, a little boy behind me of perhaps five or six announced loudly and with great delight: “That’s the best movie I’ve ever seen!” I didn’t doubt his sincerity, only his film-watcher’s tally. He was probably the best audience for a movie like Abominable: it’s amiable enough, but it doesn’t strenuously attempt to overcome its familiarity.
Given some of the events going on in real-life China right now — not to mention China’s own not-exactly-progressive history with Tibet, the country most identified with yetis — it can be argued that almost any movie — even an animated one — set in modern-day China that doesn’t mention such actions is likely to come across as a snow job.
Tibet is not portrayed in the movie at all. They go from the city (it’s not named, but I think it’s supposed to be Shanghai) to Mount Everest, but they somehow don’t pass through anything that even vaguely resembles Tibet.
I found it questionable. But in fairness, the geography in this movie is really wack all around.
I’m not sure if this counts as a spoiler, but basically, I like to imagine if a Chinese film company made a movie about Bigfoot. So they start off in New York City and they’re trying to take Bigfoot back to the Pacific Northwest. They do so mostly on foot, and on the way, they see monuments like Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, and the Grand Canyon. They eat twice the whole time, and they tell their parents that they are in Boston looking at colleges for the weekend and this excuse holds up, so this whole trip appears to take no more than three days.
That’s pretty much what this movie is.
Realistic geography is definitely not a thing here. But what we do see looks very pretty.
In case anyone hasn’t seen this yet: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/asia/abominable-vietnam-china-map.html
That’s not why I called it a snow job.
I know. I felt compelled to mention it anyway.