Ne Zha II: Hands in His Pants, He’s Here to Save the World

In 2025’s record-breaking animated epic Ne Zha II, the direct sequel to Ne Zha (2019), writer/director Yu Yang 杨宇 (credited as Jiaozi 饺子) presents loud, bright, unbelievable artistic direction with a crew three times that of its predecessor, giving intricate visual details to every element on the screen–from first birth via pink, gelatinous goo, to an exhilarating final animalistic good vs evil vs even-more-evil battle appearing lifted out of a painting (when the power of fire is used, so many different hues of red and orange blaze as if actually lit by Nezha the fire prince himself), audiences can feel breathtaking and incredibly thermal choreographed action sequences rising from the screen. According to Deadline’s early quarter report, Ne Zha II became the first time a non-American, non-English-language animated film has taken the spot of highest-grossing animated film of all time, and continues to do so, from Box Office Mojo’s rank summaries.

The titular Nezha is a fire demon seen as a deity amongst the high ranks in Buddhist and Taoist legend, appearing as a small, rude, unruly child under the watchful eye of his army general parents (A24’s English dub welcomes Michelle Yeoh as his mother Lady Yin), as they teach him to combine his strength and physical form with his enemy-turned-ally Ao Bing’s sea conjuring powers to take down Master Shen Gongbao, who is set to destroy Nezha’s home village and the world in his orders to bring chaos to millions by the vengeful Ao Guang, the dragon king of the sea and Ao Bing’s father. This rift creates a familiar strain between parent and offspring that audiences can connect with: If the black sheep child of the family can’t live up to the expectations placed for them, then they ultimately will fail. This pushes Nezha and Ao Bing to go further and harder, climbing up the ranks of the Twelve Deities so that they may harness their full power and create their own paths.

Jiaozi uses a unique writing technique here to present lessons learned from 17th century legends with a modern twist. This helps audiences feel more connected to Nezha’s internal struggle for acceptance as a demon amongst gods, and for Ao Bing and Ao Guang to achieve a semblance of peace through the heartwrenching idea that past choices of the parents can negatively affect those who follow in their footsteps. Ultimately, destruction does come in ashes and waves of sorrow in a sequence so dark and mirrored to actual human destruction, thus further fueling the rage that Nezha must control in order to find the balance between fire demon and god sent to restore humanity.

The combination of legendary Chinese folklore with modern approaches is encompassed into the small but mighty tale of Ne Zha II, making it both overwhelming and hefty. But audiences anywhere familiar with magic, dragons, and the idea of self-love overcoming the forces of evil and self-doubt, bursting forth in a great blaze of fire to overcome the destruction of the world can have a connection and kinship to the fire demon who finds comfort in holding up his pants from the inside.

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