Film Name: 十二生肖城市英雄
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“Zodiac City Heroes” is such a low-caliber animated film that I nearly walked out multiple times.
The movie is packed with unsafe elements—conspiracies, deception, electric shocks, drinking, and setting off firecrackers to blast people. While it ultimately circles back to the theme that anyone can be a city hero, it can’t mask the film’s hollow core.
The only redeeming feature is a decent-enough soundtrack.
The zodiac characters’ designs feel carelessly thrown together, and Rat Boss’s oversized ears fail to spark any interest.
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The Chinese zodiac is a quintessentially Chinese theme, yet it’s ill-suited for animated feature films—it works best as a TV animation series. A simple reason is that the twelve zodiac animals are equal, but in an 80-minute film, it’s challenging to give each character equal weight while highlighting their distinct personalities, leaving a lasting impression on viewers, and fostering desire for further interaction.
The film weaves an extremely fragmented narrative. It attempts to depict the zodiac animals battling evil forces to protect the city, revisit the tired conflict between the rat and the cat (who missed the zodiac cut), introduce an ordinary thirteenth character as a new hero outside the zodiac, and even touch upon the zodiac signs potentially replacing the animal signs. Thus, the diminutive zodiac creatures must simultaneously battle the malevolent Water Spirit, guard against the self-serving Cat Mayor, forge an alliance with the Stray Mouse to fulfill his dreams, and finally reverse the citizens’ growing fascination with the zodiac signs. The word “exhausting” barely captures the strain.
When Rat Leader delivers his weighty speech at the film’s climax, solemnly introducing the Stray Mouse as the people’s hero, I nearly rose to applaud! “Every ordinary person is a city hero.” Despite weaving countless threads that barely scratch the surface, the screenwriter masterfully anchors the story in this brilliant theme—truly remarkable! This weighty declaration elegantly dismantles the film’s other subplots, revealing a fresh perspective: Ah, so this was the core message all along.
Stray Mouse, the film’s ultimate breakout “star,” first appears in a trash bin around the 7-8 minute mark. In truth, the film never fully clarifies the relationship between this new hero and the old heroes. I believe its true purpose isn’t to become a hero itself, but to serve as the psychological catalyst for the Chinese Zodiac to complete their final battle. As an ordinary being, was it truly necessary for it to confront the powerful Water Spirit head-on? Its sole role was to ignite the protective instincts within the Zodiac, unleashing their invincible power. The Chinese Zodiac is mythical; this story isn’t about the arduous journey of an ordinary person becoming a hero, but about how heroes find their way back from being lost. The Stray Rat need only fulfill its role as catalyst. Sometimes we truly shouldn’t dilute our faith and admiration for heroes with hollow platitudes like “every ordinary person can become a hero.”
The film spends considerable time depicting garbage disposal issues—whether sorting useful from useless waste or transforming worthless trash into something useful—devoting at least ten minutes to this topic. Yet this garbage crisis ultimately fails to manifest in the final battle, making those ten minutes feel utterly wasted.
Mayor Cat’s motives and methods are utterly vile, yet his punishment amounts to little more than being tossed down a manhole by some trash when he pokes his head out. His conflict with the rats remains unresolved, he shows no remorse, and his punishment is trivial—a simplistic resolution that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
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