Nobody opens by introducing two animal yaoguai (Chinese demons) simply called Pig (Ziping Chen) and Toad (Yang Lu).
Pig and Toad work in the kitchen for a powerful yaoguai. As they prepare for the arrival of the monk Tang Sanzang, they rigorously clean a dirty cauldron and accidentally erase the calligraphy written on it by their boss’s ancestor. Because of this, the two are not only banished, they are hunted down to be killed.
As they look for a way to escape, they realize that they can impersonate Tang Sanzang and his group and beat them to their journey of retrieving an ancient scripture that will make anyone who reads it a Buddha. To make their disguise believable, they enlist a talkative Weasel (Wenliang Dong) and a shy Gorilla (Cong Liu) to accompany them.
Their journey then takes them to unusual places. Along the way, they are welcomed by villagers, whom they help with their requests even though they are often highly incapable of fulfilling them.
But despite their kind deeds, they are still pretending, and time is not on their side as the real Tang Sanzang is closing in fast.
It’s surprising that Chinese animated films like Legend of Hei 2 and Ne Zha 2 never got a crack at the Academy Awards. All of them are amazingly animated. Even this film, which may not look very modern, but, it’s a return to hand-drawn 2D animation.
A fun fact about the film is that 600 artists worked on Nobody, producing over 1,800 shots and 2,000 scene designs. These designs are not drawn in a typical style. The brush-like outlines and watercolor-inspired backgrounds pay homage to classic Chinese ink-wash painting. This makes the film not only beautiful to look at but it also honors Chinese culture.
Beyond its unique animation style, I would also argue that Nobody delivers a more meaningful message than many animated films currently in contention. At its core, it’s about kindness. Pig and company don’t need to attend to every request by the villagers, yet they help without asking for anything in return. They protect children, take nothing from the villages, and defeat dangerous yaos even when they are badly beaten. Yes, they lie and pretend, but it never comes from bad intentions. All they want is simply to survive in a world where only kings, gods, and immortals have the safety and respect to live.
Other than that, the film explores humility, bravery, and righteousness too. We could examine each of these themes one by one, but ultimately they all point to the same idea that these qualities are not inherited or granted by the divine, they’re actually cultivated and learned, sustained by belief, then proven through action.
With all that said, I think Nobody deserves recognition and appreciation. It should be part of the conversation about the best animated films last year for offering something new yet familiar in both animation style and storytelling. It is not only a playful riff on the classic Journey to the West story, making it, by the way, more accessible for children and international audiences, but it also imparts valuable lessons about heroism.
4.5/5