The Tiger’s Apprentice (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – Tom Lee, a Chinese-American boy, after the death of his grandmother, has to be apprenticed to the talking tiger Mr. Hu and learn ancient magic to become the new guardian of an ancient phoenix.

My Take – Paramount Animation had potentially a gold mine in hand.

Though the animation studio, ever since the release of the Oscar-nominated Anomalisa (2015), has found itself languishing in box office failures like Monster Trucks (2017), Sherlock Gnomes (2018), and Wonder Park (2019), and saw their latest films releasing directly to VOD or streaming on Paramount+, they had the opportunity to expand upon the barely explored Chinese zodiac mythology in modern context.

However, while it had all right tools to make a strong impression on the genre, like a stacked an incredible Asian voice cast that included Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang and Greta Lee. Sadly, the breakneck pacing hampers all efforts, ultimately resulting in a film that fades into the vast sea of forgettable features.

Based on the 2003 young adult fantasy novel from author Laurence Yep, the story here is just so rushed, that there’s barely any time spent on establishing the world we’re introduced to before its full-speed ahead. Considering the film is barely 84 minute long (and it ends much earlier than that), director Raman Hui (Monster Hunt), and screenwriters David Magee (Finding Neverland) and Christopher Yost (Thor), could have spent more time fleshing out the story enough so that at least the big character moments and twists land.

Yes, this one is not an awful film per se as some of the animation is striking and there are a couple of excellent sequences, but it is also one of those frustrating exercises that seems to have assembled all the elements for a genuinely innovative film and then failed to make much of them.

The end result is a feature that has a couple of decent moments and nice visual flourishes but not nearly enough to combat the resounding mediocrity of its storytelling.

The story follows Tom Lee (voiced by Brandon Soo Hoo), an ordinary 15-year-old high school student, who since infancy has been raised by his grandmother Mrs. Lee (voiced by Kheng Hua Tan) in a rambling San Francisco home that is so festooned with talismans that many in the neighborhood suspect that she is a witch.

However, his life takes a drastic turn when he somehow sends a bully flying into the ceiling during a between-classes scrape, which ends up attracting the attention of Loo (voiced by Michelle Yeoh), an evil sorceress. For years Loo has been pursuing the magical phoenix stone which has been in the Lee family’s position for generations. Determined to unleash unimaginable destruction, Loo attacks its current guardian Mrs. Lee, only to see her pass it on to Tom.

Rescued by Mr. Hu (voiced by Henry Golding), a tiger who can change into human form and is one of the twelve representations of the symbols of the Chinese Zodiac who have sworn to protect mankind, Tom reluctantly takes on the role of his apprentice, join forces with the remaining Zodiac animal warriors and master his own newly discovered powers to stop Loo.

The narrative is too generic and none of the characters were really interesting or engaging to care with. This is one of those peculiar films where you can easily anticipate every plot development long before it is deployed yet struggle to recall anything that happened in it afterwards.

Weirdly, at a time when everyone seems to be complaining that films are too long, here is one that probably could have used an additional 15-20 minutes to allow both the story and the characters some time to breathe. As viewers, we are thrown into the film’s narrative with little to keep us rooted to what’s going on. We’re simply taken on a wild ride filled with empty adventure, living zodiacs, and a villain who wants to recreate the world with no humans in it, the reasons behind the latter are muddled.

Perhaps the character who makes the least sense is Rav (voiced by Leah Lewis), Tom’s schoolmate and love interest. A twist involving her connections is revealed about halfway through the film, but it never amounts to anything meaty, and her decision is shoe-horned in to create conflict that is flimsily handled.

Anyone who has watched Kung Fu Panda (2008), of course could see a parallel that a guy unexpectedly got chosen as a guardian of a stone like PO got chosen as the dragon warrior and then began his journey of becoming worthy, here, Tom the recently appointed guardian has just known of his power but the film doesn’t spend much time delving into showing him polishing his skills, it’s just there, he knows how to use it. Whereas Shifu preparing Po to be a Dragon Warrior has to be one of the most heartwarming master student moment, here the film just skips that part.

The film just started and decided to rush through key relationships and character developments in a way that leaves us wanting more. This brisk progression means that the emotional depth and connections between characters aren’t given the space they need to truly flourish, making some of the films most pivotal moments feel less impactful than they could have been.

The animation, while colorful and creative, sometimes falls flat, lacking the dynamic movement and texture that would bring the beautifully designed characters and their world fully to life. The hair and fur of the characters, for example, often remain unnervingly static, detracting from the otherwise immersive experience.

Indeed, the voice performance is stacked. But while Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, and Sandra Oh are committed to their roles, the rest – Kheng Hua Tan, Leah Lewis, Sherry Cola, Greta Lee, Bowen Yang, Brian Gallager, Giullian Yao Gioiello, Deborah S. Craig, Poppy Liu, and Lucy Liu are wasted. On the whole, ‘The Tiger’s Apprentice’ is an underwhelming experience which despite potential is lost in execution.