“A fantastic heartwarming family film inspired by a popular Chinese children’s book. Beautiful CG animation, well-written story and magical! A wonderful collaboration between the West and the East!”
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TITLE: THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD
DURATION: 85 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: English, Mandarin and Cantonese Language Tracks, Color, Digitally Mastered
RATED: G
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Directed by John Chu and Frankie Chung
Screenplay by John Chu and Lam Kee To
From the Original Story “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” by Zhang Tian Yi
Produced by Han San Ping and John Chu
Editor: Angie Lam
Director of Photography: Chan Chi Ying (HKSC)
Production Design by Yee Chung Man
Original Music by Peter Kam
Visual Effects & Animation Supervisor: Frankie Chung
Starring:
Peisi Chen (as Ba0 Hu Lu)
Gigi Leung as (as Miss Liu)
Ching Wan Lau (as the voice of Magic Gourd)
Qilong Zhu (as Wang Bao)
Featuring the (English dub) voices of:
Drake Johnston, Takayo Fischer, Megan Hilty, Anton Drozin, Grace Fulton, Josh Heaves, Jeremy Shada and Corbin Bleu
Experience the magical story about the boundless limits of imagination and the strength we each have inside us with Disney’s heartwarming film “The Secret of the Magic Gourd”. Based on the beloved children’s novel and featuring the voice talent of “High School Musical’s” Corbin Bleu, this wondrous fantasy is sure to delight the entire family. It’s “a truly inspiring story that captures the wonder and awe of childhood,” raves Carey Bryson of KidsTVMovies.About.com.
When an inquitivte 11-year-old discovers a mythical, magical gourd while fishing, he has no idea of the trouble that lies at the end of his hook. With the ability to grant any and every wish, “The Magic Gourd” attempts to make all of the boy’s dreams come true, but instead succeeds in turning his world upside down.
Enjoy every moment of this enchanting adventure as a curious child discovers that the best things in life are those he earns himself.
Magical, heartwarming and an absolutely wonderful family film!
This is what happens when you get Walt Disney Pictures, China Film Group and Centro Entertainment (known for their CG work for popular Hong Kong action flicks “Kung Fu Hustle”, “Storm Riders”, “A Man Called Hero” and the US film “Kill Bill) all working together and with this special collaboration, the magical film “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” based on an original book created over 50-years-ago was made possible.
“THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” is the first major collaboration by a Chinese-based company and Walt Disney Pictures and I have to say, I am very impressed!
The film centers around the an 11-year old boy named Wang Bao (or Raymond, for the English dub). While his family is busy working, he is mostly taken care of by his grandmother and stays with his little sister. He has an imaginative mind and often dreams of him riding in space and saving people’s lives with his space aircraft. Of course, having dreams is not harmless but the problem is that Wang Bao never takes part in his class’s group study groups and forgets to study for his tests.  Slacking off to the point that his classmates and his friends think he just likes to fish and doesn’t care about achieving. While all the kids have multiple stars for their hardwork in class, Wang Bao has a single star. And because it’s a group effort, his friends also bear the brunt of not getting these stars for achievement when he doesn’t do his part.
At home, he hears his grandmother telling the story of the Magic Gourd to his little sister. A story about a special gourd who grants people their wish and takes care of their work without the person having to lift a finger.
After one troublesome day at school and even his friends start making fun of him, Wang Bao runs to his favorite fishing area and while waiting to catch some fish, he catches a magical gourd (named Bailey in the English dub).
The magic gourd literally will grant Wang Bao anything he dreams about. If he’s hungry, the gourd will get him food. If he needs help with school (or more like cheating), the gourd will help him. If there’s anything he needs, the magical gourd can easily grant him his wish. The only stipulation is that Wang Bao can’t tell anyone about him or show him to anyone. The magical gourd must be kept secret.
So, in the beginning, things start to look positive for Wang Bao. The gourd can easily give him anything that he needs. In fact, if anything, Wang Bao becomes overly reliant on the magical gourd to take care of him and he becomes even more lazy as he has the magical gourd cutting his toe nails, doing his homework, doing his hair, giving him answers in school to make him look good in front of the children, etc.
But unfortunately, not all is good. Wang Bao doesn’t realize that as the magical gourd tries to make all his dreams come true (before Wang Bao even asks for it), it gets him into trouble. For example, Wang wants a library book but it’s reserved for another student, so the magical gourd makes the book disappear and puts it into his backpack. But the library and the students go through an effort to find the book which they feel may have been stolen or misplaced. Another segment features Wang Bao accidentally saying that he will eat the person’s chess piece during a game of chess and the magical gourd thinks he must be hungry for the pieces and thus starts making the chest piece go into his mouth for digestion leading Wang Bao to cough it all out.  When he tells the magical gourd that he wants to be in the movie (meaning wanting to get into the theater and watch), the gourd mistakenly thinks he wants to be “in” the movie (which was about dinosaurs) and thus has him in the movie running away from a dinosaur who is trying to eat him up.
Obviously, the magical gourd’s intentions are good but he tends to try to make Wang happy but doesn’t know why each time he helps, he makes him more angry.
“THE SECRET OF THE MAGICAL GOURD” is definitely a creative, unique and satisfying story that teaches a person a major lesson that achievements done by oneself is far more satisfying than when one cheats or gets everything they want without having to do anything.
Full of adventure and a lot of fun, this family film is not just entertaining, the combination of reality and CG works perfectly with this film.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” is presented in widescreen (2:35:1), its original theatrical presentation and enhanced for 16×9. I was amazed of how beautiful this film looked and the mirroring of CG and real characters was done quite well. My last viewing experience of a Hong Kong film trying to combine CG and real characters was many years ago with “Master Q” back in 2001 but to see how much has been accomplished in China in terms of CG animation was definitely eye-pleasing and with the film taking place outdoors, everything looked quite beautiful. It’s one of those films that you hope gets the Blu-ray treatment because it looked so good.
As for audio, I am so happy that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment gave people three language tracks ala Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. So, for those who want to watch it in Cantonese or Mandarin with English subtitles, you can do just that. I also watched the film in English and I’ve been one of the major critics who tends to dislike English dubbing of an Asian film because the dubbing is just so old school Kung Fu cinema style and just badly done. I have to say that with “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD”, that is not the case. In fact, the voice acting was wonderful and captured the emotion of the film just flawlessly!
And it does help to have some star power for today’s young kids with Corbin Bleu (from the “High School Musical” films) supplying the voice of the magic gourd Bailey for the English dub.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” comes with a few special features:
- Bloopers – These bloopers were pretty much comedic short segments (which were purposely done as opposed to reinacting a blooper) featuring the magical gourd which were fun to watch.
- Backstage Disney: Go Behind the Scenes to See How the Film Was Made – This segment features an interview with John Chu and Frankie Chung which was done in Chinese with English subtitles. John Chu talks about how long the process was to write and film the movie and how it was based on an original story by Zhang Tian Yi. You learn a lot about the creative side of the film but also how they did an exhaustive casting call and testing each child out and seeing who can play the lead. Also, the collaborative effort of the East and West between the three companies.
- Games & Activities – There is a game in which people can play. The game uses your remote and you have to help Raymond ship the toys back to the store before his father gets home.
- “World of Wonder” Music Video by Jackie – This is a Chinese version of the “World of Wonder” music video.
I watched this film with my family and we all loved it. “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” is one of those awesome family fun films that Disney is known for but the fact that this film was created in Hong Kong and by a well-known company known for its HK action flicks, it was a blast to see this technology used for a children’s film based on a Chinese book created over 50 years ago.
The CG for this film was just phenomenal and typically, when you try to mix CG and real characters together, many times it just doesn’t work all that well for a full-length film. For the “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD”, everything was smooth, both the CG and the characters meshed well together and Qilong Zu (Wang Bao), did a wonderful job despite having to do a lot of green screen with nothing there but yet making the film seem realistic.
The performances on both sides, may it be the acting and even the English voice acting were well done. In fact, this film is probably one, if not the best, English dubbing I have seen for a Chinese film.
For those familiar with HK cinema, the film stars popular HK singer and actress Gigi Leung as the teacher of Wang Biao (Raymond) and for the English dub, it features “High School Musical” star Corbin Bleu who does a great job as Bailey (the magical gourd). So, the film does have star support.
As for the special features, I’m so glad to see the film include the original Chinese featurette and music video of “Bao hu lu de mi mi” (The Secret of the Magical Gourd) for the US DVD release.
The DVD release of “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” was quite solid. On the film end, you get a fantastic storyline for the family, cool CG work and well-performed by the main lead. And the English voice dubbing was just incredible. And of course, you get a good dose of cool special features included on the DVD.
The film was quite magical and it’s a very good film that teaches a lesson about how important personal achievement truly is. Overall, this release was fantastic and I hope you give “THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD” a chance!