A24The biggest movie of 2025 is an absurd fantasy epic that the average American will likely have never heard of. Released at the end of January this year, Ne Zha II, the Chinese animated sequel to 2019’s Ne Zha directed and written by Jiaozi, made 1.1 billion yuan (approximately $137 million in U.S. dollars) in its first three days. In just eight days, it had broken the record for the highest grossing animated film in mainland China. And by the end of March 2025, it had become the biggest movie of the year, and the fifth-highest grossing movie ever. Now, finally, it’s making its way Stateside. And U.S. audiences may not be ready.The Ne Zha films loosely adapt tales from Xu Zhonglin's 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods, a hugely influential collection of Chinese myths and folklore. Ne Zha 1 and 2 specifically follow the misadventures of Ne Zha, the reincarnation of the Demon Orb, one-half of a sentient object born from the primordial essences of heaven and earth. The other half is the Spirit Pearl, which is reincarnated in the form of the dragon prince Ao Bing, the antagonist of the first film before he becomes Ne Zha’s closest friend. The first film chronicles Ne Zha’s troubled childhood grappling with his demonic nature, and ends with him and Ao Bing finally coming to terms with their deeply entwined connection (and saving the world, of course). The second is… a bit more complicated.While the first Ne Zha was a hit in China unto itself, its success was nowhere near the wild reception Ne Zha II is enjoying. Its record-breaking box office run in China speaks for itself, but all that attention has earned Ne Zha II a U.S. theatrical release, courtesy of A24. The independent distributor, which has its own reputation as a purveyor of arthouse darlings like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Moonlight, even gave Ne Zha II a star-studded English dub — all part of a glitzy Stateside rollout the first film never received. The combination of a voice cast led by Michelle Yeoh and the A24 cred is bound to bring in curious audience members who had never even heard of the first Ne Zha, much less bothered to check it out. And anyone jumping into the film without any foreknowledge is in for the shock of their lives.Ne Zha II picks up immediately after the events of Ne Zha, with Ne Zha and Ao Bing after… dying. (This is not a spoiler.) When the spell to restore their bodies goes awry, Ne Zha and Ao Bing must share Ne Zha’s body and complete three trials to become immortal so that they can win a potion that will restore the Seven-Colored Sacred Lotus, the only thing that can restore Ao Bing’s body. But the two of them unknowingly become pawns in a sinister conspiracy that aims to upset the balance between heaven and earth. This synopsis seems to cleanly describe the events of a pretty typical fantasy epic, but Ne Zha II makes such wild tonal and artistic swings that it feels impossible to truly know where it’s going next — which may be why it was such a massive hit in China. But for the American viewer who, by the way, is in for a two-and-a-half hour movie that is jam-packed with as many fart and puke jokes as is filled with dazzling epic battles, it may be more than a little jarring.This pig flies the heroes to their heavenly destinations, but it also farts a lot. | A24Ne Zha II assumes its audience possesses a certain familiarity with the myths that inspired the story, which makes its upcoming U.S. theatrical release to be an interesting experiment. Will U.S. audiences be interested in a two-and-a-half hour epic whose main character looks like a sleep-deprived Labubu, and has a penchant for sticking his hands down his pants? Will they be turned off by the first hour of endless fart jokes? Or, alternatively, will the kids who enjoy the more lighthearted first half be frightened by the film’s sudden dark turn into epic fantasy, in which one thrilling battle gives way to another, more epic battle?Chinese audiences clearly had no problem with the film’s combination of potty humor and mind-blowingly thrilling action. But Stateside, where the darkest a children’s movie can get is an offscreen demise of a parent, U.S. audiences may prove a different beast. Still, maybe sheer curiosity will win out: After all, the biggest movie of the year, distributed by A24, must be worth checking out, at the very least.Ne Zha II opens in U.S. theaters August 22.