A trio of kids helps a youthful yeti return to its Himalayan home in this good-hearted fable
By Joe Morgenstern Sept. 26, 2019 5:21 pm ET ‘Abominable” is anything but. An animated fable set in contemporary China and voiced in colloquial English, this Chinese-American co-production is so distinctive pictorially, and so manifestly good-hearted, that it’s easy to forgive if not quite forget the ragged quality of its storyline.
More Film Reviews The title derives from the premise, which is relatively straightforward. A teenage kid living in a huge city that looks a lot like Shanghai finds a frightened yeti—an abominable snowman—hiding on the roof of her apartment building. Once she and two male friends realize that he’s actually a snowkid, a sweet little monster with magical powers, they name him Everest and embark on a 2,000-mile journey to reunite him with his family in the Himalayas.
The yeti, who bears a strong family resemblance to a plush squeeze-toy, is a pleasing presence and a pleasant pretext. If truth be told he doesn’t have much personality, but the human kids are funny and interesting, especially Yi, the girl who discovers him. Yi has magical powers too, though she doesn’t realize it at first. She plays exquisite music on her treasured violin, the same instrument her father played before he died.
At its most affecting, “Abominable” is an interspecies love story in which a trio of devoted teens protect a prodigy of nature from corporate baddies who, having found the innocent creature, are determined to exploit him. If that sounds like “King Kong” crossbred with elements of “E.T.” and “The Shape of Water,” so be it; you can add Androcles and the lion to the mix.
Original storytelling isn’t the production’s strong suit. Neither is narrative clarity; the journey across China becomes a choppy, repetitive chase. The beauty of the film lies in its vivid colors and tumbling images of rural vastness, riparian grace, streams populated by legions of koi, resplendent Yellow Mountains and giant blueberries that explode like party balloons. It’s all much too much, and more than sufficient to make “Abominable” memorable.
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