Immaculately constructed and performed from start to finish, KPop Demon Hunters lives up to the hype.
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It's been awhile since Netflix has had a runaway success, especially on the movie end. While the streaming platform often boasts about big numbers for things like Happy Gilmore 2 or their fun Die Hard 2 riff with Carry On, in terms of cultural impact, not so much. Part of that is because Netflix has put most of their eggs, budget-wise, into very shaky baskets like the Russo Brothers or star-vehicles like Red Notice. Movies that might get people to watch it during the first weekend but afterwards...eh. No real reason to check it out save for morbid curiosity.
Certainly not a movie successful enough to force Netflix, one of the most anti-theater distributors of the bunch, to actually give the rapid fanbase what they wanted. But KPop Demon Hunters is a force to be reckoned with. A smash in terms of sheer volume since it was released, the animated action-adventure musical is a legitimate phenomenon with its songs and soundtrack topping the charts, the aforementioned push for Sing-Along Showings for the kiddos, and perhaps the most baffling element of all: nearly universal approval. Critics like this movie. Kids like this movie. Parents might be sick of watching it, but they don't hate it.
So how the hell did Netflix pull of this coup? They went back to the old Disney model.
The Setup
The movie centers around KPop Supergroup Huntr/X who are about wrap up their biggest and most successful tour to date. Not only that but the trio, Rumi, Mira and Zoey, are also about to score their biggest victory for their side gig: demon hunting. But when a new demon-led group arrives to steal the spotlight and souls, can the trio get past their own demons to fend off the new threat?
This movie is delightful. I know it might be fun to be contrarian or say something derisive like "it's mostly meant for kids," but this is a genuine, great for all ages, crowd-pleaser. And as I alluded to earlier, a large part of that is because they borrowed the winning formula from Disney's best...with a few alterations.
Great Voice Acting
I have a lot of thoughts about the current state of voice-acting, especially when we're talking theatrically released movies. If I had to narrow down the issue into a bite sized chunk, I'd say that movie companies have taken the Dreamworks model to heart...and it's not necessarily for the better.
One of the drastic shifts that occurred in voice work was when Dreamworks started casting A-list talent in their movies. The most obvious example is the cast of Shrek, but they had admittedly been doing that since they started with The Prince of Egypy and The Road To El Dorado. And Disney had also included named actors in their films (see Cheech voicing a chihuahua in Oliver and Company and Angela Lansbury voicing the teapot in Beauty & The Beast).
The main difference was advertising. Instead of advertising the premise and story, Dreamworks started advertising that you'd get to hear Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers in the latest Shrek movie and in some cases even started adapting their character models in some cases to suit the known names.
And in some cases, it didn't seem to matter whether or not the voice actor was suited to the role. Which would be very difficult if not outright problematic when your movie is about KPop stars and features songs weaving in and out of Korean.
So they did this the old way. They got relatively unknown, at least in America, voice actors for the speaking parts and folks with the pipes to do the singing. There are some prominent Korean-America actors in supporting roles, but you probably don't know the main cast. And man they're good.
Speaking-wise each character is definitely playing a "type" of adolescent, in attitude if not age, including our emotionally tortured leader, the chill one and the excited one (which are all harder than you'd expect to get right), but man these singers are impressive.
The vocal harmonies, some of the notes, especially by Rumi's singing voice Ejae and even the flow during the rap portions are immaculate (and we'll get to the music).
The big takeaway is that you don't need to get big names to make your animated movie, literally and figuratively, sing.
Great Tone/Genre Blending
Much like Sinners, a comparison I think is more apt the more I think about it, Demon Hunters is an eclectic collection of genres weaving between teen drama, fantasy action/adventure, comedy and musical.
What I think this movie does so well is pairing-up these disparate elements to maintain the sense of fun. A great example is the opening sequence which serves as a standard character intro. But is also a kick-ass action sequence where we see what our trio are capable of, that's also a song.
A lot of folks, myself included, have said action beats and songs have similar functions in movies and they do a great job with this.
Likewise, a lot of the heavier and dramatic sequences come amidst action or break the in-scene tension with bits of physical comedy. There's an ongoing bit with a blue tiger messenger that never stopped being funny for me.
This fluidity is great for kiddos, who likely want something new and eye-catching as much as possible, and also prevents the movie from wading into melodrama.
This also enhanced and aided by fantastic animation that looks a feels like a fun blended between stop-motion (via the look of the 3D models of the characters) and anime (thanks to the brightly colored action beats with flowing camera work) that suits action and arena concert or one of those physical comedy gags.
We've Got Bangers With Story Function
It's hard to write a good pop song. As much as the genre is defined by its simplicity, that simplicity means you really need the melodies, voices and beyond to make it work. That's hard by itself.
Not make it so your collection of arena pop hits have to fit the story.
That can be really difficult, because there's a lot of songs within catchy as hell musicals, that don't land with the same weight, because they're primarily serving a story function and you can't do something like have The Wizard of Oz in Wicked deliver a barn-burner of a song just before "Defying Gravity" pops in.
Here the songwriters have smartly weaponized the directness of pop music to their advantage and even included segments where lyrics are altered/re-written as part of the story.
This sense of connection and momentum means when you get to the end, the final song should be the musical and emotional climax. It's so hard to do, and when it hits, it's like a explosion and...Demon Hunters nails it.
Despite the genre trappings, they still use songs like a traditional musical does, and like an old Disney musical would, and it makes for a very satisfying experience for adults and kids alike.
The Verdict: A Crowd-Pleaser
Immaculately constructed and performed from start to finish, KPop Demon Hunters lives up to the hype. 8/10
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