User Reviews

This movie had so much potential: it had actual writing as base material, it had a great cast, the animation team was decent and it was released in a period of not much happening. It could have been like a new (old) Pixar movie release. Instead, it was a lazy, formulaic, brain dead production, more focused on making female characters look cool and superior than actually telling a story.

I have not read the book, but from the synopsis, it was completely different from the film. Also, it features the most rancid clichés ever: the boy who doesn't know who he is because someone sheltered him, but he's totally special because of his blood, with a wonderful all knowing mentor that dies just before they impart their wisdom and the adolescent American who can't stop and think for a single minute, doing dumb thing after dumb thing, but with a lot of people around him to tell him it wasn't his fault and finding excuses for him, because feelings.

The ending was the worst part, though. After failing miserably in doing ANYTHING, the hero finds in himself - without any effort, really - the one thing he has to do to defeat the evil overpowered opponent. A stroke of luck, followed by a lot of boasting about how he saved the day.

The story was beyond childish. Just think for any amount of time at anything in the film and it either makes no sense or it completely invalidates what it supposedly indicating. The cast was criminally underused. There are basically four characters with actual roles, Michelle Yeoh stealing the show, even with the sorry dialogue they gave her, with the others having a few lines each. I think Patrick Gallagher just says something about slobbering shower, once! The pacing was all over the place, with everything either feeling rushed or glacial. Even the editing, which should be quite fixed and done before any other work starts in animation, was poor.

I had to end the review because I felt like I had to remove stars the more I thought about it. They just appropriated (badly) elements of Chinese culture, turned them into a show even 7 year-olds would probably find nonsensical, then released them as a feature film that cost 300 million dollars. How is that even possible?

Bottom line: stupid.

Anyone who has watched Kung Fu Panda, of course could see a parallel that a guy unexpectedly got chosen as a guardian of a stone like PO got chosen as the dragon warrior and then began his journey of becoming worthy, here Tom the recently appointed guardian has just known of his power but the movie doesn't spend much time delving into showing him polishing his skills, it's just there, he knows how to use it. Whereas Shifu preparing Po to be a Dragon Warrior has to be one of the most heartwarming master student moment, here they missed the mark. The movie just started and wanted to reach the end at that very moment without any character development.

Chinese mythology and the zodiacs are such rich in content, but barely explored. As someone wrote, it was pretty dumb downed. And casting so many ppl but giving them just bare minimal talking scope. Wastage of Michelle Yeoh and Sandra Oh, but they were stellar. Henry Golding did come through, he started weak but caught up later on. But most impressing was Bowen as Sid the Rat, too good.

The animation is not the best we have seen for last few years like The Spider Verse or Nimona or Blue Eye Samurai etc but loved the Tiger and using of Eye of the Tiger was interesting. And the human form of the Dragon was pretty amazingly drawn along with the Rat. The movie does have good background music.

I just wish the director explored the zodiacs more, it wasn't a theatre release and heard it got a delayed release, so i don't understand the rush they had to put on the screenplay instead of developing a full fledged mythological story.

The Tiger's Apprentice is a mediocre book adaptation where it had good opportunities, but was not exactly as good as I would expect. It does have the right tools to be a good film with the direction the movie is going for with the respectable Chinese representation, decent animation, and action scenes being the best part. But it ended up being an easily forgettable film with a disappointingly dull and rushed story, weak looking human characters, and pretty bland characters. I know not everyone will have Paramount Plus and I agree that their exclusives aren't that great. So I won't see any rush to watch this one. I have never read the book, so I'll just say that maybe those that have read it may be interested in this. It is disappointing that Paramount is not releasing original animated films in theaters, but this one does feel like it fits for streaming.

Here's The 4K Lowedown on "Tiger's Apprentice" (PG - 2024 - Paramount+)

Genre: Animated/Family

My Score: 6.7 Cast=8 Acting=5 Trailer=7 Ending=7 Story=7 Visuals=7 Direct=5 Sounds=7 Genre=7 Sub-genre=7

After the death of his grandmother, a Chinese American boy has to be apprenticed to the talking tiger Mr. Hu and learn ancient magic to become the new guardian of the phoenix.

"Your grandmother was a guardian...sworn to protect humanity." I liked this, but it was not well written. It was like Wish Drago and Kung Fu Panda had a baby but it was born in captivity. This movie plays better to a younger audience...with its colorful animation and simple dialogue. But unfortunately, animals born in captivity are generally not as exciting as those in the wild. If you have a season pass to the Paramount+ Zoo though, this is worth seeing.

A woman wants a "Phoenix" egg McGuffin (because she is "bad"), and twelve Zodiac human-animals need to protect it's new Guarding. That's it! The characters are introduced, they fight and the movie ends.

While it has some good environmental and visual effects, the contrast between the overly-designed characters with the lack of personality or likeability, is really noticeable.. As if all their effort was put into making the trailer first! And the rest is a rather-shallow-production that lacks in everything non-visual. There's also a lack of world building, flat and boring voice acting (not to mention the boring dialogue), generic action, rushed development, uninteresting story (with some very slow parts), poor music choices.. and constant slow-motion shots.

Sadly, I don't think this offers anything at all as a movie.

I read all the comments first and there was an awful lot of poor nit-picking remarks; more to do with personal taste than the film itself...I though so anyway!

Now its not the best animation that I will most likely see this year but it was still a well thought out (especially the children talk style) bit of fun. The opening scene is straight out of one of the live Spider-Man films of the protagonist hero being bullied...again! Its about time they dropped that very old bullyboy theme as, not all hero types will get bullied. Anyway the story has a good dialogue, rolls along at a good speed (sometimes the action etc was a little too fast for me to take it all in) and, crystal clear sharp vibrant colours.

I suspect mothers and fathers will enjoy this just as much as their children.

Tom is being bullied at school for being a freak. From the beginning it is clear he is no ordinary teenager. Off course, there was the opening of his grandmother fighting fantastical creatures, so yeah, it was pretty obvious.

And then one day Hu turns up at his Grandmother's, and soon after all hell breaks loose as they are being attacked by the same creatures we saw in the opening. Tom's grandmother is once again fighting off the creatures with all she's got, while Hu turns into a tiger.

Turns out Loo, the main antagonist, is after a Phoenix the grandmother wears around her neck. When the grandmother gave the Phoenix to Tom to guard and protect, I couldn't understand why she believed him to be capable of the task, especially since he had no knowledge of the stone or his past before this task was bestowed upon him.

Apparently the Phoenix was used to create humanity, and now Loo wants it to destroy humanity. Nothing is told of the origins of the Phoenix and the story itself wasn't all that well explained or justified. Loo came across as a villain purely for the sake of being a villain. I also didn't find Tom all too believable as the protagonist. Hu, on the other hand, would have been a far better prospect to protect the Phoenix. Only, I found him inconsistent. At times he was a great fighter, and at times he wasn't. He also seemed to randomly shapeshift into a tiger, for whatever reason. It made me wonder whether he was actually able to control his abilities.

We meet some of the other family members, who are all mystical or magical - dare I say - creatures, each with their own abilities. Together they fight the war against Loo and her army of creatures.

'The Tiger's Apprentice' is like an animated film on steroids. I mean this film bombards the viewer with so much going on at once that it was hard to follow the action. I found it overdone. Being an animated film, the intended demographic is kids no doubt, but I'm just wondering if kids will be able to understand this story?

This is a beautifully animated movie and worth seeing, but I doubt very much I will bother watching it again.

Wow, that's bad.

Dialogue like "- Hey, you're the new girl. - Been a girl for a while now." already made me pause, like is that supposed to be a joke of some sort? But then there is the whole bullying theme, which is not only cliched, but also does not make sense. Bullies can find the littlest things to bully for, yes, but bullying for grandma making incenses?.. Them calling grandma a witch is understandable, but everything else felt extremely forced (and rushed).

Then there was also the choice of music... It's fine if that's not my style of music (Spider-Verse also has a few tracks that are not my thing), but it just did not fit in any way. I am a strong believer, that music needs to "match" the screen, so that it "expands" the scene, adds to it. When music sounds like an unnecessary noise - it's just poor taste.

These things, albeit minor, already made me want to drop this, but then I did a bit of search, in case I am missing a point, and maybe it will become good after awhile, but... Turned out they changed the premise from the original book. In the book the boy knew who he was (at least to an extent). This minute detail changes the character entirely, and there is absolutely no reason for that, considering that school (and thus bullying) took like 2 minutes of the whole runtime and did not make me relate to the character in any way.

This made me think, that this change, and probably dozens of others (I am assuming here) were done just to push some sort of agenda. No idea what kind of agenda, though, since I dropped it soon after Hu appeared and all his interactions seemed unnatural even for a supernatural being. Either way, I would rather read a book, since it's synopsis sounds way more interesting.

Oh and animation is meh, while the overall style is quite subpar. Probably expected, if it's low budget, though.

The first 14 minutes of this movie are alright. Mid to bad CGI but nice action scenes inspired by Chinese mythology, plus a "bullied kid" protagonist who's interaction with said bully is rather refreshing innovative.

After grandma passes away, though, the movie takes a turn to the legitimately mediocre, being one of dime a dozen mentor/apprentice stories (as if the title didn't give that way, I suppose).

The saving grace is the animation, which in some scenes gets experimental and actually uses painting-like 2D effects, and the various allusions to Chinese mythology, which are well researched and innovative in a urban fantasy kind of way.

Nowadays we rarely see something new, yeah stories about the end of the world is like mainstream now and isn't going away Sooner than later, bare witness that when I saw this animations trailer I was like okay maybe it will be worth my time as it is coming from a studio like paramount like seriously who wouldn't be hyped but honestly I forgot to keep my sweaty fingers crossed until I had to jump in and realize that God forgive my trespassing for this mediocrity won't just cut it, if I were to compare it to something like kung-fu panda then am guessing someone out there might understand how bad this is, it wasn't my intention for comparing but i just had to make an understanding out of this boring nothing catchy just animation for a 5 year old cause i couldn't enjoy nothing.

The Tiger's Apprentice is one of those movies that has a really good concept and themes that are interesting but unfortunately the movie doesn't do anything creative and becomes one of the most basic and uninteresting stories ever.

The narrative is too generic that most people (maybe children) could be bored from their minds and none of the characters were really interesting or engaging to care with. The voice performances were not great, the dialogue is pretty rough, and due to the basic narrative, it ends up being REALLY boring. I don't mind animated movies or animated movies really for kids because some of them are clever and fun, but this isn't one of them.

The only plus was the animation which the models, textures and colors looking solid. While it is cheap, it does have some nice textures.

Bad.

The movie is amazing, it just came out and I can't wait for part 2, the family bond, sacrifice, unexpected turn of events, it kept me on my toes for at least 90 minutes lol, great job on the casting. I think the movie itself represents everything that reflects a great culture, and heritage, we need to see more of these movies , whether animated or not . Ancient Chinese history and Mythology has more stories than marvel and DC, it is a whole civilization that needs to be reflected and taught to kids, kids need to learn their stories and to be proud of their heritage they need more of these cool movies, being bullied for carrying or representing one's heritage is becoming a serious issue, America is built on different cultures and embracing ALL of them. Native American Mythology has pretty cool stories too they need to be represented more.

This was a great movie for the family to watch. If you have kids this is a good story of family, friendship, and teamwork.

Some people said it had some clique moments but I disagree. While an adult can say it was clique or predictable we weren't the target audience. Kids don't see it this way.

I wish there was a bit more to the back story of some characters but overall it was a good movie. My kids loved how it got right into the action and they were on the edge of their seats from the start.

The voice acting was so good, the music was great, and jokes had my family laughing. For what the movie was the animation and effects weren't bad. Not everything has to be "Marvel/Disney" quality CGI.

The overall story was good and I would recommend.

I do wish they would have done more background on the grandmother, his parents, the zodiacs, and villain. It does seem they left an opening for a potential sequel with more story to tell. I feel like more reviews should higher rated because my kids said 10/10.

This was a kids movie and they enjoyed it. If adults rate it low then it's not accurately portraying a review from the target audience. I do hope this gets a sequel and we will be watching it again.

TLDR: Kids - loved it rated a 10/10 Me - it was overall really good family movie 8/10 Some Adults - might think it's cliche and not as polished as other movies & nitpicking things that kids wouldn't notice or care about and rate it low 5/10.

A surprisingly, endearing film with beautiful animations which brought a new spark of light to the animation world. If watched with ignorant eyes perhaps a more bitter viewing? The storyline was great and it was magical to watch everything unfold. Visually, "The Tiger's Apprentice" is a feast for the eyes. The animation is vibrant and richly detailed, bringing to life a magical realm where mystical landscapes and fantastical creatures coexist. The character designs are imaginative, and the animation team succeeds in creating a world that feels both enchanting and immersive. While the film caters to a younger audience, its universal themes and visually stunning animation make it an enjoyable experience for viewers of all ages.

Not sure why there are some below 4 stars, seems extra low for no reason.

I really enjoyed this. Sure it has some cliches and is a bit predictable, but not every movie has to be ground breaking. It was a really fun movie to have home dinner and a movie night watching. I'd watch it again for the fun, silly humor, and solid animation.

The villian and henchmen were suitably scary, the main character was a tad annoying but in a 15 year old way not dislikable, and the mentor was solid. I think it could have been a bit longer, had they added 10 more minutes of world building it could have been really special.

The animated film, based on a novel by Laurence Yep, is a Chinese-flavoured comfort food that arrives just in time for the lunar new year and February half-term school holidays. The story revolves around teenage Tom, who lives in San Francisco with his eccentric grandmother, Amah, who is the guardian of a purple stone that can be turned into a phoenix. The film's shapeshifting villain Loo (Michelle Yeoh) is after this stone, and Amah is aided by an Avengers-style posse of animal-people-zodiac entities, including Hu (Henry Golding), the tiger of the title. Hu must learn to be a better teacher for Tom, his new apprentice, to foil Loo's evil plans. The film is a perky, likable, but derivative animated feature that is perfect for both the lunar new year and the February half-term school holidays. "The Tiger's Apprentice" is an animated film that features 11 magical animal-people-whatsits, each representing an animal in the Chinese zodiac. However, the film's main character, Loo, is locked up in magic jail, leaving only the tiger, dragon, rat, monkey, and rabbit to assist Tom in training and fighting Loo. The film also features a skateboarding, guitar-shredding human love interest, Rav, in the form of Rav (Leah Lewis). The film's appearance is generic, with a Who's Who cast including Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, and Greta Lee. Despite the impressive cast, the film's storytelling is mediocre, with only a few amusing moments and visual flourishes. The film's success is largely due to the talented cast, but the film's overall look is generic and lacks the depth and diversity of Asian representation in animated cinema. "The Tiger's Apprentice" is a visually appealing film with some impressive animation and some humorous moments, but it fails to fully utilize its potential. While it may be entertaining for younger viewers, it may not inspire a sequel that fully explores the promising mythology and characters. The film's lively and colorful nature may inspire a sequel that takes more time to fully explore these elements. The Tiger's Apprentice, directed by Raman Hui, is a thrilling adventure that follows Tom Lee, a Chinese-American high schooler who is tasked with continuing his family's legacy as a guardian with the help of the animals of the zodiac. Based on Laurence Yep's book, the movie follows Tom as he takes on the role of a guardian to protect humanity from evil forces. When disaster strikes, Tom must take his grandmother's place as a guardian to defend a phoenix egg from the nefarious Loo (Michelle Yeoh), who seeks to use it for her own purposes. Hu, one of the twelve members of the zodiac, takes Tom under his wing and introduces him to the rest of the animals, including Mistral the dragon (Sandra Oh) and Sidney the rat (Bowen Yang). The cast of the movie is its greatest strength, with Henry Golding being a standout and the intriguing dynamic between Hu and Mistral. The ensemble is entertaining and varied enough, with great potential for more stories set in the same world, focused around other animals of the zodiac, or further adventures centering Tom and Hu. The film has a lot of scope in the premise, and there is a surprise reveal towards the end that suggests the filmmakers must at least be considering a sequel. Whether they make one or not, The Tiger's Apprentice is a self-contained, satisfying story that will both entertain and tug at the audience's heartstrings.