Wish Dragon: Borrows its essence from Aladdin but still interestingly vivid and lively

Movie Review: Wish Dragon (2021) on Netflix

It's fun, it's entertaining, it's colorful with interesting characters, but Wish Dragon isn't Aladdin and 1001 Nights, from which the basis of this movie richly borrows its essence--embarrassingly so. Right down to a reciting of its basic rules! C'mon guys. That said...

In this version that takes place in Singapore, main character Din (voiced in English by Jimmy Wong) discovers a magical jade teapot while pursuing his childhood friend Li Na (voiced in English by Natasha Liu Bordizzo), and out of the teapot pours the ancient dragon Long (voiced in English by John Cho but in Mandarin by Jackie Chan) who can grant three wishes. 

Long has been sequestered in the teapot by the gods until he grants the wishes of ten masters, an exercise meant to teach him valuable lifelong lessons from his masters, before he can return to heaven where he finally will be greeted by his ancestors. 

Young adult Din is Long's final master to satisfy, so he is in a hurry to grant three wishes and, of course, he offers lots of easy options from years of serving greedy masters. But Din is street wise and wants to make the most of his wishes to aid in regaining the interest of his old friend Li Na, with whom he was closest of friends as children but separated by her father's rise in fortune. The question for Din is how far he is willing to go to win Li Na's favor, to meet her new expectations after 10 years of separation but possibly compromising his own values. And this drives much of the conflict of the story. 

At the same time, while Din has the allegiance of Long to grant his wishes, someone else is trying to steal the teapot to get wishes, threatening Din's last wish.

The animation in Wish Dragon is great and the characters are vivid and lively. It really is a good film with great production values. If you can get over the in-your-face lifting of some story elements, it has enough other unique elements to allow you and your family to enjoy the film.

I rate Wish Dragon A- for Almost Great.