Official Ne Zha 2 movie poster

On Feb. 14, the anticipated Chinese movie “Ne Zha 2” came out. One of the most anticipated movies in 2025 and broke box office records of being the highest grossing animated movie of all time. Many predict it will be the highest grossing film of 2025. Produced by Wenzhang Liu, who also produced the first movie, this movie exceeded audience expectations specifically the Chinese audience’s.

Of course like all sequels, you need to watch the first movie. Starting off, Ne Zha is a rebellious demon child hated by both humans and the gods. He becomes best friends with the only person that doesn’t treat him like he is a horrible person, Ao Bing. We find out later that Ao Bing is the divine dragon prince who is also technically Ne Zha’s other half. Ao Bing and Ne Zha were both derived from the same heavenly pearl, Ne Zha being a reincarnation of the demon orb and Ao Bing from the spirit orb.

The dragon kingdom is imprisoned due to a contract they made with heaven: help imprison all the demons and corrupted dragons. This would also lead the dragons to be imprisoned because they would need to use all of their powers to keep these evil beings in place. The only dragon that is free to move is Ao Bing, so the dragons, who have fallen from their grace, need Ao Bing to save their suffering and prove to the heavens that the dragons deserve to be more than just guards for their prison. In order to do so Ao Bing needs to frame and kill Ne Zha, who is seen as the pinnacle of evil, and set the dragons free. In spite of this, Ao Bing knows that Ne Zha isn’t truly evil and is only seen as that because of the demon powers he holds. Ao Bing in the end doesn’t kill Ne Zha, but saves him from getting killed by heavenly lighting, going against his whole kingdom.

Continuing from the first installment, Ne Zha and Ao Bing have lost their bodies to heavenly lighting. The plot starts off with Taiyi Zhenren, Ne Zha’s master, trying to recreate their bodies for Ne Zha and Ao Bing’s spirits. In the ocean far away, Ao Bing’s father, Dragon King of the East Sea Ao Guang (in Chinese culture some dragons are said to be in the sea), senses that he has disconnected with his son and thinks he was killed by Ne Zha. Enraged by this, the Dragon King and Shen Gongbao (Ao Bing’s master), go to Ne Zha’s city to seek revenge without knowing that the whole city is trying to reconstruct Ao Bing. Taiyi Zhenren, who had already reconstructed Ao Bing, was in the process of reconstructing Ne Zha when Shen Gongbao finds them and tries to kill Ne Zha. In order to stop Shen Gongbao, Ao Bing, with his very fragile body, uses all of his power and stops him, which breaks his body again. The Dragon King, enraged realizing that his son is still alive, but sacrifices himself for Ne Zha’s survival, orders them to find Ao Bing a new body or else he will kill Ne Zha’s whole city. Ne Zha, now sharing his body with Ao Bing, has to go to ascend to become an immortal to wish for the elixir of reconstruction.

The story above may be confusing to people with no knowledge of Chinese culture or mythology, however, any misconceptions clear up in the movie. The movie has not gained a lot of attention in the United States as the United States believes it will not gain an audience due to heavy references to Chinese culture that might be confusing. I believe that is wrong (as a Chinese-American). The movie explains all the confusing mythology well,like the birth of Ne Zha and his powers. Any other references either don’t really matter like how in China, dragons sometimes reside in the sea or how Ne Zha’s parents have some sort of immortal abilities as they don’t have a big impact on the plot. I think this movie can be enjoyed without the knowledge of Chinese culture and has overarching themes that apply globally.

The movie isn’t truly accurate to the Chinese mythological tellings anyway. Ao Bing and Ne Zha traditionally are arch enemies and were never best friends, unlike the movie. I really enjoyed how they changed this part and made them best friends. Ao Bing humanizes Ne Zha and contributes a big part to how Ne Zha overcomes his demon nature.

Another way the movie isn’t accurate to the mythological tellings is Ne Zha’s mother, Lady Yin. In mythology Lady Yin was nothing more than a mother to many of her notable children, mainly Ne Zha. But in the movie she is shown as more than a mother, she is a warrior. She is shown as a war general alongside her husband, Li Jing. She breaks the stereotype in Chinese mythology where there are not nearly as many powerful women as there are men. She is shown as a caring mother, but also a courageous leader and fighter defeating many demons.

The movie displays many themes that are applicable to any age, nationality, and gender. One of my favorite themes is the friendship between Ao Bing and Ne Zha. They are both very clear foils of each other not only physically, but mentally as well. Ao Bing always thinks logically and calmly when approaching situations while Ne Zha is very stubborn and passionate about his decisions. As much as they are different they are both very similar too. They both have very similar values and beliefs and treat each other how they want to be treated: normally without their titles of demon child and divine dragon prince.

I really like how the movie goes against the fact that they were originally arch enemies and makes them best friends. It shows the theme of how you should look past a person’s external appearance and get to know them for who they are. If Ne Zha and Ao Bing never met the way they did they would most definitely see each other as enemies. Ne Zha being envious of Ao Bing and Ao Bing hating Ne Zha because of his demon nature.

Ne Zha 2 isn’t just a simple movie: it’s history. As now the highest grossing animated movie in the world it has set a new example for future animated movies. Not only does it impact the animation industry, but the movie industry as a whole. No other foreign (non-American) film has received this much popularity in recent years. Ne Zha 2 is an example of how the American dominated film industry is about to change.

Ne Zha 2 came out on Feb. 14 and you can watch it in theatres now.