\Xiao men shen
aka Little Door Gods, and on Netflix a shortened version called The Guardian Brothers.
Directed by Gary Wang
Paulette Victor-Lifton (voice director)
Writing Credits (in alphabetical order) Dan Edelstein, Terrence Stone, Gary Wang
Cast
Original Chinese cast
Gao Xiaosong as Shen Tu
Show Joy as Laohu
White. K as Yu Lei
Ji Guanlin as Huaxia (Bloom)
Cindy Yu as Raindrop
Bi Xiaolan as Ying
English dub cast
Dan Fogler as Shen Tu
Edward Norton as Yu Lei
Bella Thorne as Raindrop “Rain”
Nicole Kidman as Luli
Mel Brooks as Mr. Rogman
Meryl Streep as The Narrator[3][9]
Steve French as Dean/Colossus
Cristina Pucelli as Bloom (Huaxia)
There is a city (and it may be a city in China, or a Chinatown in a major western city) that has a spiritual crisis. Belief in the Guardian Spirits, exemplified by posters of the two most famous spirit brothers, Shen Tu and Yu Lei, has dwindled away in this godless age to an handful of mostly half-hearted believers. The pearly light of the heavens has been drowned by the brassy glare of capitalism.
There is a little soup kitchen on a corner. It’s been there for generations, owned by the same family, but it has fallen on hard times. The soup is very good, but the recipe hasn’t changed in hundreds of years, and tastes, as Stephen King would say, have moved on. The Shen Tu and Yu Lei poster on the door is tattered and faded.
Luli and her young daughter Raindrop go to visit Raindrop’s grandmother, who runs the shop. While Raindrop is fascinated by a music box, the grandmother reveals to Luli that she is dying, and beseeches Luli to take over the family business. The next day, she dies, and Luli and Raindrop send a floating lantern to the heavens, bearing the music box.
It fetches up in the realm of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. Yu Lei wants to rush to the aide of the two humans, but the political situation in the heavens is unsettled, with strong sentiment to abandon the human realm altogether as being unworthy. The mayor of heaven sends his strongarm, Dean, along with the Mighty Babies (a particularly demented Chinese version of Groo’s minions, daemons that resemble rotund human babies) to warn the brothers off. After they leave, the brothers argue about abandoning humanity. The next day, the major announces the brothers’ portal to the world must be destroyed, or the brothers must be banished.
Meanwhile, prospects are grim for Luli and Raindrop. The business is already failing, and the unscrupulous owner of a competing business next door is employing an escalating series of sabotages and defamations to drive the two out of business so he can acquire the property for himself.
The conflict escalates on both sides of the heavenly portal, until desperation causes each side to seek out other other. Before it ends, gods and mighty demons are involved. Chinatown is saved in the most uniquely Chinatown way you can imagine.
While the animation is average, the art work is suburb, and the characters are both unique and relatable, very distinctly Chinese but with very familiar concerns and responses, making it easy for westerners to relate to them. This makes for a superior animated feature that will engage viewers of all ages. Nobody will finish it and say, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” It’s memorable.
Now on Netflix.