Review of 'Abominable'

Young girl Yi (voice of Chloe Bennet) lives with her mother (voice of Michelle Wong) and her Nai Nai (voice of Tsai Chin) in a city in China. Yi struggles to come to terms with the death of her father, distancing herself from her mother and taking up a number of small jobs to earn enough money to travel across China on the trip she had planned to take with her Dad. Having escaped from the holding cell of Dr. Zara (voice of Sarah Paulson) of Burnish Industries a young yeti finds himself on the rooftop of Yi's building. Yi takes an immediate liking to the big, but gentle yeti calling him “Everest” since he seems enamoured by a local billboard advertising the mountain. Yi realizes that is where Everest is from. A short time later they are fleeing when Dr. Zara and her mercenaries find their location. They escape along with Yi's friend the vain Jin (voice of Tenzing Norgay Trainor) who is more concerned with his image than anything else and her cousin Peng (voice of Albert Tsai) who has few friends. They are on their way across China to return Everest to his home all the while pursued by Dr. Zara.

A very cute and gentle film from DreamWorks that certainly does not stretch the brain cells too much as Yi, her friends and the yeti race across China to Mount Everest. The animation is, of course, quite good and the story is quite enjoyable though it is not terribly deep though it does touch on the pain of losing a parent and coming to terms with it, though this is a secondary plot point. It does seem the team that created the film wanted to make it more contemporary with the pastiche of Jin's obsession with social media it is not much more than pastiche, dealt with trivially throughout the film. Indeed, the only deep characters here, unsurprisingly, Yi and her mother.

The young Everest, of course, gorgeously cloaked in flowing white fur is the star of the show as he blithely stumbles into trouble at every turn though he has magical powers when he hums. The nature of his powers is a bit vague but it conveniently gets them out of a number of sticky situations.

Really intended more for younger audience with not a lot of story, “Abominable” is still quite good, simple, and charming animation. Not one of DreamWorks' best. I wish there was more here for older film-goers as we have seen in films such as Toy Story, but, sadly that is not to be.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2022-01-08


Directed by: Jill Culton and Todd Wilderman

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Year: 2019

Length: 97 minutes

Genre: Animation

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6324278/