Ne Zha 2
哪吒之魔童闹海
IMDb Rating
180K+
IMDb Votes
87%
Rotten Tomatoes
$1.87B
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Directed once again by Jiaozi (Yang Yu) and produced by Chengdu Coco Cartoon, Ne Zha 2 (哪吒之魔童闹海 — "Ne Zha: The Devil Child Churns the Sea") picks up immediately where the 2019 original left off. Ne Zha and Ao Bing, their souls shattered and suspended in fragments of the Heaven-Shattering Pearls following the apocalyptic events of the first film, must find a way to reconstitute their bodies before the pearls' energy dissipates forever. Their quest draws them into a conflict that stretches across the Immortal World, the Dragon Palace, and the mortal realm — forces of ancient prejudice, cosmic bureaucracy, and a terrifying new enemy conspire to ensure that demons and dragons alike are crushed under the heel of divine authority. At its heart, the film asks a deceptively simple question: can destiny truly be rewritten, or does the universe always find a way to punish those who dare to defy it?
What Jiaozi has accomplished with Ne Zha 2 is nothing short of extraordinary. Released during the 2025 Chinese New Year holiday window on January 29th, the film did not merely succeed commercially — it rewrote the record books, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in cinema history and surpassing $1.87 billion worldwide. But raw box office figures tell only part of the story. The film's animation represents a genuine quantum leap from its predecessor: battle sequences ripple with the kinetic energy of a great wuxia novel, elemental powers transform landscapes in real time, and character designs have been refined to carry an unprecedented emotional weight. The final act in particular — spanning nearly forty minutes of continuous spectacle — left audiences in China's cinemas openly weeping, and the film's central message about chosen family, inherited sin, and the possibility of grace in a universe that has already judged you lands with the force of a thunderclap. Ne Zha 2 is not merely the best animated film of 2025; it is a milestone in the medium's history.
Why Watch This Movie?
Animation That Redefines the Possible
The action choreography in Ne Zha 2 is unlike anything produced outside of Japan's best theatrical anime — and arguably surpasses much of that. Jiaozi and his team at Coco Cartoon have pushed Chinese animation technology to its absolute frontier, delivering battle sequences where fire, water, lightning, and stone interact with physical plausibility and visual poetry simultaneously. Every frame of the major set-pieces could be paused and displayed as art.
A Friendship That Earns Every Tear
The bond between Ne Zha and Ao Bing — a demon boy and a dragon prince, both outcasts condemned by a world that feared them before they were even born — is the emotional engine of both films. Ne Zha 2 takes that relationship to its logical, devastating conclusion. Their sacrifice for each other is not played for spectacle but for grief, and the film trusts its audience to sit with that grief until it transforms into something approaching catharsis. Few animated films have ever been this emotionally mature.
A Mythology Made Universal
Drawing from the 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods (封神演义), Jiaozi has distilled centuries of Chinese mythological tradition into something that speaks to any viewer who has ever felt born into a role they did not choose. The film's themes of defying fate, confronting institutional injustice, and choosing loyalty over self-preservation transcend their cultural origins completely. You do not need to know Chinese mythology to be moved by this film — you only need to have ever been told what you are allowed to be.
Cast & Crew
Director
Jiaozi (Yang Yu)
Screenplay
Jiaozi (Yang Yu)
Based On
Investiture of the Gods (封神演义)
Ne Zha (voice)
Lu Yanting
Ao Bing (voice)
Joseph (Han Mo)
Li Jing (voice)
Chen Hao
Taiyi Zhenren (voice)
Zhang Jiaming
Producer
Beijing Culture / Enlight
Studio
Chengdu Coco Cartoon
Official Trailer
© Chengdu Coco Cartoon / Beijing Culture. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to watch the first Ne Zha (2019) before seeing Ne Zha 2?
Yes, absolutely. Ne Zha 2 picks up directly from the final scene of the original 2019 film and assumes the viewer is familiar with all of its major characters, mythology, and emotional beats. The sequel does include brief visual callbacks and contextual dialogue, but these are not sufficient replacements for watching the first film. The original Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世) is available on most major streaming platforms internationally and is very much worth your time — it set multiple Chinese box office records in its own right and remains one of the finest animated features of the 2010s.
How much money did Ne Zha 2 make at the box office?
Ne Zha 2 grossed approximately $1.87 billion USD worldwide, making it the highest-grossing animated film ever made, surpassing The Lion King (2019) and Frozen II. The overwhelming majority of that total — over $1.7 billion — was earned domestically in China during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday window. It became the second-highest-grossing film of all time in China behind only Ne Zha (2019)... which it then surpassed. The film's success is a landmark moment for Chinese animation, demonstrating that domestic animated features can compete commercially with Hollywood at the very highest level.
Is Ne Zha 2 based on a real myth or legend?
Yes. Ne Zha (哪吒) is a deity from Chinese mythology who appears in multiple classical texts, most prominently in the 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods (封神演义 / Fengshen Yanyi) by Xu Zhonglin. In traditional lore, Ne Zha is a precocious, rebellious child-god associated with fire and lotus blossoms, famous for defying his father Li Jing and for dismembering and reconstructing his own body. The dragon Ao Bing is also a mythological figure — the third prince of the Dragon King of the East Sea — whose death at Ne Zha's hands is a pivotal episode in the original legend. Jiaozi's films reimagine this ancient conflict through a contemporary lens, reframing the classic tale as a story about systemic prejudice and the refusal to accept a predetermined fate.
Will there be a Ne Zha 3?
As of 2025, director Jiaozi has not officially confirmed a third film. Given the extraordinary commercial success of Ne Zha 2, a continuation is widely expected by industry analysts and fans alike. The ending of the second film does leave narrative threads open that could support a third chapter. However, Jiaozi is known for taking considerable time between projects — the original Ne Zha took over four years to produce — so any sequel would likely not arrive until the late 2020s at the earliest. Any announcements will be made through Coco Cartoon's official channels.
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