Film Name: 熊出没·奇幻空间 / Bonnie Bears:Entangled Worlds
Perhaps, just maybe, what I really mean to say is that if an audience member who hasn’t seen “Princess Mononoke,” “WALL·E,” “The Croods,” “Iron Man,” or “Big Hero 6” were to watch this film, they might genuinely find it has quite a few highlights.
When an upgraded version of “The Secret World of Arrietty” unfolds before your eyes, there truly is a sense of an imaginative feast; When the adorable mushroom spirits glow and surround Strong Head, there’s a genuine warmth that touches the heart; when Strong Head flies in on his giant beetle for a last-minute rescue, it delivers that satisfying thrill of watching a Hollywood blockbuster; when Coco sacrifices her own arm to save others, it evokes a poignant, heart-wrenching emotion.
In terms of originality, the “Boonie Bears” animated film series falls far short of “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.” Yet in terms of creative precision, “Boonie Bears” far surpasses “Pleasant Goat.” For China’s current market—one that prioritizes visuals over depth, aesthetics over substance, and fantasy over emotion—Boonie Bears’ market-driven precision, packed with fantastical scenes, cute creatures, 3D technology, and hype-driven elements, makes its originality secondary. When the purple dragonfly and monkey head mushroom spirits appear frozen in frame, children wearing 3D glasses genuinely reach out to grab them—a scene never witnessed in the 2D, flat, Flash-style “Pleasant Goat.”
Yet behind this methodology of blending classic elements with visually stunning imagery, perhaps—just maybe—what I’m trying to say is that we really should demand more from a film’s narrative coherence, human depth, and emotional resonance. This isn’t nitpicking; it’s a legitimate pursuit.
Consider Naya, the guardian of the Sacred Deer. This heroine, seemingly blessed with both beauty and martial prowess, reveals little personality beyond her air of mystery upon closer inspection. And when this mystique gradually fades in the film’s latter stages, she becomes utterly blank.
In fact, this sense of hollowness stems not only from the director’s insufficient exploration of human nature, but more fundamentally from the film’s complex world-building. The real world and the animated world exist as two parallel dimensions, traversable via black holes. This is precisely how the villains infiltrate each animated realm from the real world to seize its treasures. Yet upon entering the animated world of “Boonie Bears,” the film imposes yet another layer of “Atlantis”-style archaeological time travel. After navigating this dual journey—first parallel, then fantastical—the world-building for the fantasy dimension inevitably loses its persuasive power. The film’s portrayal of the deer tribe, the divine deer, the antlers, and the heavenly kingdom remains rather hollow. Under such circumstances, it becomes exceedingly difficult to prevent the characters from feeling flat.
Even the characters Bear Brothers and Strong in the parallel “Boonie Bears” world were previously unaware of the existence of something called “Golden Deer Antlers” in their own realm, while people in the real world knew all about it—a truly baffling setup. If the Golden Monkey Staff or Captain America’s shield are objects whose functions audiences readily recognize, then the “Golden Deer Antler” is unquestionably a wholly fabricated and unfamiliar artifact. The film never truly explains its purpose, revealing only at the end that its absence leads to the destruction of the fantastical realm. Compared to functional artifacts like the staff or shield, this totemic “Golden Deer Antler” simply doesn’t measure up.
I recall a formulaic trope in Chinese anti-corruption dramas: the deputy mayor (second-in-command) embezzles, only for the party secretary (top leader) to effortlessly subdue him. Reflecting now, this notion of an omnipotent figure wielding limitless power is actually a terrifying root of all evil. For the Deer God in this film, it too sweeps through like the Party Secretary, restoring the world in a whirlwind. Is this myth of omnipotence truly the resolution we seek after watching 90 minutes of film? I recall in Princess Mononoke, the life-giving Boar God was also a deer, yet when beheaded, it transformed into catastrophe and disaster. Therefore, rather than having the Deer God resolve everything, the film should have shattered its omnipotence, plunging the narrative into a more brutal, inescapable crisis. Only then could characters like the Bear Brothers, Strongman, Naya, Coco, and even the redeemed antagonist truly embody the power of humanity and emotion.
Character-wise, the film attempts to flesh out the antagonist’s motivations and ultimately guide him back to the right path—a genuine step beyond its predecessors. Yet when the villain obtains the golden antlers and prepares to return to his world, he glimpses his childhood pet companion “Schrödinger” but never faces the choice: abandon the antlers to save his friend or sacrifice the friend to perpetuate his dark psyche. Instead, he is forced to remain in the fantastical realm due to the unstable energy of the space-linking machine. This lack of grounding undermines the credibility of his eventual redemption.
The three misfit henchmen and two token archaeologists are even more superfluous. Unlike the main antagonist, these henchmen lack any meaningful backstory or motivation, existing primarily as vehicles for celebrity cameos. Their abilities bear almost no relation to their celebrity personas, and their ultimate escape is nothing short of a major flaw. Furthermore, the film fails to resolve the subplot involving the two archaeologists—COCO’s owners—who were kidnapped earlier, leaving this critical thread unresolved even as the credits roll. This is an unacceptable oversight.
In contrast, the portrayal of Strong Head is one of the film’s successes. Drawn into the chaos, he falls into the thicket alongside COCO. Though he could have escaped alone, his kindness and compassion drive him to pull COCO out of the jungle and repair her. This detail is genuinely heartwarming. Throughout the story, Strong Bald Head undergoes a simple confrontation with a bear, a deep conflict with the antagonist, and a friendship with the robot COCO that evolves from chance encounter to life-and-death reliance. He experiences betrayal and redemption, emotional highs and lows, making his arc remarkably rich.
The only drawback is that the connection between the professional self-help manual he often carries—akin to “An Actor Prepares”—and his profound realization about life’s truths amidst the swarm of monkey head mushroom spirits could have been more explicitly articulated through a weightier speech. Currently, we only know he has changed, but it remains unclear what exactly he has come to understand—a crucial element of the film.
Please specify：Anime Phone Cases » Bonnie Bears:Entangled Worlds 2017 Animation Film Review: A second journey through time is bound to be hard to explain away.