La Légende du Tigre

The Tiger's Apprentice is a mediocre book adaptation where it had good opportunities, but was not exactly as good as I would expect. It does have the right tools to be a good film with the direction the movie is going for with the respectable Chinese representation, decent animation, and action scenes being the best part. But it ended up being an easily forgettable film with a disappointingly dull and rushed story, weak looking human characters, and pretty bland characters. I know not everyone will have Paramount Plus and I agree that their exclusives aren't that great. So I won't see any rush to watch this one. I have never read the book, so I'll just say that maybe those that have read it may be interested in this. It is disappointing that Paramount is not releasing original animated films in theaters, but this one does feel like it fits for streaming.

Nowadays we rarely see something new, yeah stories about the end of the world is like mainstream now and isn't going away Sooner than later, bare witness that when I saw this animations trailer I was like okay maybe it will be worth my time as it is coming from a studio like paramount like seriously who wouldn't be hyped but honestly I forgot to keep my sweaty fingers crossed until I had to jump in and realize that God forgive my trespassing for this mediocrity won't just cut it, if I were to compare it to something like kung-fu panda then am guessing someone out there might understand how bad this is, it wasn't my intention for comparing but i just had to make an understanding out of this boring nothing catchy just animation for a 5 year old cause i couldn't enjoy nothing.

I thought this movie was decent. The visuals were nice. I liked the textures and the character designs were pretty good. It's designed off the newer age 3D animation, and I think it's pleasant visually.

Plot is generic, and has a lot of tropes, but they move past them quick enough that it doesn't drag.

The music brought me out of the film. It's just a lot of pop culture music, it wasn't annoying, but it didn't fit. I think they were trying to make it feel like the character's music choice, but it really stuck out. Like at a sad scene you just have him crying, and some rapper is in the background going "ey yo", killed the vibe, but was very funny.

All the characters are underdeveloped, but they aren't unlikable. I enjoyed what bits we saw from the zodiacs. I think the 12 have potential to be a fun cast of characters if given the time flesh them out. Loved their designs.

Overall, put this on if you want a simple pretty movie and like a movie with shapeshifters. Honestly, the movie should've been about the zodiacs.

A woman wants a "Phoenix" egg McGuffin (because she is "bad"), and twelve Zodiac human-animals need to protect it's new Guarding. That's it! The characters are introduced, they fight and the movie ends.

While it has some good environmental and visual effects, the contrast between the overly-designed characters with the lack of personality or likeability, is really noticeable.. As if all their effort was put into making the trailer first! And the rest is a rather-shallow-production that lacks in everything non-visual. There's also a lack of world building, flat and boring voice acting (not to mention the boring dialogue), generic action, rushed development, uninteresting story (with some very slow parts), poor music choices.. and constant slow-motion shots.

Sadly, I don't think this offers anything at all as a movie.

Tom is being bullied at school for being a freak. From the beginning it is clear he is no ordinary teenager. Off course, there was the opening of his grandmother fighting fantastical creatures, so yeah, it was pretty obvious.

And then one day Hu turns up at his Grandmother's, and soon after all hell breaks loose as they are being attacked by the same creatures we saw in the opening. Tom's grandmother is once again fighting off the creatures with all she's got, while Hu turns into a tiger.

Turns out Loo, the main antagonist, is after a Phoenix the grandmother wears around her neck. When the grandmother gave the Phoenix to Tom to guard and protect, I couldn't understand why she believed him to be capable of the task, especially since he had no knowledge of the stone or his past before this task was bestowed upon him.

Apparently the Phoenix was used to create humanity, and now Loo wants it to destroy humanity. Nothing is told of the origins of the Phoenix and the story itself wasn't all that well explained or justified. Loo came across as a villain purely for the sake of being a villain. I also didn't find Tom all too believable as the protagonist. Hu, on the other hand, would have been a far better prospect to protect the Phoenix. Only, I found him inconsistent. At times he was a great fighter, and at times he wasn't. He also seemed to randomly shapeshift into a tiger, for whatever reason. It made me wonder whether he was actually able to control his abilities.

We meet some of the other family members, who are all mystical or magical - dare I say - creatures, each with their own abilities. Together they fight the war against Loo and her army of creatures.

'The Tiger's Apprentice' is like an animated film on steroids. I mean this film bombards the viewer with so much going on at once that it was hard to follow the action. I found it overdone. Being an animated film, the intended demographic is kids no doubt, but I'm just wondering if kids will be able to understand this story?

This is a beautifully animated movie and worth seeing, but I doubt very much I will bother watching it again.