jjlinNo matter how old you are, there’re a few things in life you shouldn’t do. These include driving under the influence of alcohol and trafficking drugs. Also on the list is the viewing the latest local animation film, Legend of the Sea, which is so bad, it should be outlawed to protect consumers.

Rated G, Legend of the Sea is suitable for all ages, which says nothing of the level of the film’s appeal. On the surface, Legend of the Sea might seem like the Chinese marriage between box office favourite, Finding Nemo, and Disney’s evergreen classic, The Little Mermaid. But like what is said about murky waters, looks can be deceiving.

Granted, Legend of the Sea had all the makings of a good film: a star studded cast doing voiceovers, a foolproof (albeit tacky) storyline and well known producers. On the flip side, it also had elements that really did the movie in, such as bad lip-synching, the classic yet run-of-the-mill plot and poor subtitling.

Perhaps, Legend of the Sea’s predecessor, Zodiac: the Race Begins, had shoes that were too big to fill, but that is no excuse for such a poor film.

The animation begins with a scene of dead fishes, which has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot, and it’s only after this unnecessary scene that the story begins to unfold…

After class one day, Draco (JJ Lin), the playful young Dragon Prince, steals the source of his father’s powers, the Luminous Pearl, to play with. With it, he meets up with his friends, Sam the squid (Lin Yu Zhong) and Ping, the puffer fish (Jin Sha), to explore a tunnel which the latter 2 had discovered.

Before the trio embark upon their expedition, Draco has the good sense to hide the Pearl at the entrance for fear of losing it. As fate would have it, the tunnel happens to be a direct passage to the Eastern Sea Palace and the 3 friends stumble upon an evil plan of Ocho the octopus, (remember Ursula of The Little Mermaid?) who, coincidentally, happens to be scheming to take over the Eastern Sea.

The plot thickens when it is revealed that many years ago, the Dragon King and Ocho had a major battle that caused Ocho to lose 5 of her 8 tentacles. The duo was evenly matched but the Dragon King had the Luminous Pearl that gave him the additional advantage to defeat Ocho, resulting in her exile from the Eastern Sea kingdom.

Unable to live down the humiliation even after so long, Ocho managed to regroup her strength with an army of swordfishes led by Crab, a former member of the royal army and 2 other sidekicks, Anvil and Hammer, who are both comedic hammerhead sharks. This time she feels that she is more than ready to take on the Dragon King and snatch the Pearl away from him.

Shocked at the revelation, Draco sends his friends back to warn his father of the impending doom facing the kingdom. Unfortunately after his friends leave, Draco falls into the hands of the enemy who is more than delighted to have additional leverage on her side to threaten the Dragon King with, in exchange for the Pearl. However, unknown to Ocho, the Pearl was no longer in the Eastern Sea Kingdom but just outside the entrance of the tunnel.

Ocho, using the tunnel, barges into the Eastern Sea Palace and demands the Dragon King give up the Pearl in 3 days’ time in exchange for his son’s life. A touching scene ensues about how the Dragon King states that he would give up everything for his son’s safety (*ahem* Finding Nemo *ahem*).

Sam and Ping come at this point of time and divulge that the Pearl was buried outside the tunnel but they simply cannot remember the exact spot. A search party of prawn soldiers was formed but to no avail.

Misery loves company and our caged Dragon Prince makes a new friend in the prison cell: a starfish named Star Lee. With the hilarious references to deceased Chinese martial arts star, Bruce Lee, Star is easily the saving grace of the entire production, invoking laughter among those in the audience.

With the help of his newfound friend, together with Sam and Ping who come back for him, Draco manages to fight his way out, even if his friends end up taking his place in jail. The Dragon Prince swears to come back for them but the climax heightens when he gets lost on the way back to the kingdom, meeting with some misadventures of his own that are very much similar to those faced by Marlin in Finding Nemo.

The graphics used in Legend of the Sea were disappointing to say the least. The marine creatures depicted were hardly life-like and the sea’s failing was in its bubbles which were highly unnatural.

Add horrible subtitling (“sacrifice” became “scarify”) and mismatched lip synching to the mix and you have on your hands an animation that did injustice to the voice-over talents, all of whom are reputable stars in the Chinese music industry, but are not going to be legendary on the strength of this movie.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Details
Running time: 78 minutes
Opening date: June 5
Director: Benjamin Toh
Cast: JJ Lin, Lin Yuzhong, Jin Sha