Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker has returned after covering my Annecy adventure, so now, we are getting back to more animated movies, so let’s see what we have here!
The first movie, The Square, takes place in Pyongyang, North Korea, where Swedish diplomat Isak searches for his missing love interest and traffic police officer Bok-Joo after the latter went missing. The Square was part of last year’s Annecy Film Festival in the Contrechamp section, and while it was not on my radar, I got the rare opportunity to cover that movie after covering A Mighty Adventure on my flight back to Singapore via Singapore Airlines (similar as to how I was able to cover the Chickenhare sequel and The Light of Aisha on an Emirates flight earlier this year and Give it All last year via Thai Airways on my flight from Bangkok back to Singapore). How will this movie fare?
The second movie, All Wishes Come True, is the newest Pearl Studios movie about eight mortals who use their special talents to defy powerful gods. This is going to be the first ever Pearl Studios movie without relying on Western help, considering their previous movies had some Western involvement, including their Oscar-nominated movie, Over the Moon, back in 2020. Now, we are finally getting to see them without any shackles, so how will Pearl Studios’ first ever solo animated movie go?
The third movie, Niu Lai, is the latest Chinese animated movie sensation that is so bad it’s good, about a calf struggling to live up to his family’s expectations who go on an adventure across the desert, forging new allies and encountering dangers along the way. Niu Lai is this year’s overnight animated movie sensation, attracting many moviegoers due to how incredibly bad this movie was, only to find out about this two-person project that ended up creating a global sensation the world over. Is Niu Lai the brand new guilty pleasure classic?
The fourth movie, Tad the Lost Explorer and the Magic Lamp, is the fourth instalment in the Tad the Lost Explorer series, and has Tad and his team on an adventure to reverse a spell he has accidentally casted. The Tad the Lost Explorer is, in my personal opinion, the Despicable Me of Spain, in that they are both way too popular in their home countries that kind of do not justify the overall quality, and considering I saw the third instalment in theatres back in 2022, I am surprisingly curious about this fourth movie. How will I feel about it?
Let’s get on with this epic adventure, shall we?
The Square
Key Information
- Director: Kim Bo-Sol
- Animation Studio: Korean Academy of Fine Arts
- Country of Origin: South Korea
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 15 January 2026 (in South Korea)
Trailer
The Review
Honestly, given this was last year’s Contrechamp jury winner at that edition of the Annecy Film Festival, I came into this movie with decently high expectations, and I concur: The Square may have a cold story, but this was a surprisingly human animated movie for me.
The Square takes a different approach when it comes to movies taking place in North Korea, one of the most isolated countries in the world, and rather than portraying the atrocious human rights violation this country has committed, this movie focused on the forbidden love story between a Swedish diplomat and a North Korea traffic officer and make it remarkably sad and cold. This makes the love story even more realistic and provides a level of warmth that I felt especially towards the end. Even with the slight lack of character development (with the movie focusing more on the Swedish diplomat’s perspective), by the end of the movie I appreciated the characters a lot, despite how sad this movie is.
The animation is also something else altogether. Considering this movie is not animated by a prominent animation studio, but instead a film academy, it is commendable to see how deep and well-produced the animation is. The animation style is also as cold as the whole story, with certain detailing that match the story so well. The fact that many of the sequences took place at night or in dark places sells the story even more, and after seeing it, I can understand why this won the Contrechamp jury award. This animation makes the story shine even more.
The minor elements are as equally compelling as the writing and animation, and as for my level of enjoyment, this was a movie I did not expect myself to enjoy, so it was a surprise to see myself feeling a lot with this movie, despite how cold this movie is. Honestly, I honestly felt a lot of warmth despite the story being one of the saddest of the year so far.
Overall, The Square is a very human animated movie that certain moviegoers can appreciate thanks to how much the story and the animation sell its concept so well. It is such a shame this movie is not getting enough attention, because The Square is an animated movie well needed in today’s animation scene, and shows that the Korean animation scene is getting better and better than ever.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
All Wishes Come True!
Key Information
- irector: Mu Zhengxin
- Animation Studio: Pearl Studios
- Country of Origin: China
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 27 August 2026 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
What else can I say but… Welcome back, Pearl Studios! It has been so long since your last movie, and what a massive improvement All Wishes Come True was over The Monkey King!
In my previous review of The Monkey King, I highlighted a lot of writing issues within the movie, and thankfully, All Wishes Come True fixes most of the issues very well and then some.
Probably my biggest issue with the script in The Monkey King was the lack of focus in its major elements. Thankfully, All Wishes Come True felt tighter and more exciting in bringing the tale of the Eight Immortals and giving it a fresh spin with the movie also being a heist movie. That resulted in a fun and well-paced two-hour ride that is full of comedy, action, and unexpected twists that made All Wishes Come True so delightfully unpredictable. It also helped that there is so much character development, not just from the main duo of the Eight Immortals of Lu Dongbin (Li Shaozhe) and Zhongli Quan (veteran actor and voice actor Chen Hao), but also from the other six immortals and the other supporting cast. In fact, it made the final few minutes of the movie even more awesome with how that movie ended.
As for the animation, while this is unlike what Pearl Studios usually produces in its animation, since they are more of a westernised Chinese animation studio specialist with their previous works, this time they abandoned it and embraced a more fluid Chinese style. Regardless, this is one of their best animation works yet due to how much personality and quality there was with the animation in All Wishes Come True. The environments felt distinct, the characters have a lot of edginess in the designs, the action sequences were a lot of fun, and overall, the animation in All Wishes Come True, while different compared to Pearl Studios’ other works, is easily their best so far.
In terms of the soundtrack, the soundtrack and the music tracks go as hard as the writing and the animation (plus bonus points for having a Zhou Shen song as the main song for this movie, considering the amount of praise I had for his singing and voice acting in last year’s Endless Journey of Love), as well as the marketing for this movie. As for my level of enjoyment, I am so excited to see Pearl Studios returning to produce another animated movie, but more importantly, All Wishes Come True felt like a great leap forward in their potential. Despite being a two-hour ride, this movie did not slow down at all and I was very happy with this movie overall.
Overall, All Wishes Come True not only marks the return of Pearls Studios at their best since Over the Moon, with the studio now abandoning their westernised Chinese animation that they are used to and embracing the epicness of Chinese animation in full force. Hopefully, Pearl Studios keeps this up because they might have the chance to challenge the very top of the Chinese animation industry in the near future!
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Niu Lai
Key Information
- Director: Xin Yumeng
- Animation Studios: Dalian Jingyuan Culture Film and Entertainment
- Country of Origin: China
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 5 August 2026 (in China)
Trailer
The Review
Having decided to see this movie on a short notice due to the virility of this movie, I am expecting something that would convince me to see this movie in its entirety despite how terrible looking this movie is. Instead, what I got was a surprisingly competent animated movie for one produced by just two people only on a micro-budget of sorts.
Firstly, the writing can be all over the place, but it nails its core message about a mother’s love to the main character. In fact, despite how messy the writing and the character development is, I am surprised by how much emotional weight there was to this movie, even if the writing lacks the focus it needs. Honestly, considering I had seen worse writing from animated movies with more writers than this movie throughout 2026 so far, I honestly had to give my flowers to the two people (mainly the director and his mother) involved in this movie.
Secondly, the same thing can be said for the animation. To get the obvious out of the way, this is not even remotely close to the animation quality of some of my most favourite animated movies of the year so far, but at the very least I can forgive the shortcomings in the animation because it resulted in a style that has a distinct personality. Some of the rendering work is not too bad for one made by a mom-and-pop duo, and there are certain animation moments that made me laugh over its absurd animation, which I cannot say for animated movies worse than Niu Lai in terms of animation despite having way more animators for their works than what Niu Lai can come up with.
Thirdly, the soundtrack is not too bad, and the viral marketing this movie has gotten thanks to its fans and cinema-goers who unironically promotes the movie is a by-product for how bizarre that movie looks. As for my level of enjoyment, lastly, I had a lot of fun with this oddity. Sure, I have a proper guilty pleasure animated movie for this year with The Pout-Pout Fish, but I don’t think that movie can make me laugh as hard as Niu Lai. This movie is not just unintentionally entertaining, but it highlights the level of passion and dedication put into this movie, especially considering we are in the midst of generative A/I boom. I rather have an animated movie made by humans with Niu Lai rather than one that looks more polished and generic with generative A/I “animated movies”.
In conclusion, it is not every day that I cover an animated movie like Niu Lai, but this is one of those rare moments, and I am glad I got to see an animated movie that shows that even with limited resources, passion and dedication to the art form of animation can never stop an animator from producing their own dream animated movie even if the final result is not that great. This is why I am certain generative A/I can never take over the animation industry fully, because Niu Lai is an animated movie produced with so much love despite the sheer limitations of this movie.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Tad and The Magic Lamp
Key Information
- Director: Enrique Gato
- Animation Studios: Lightbox Animation Studios and Ikiru Films
- Country of Origin: Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 3 September 2026 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
Considering I have some experience when it comes to the Tad the Lost Explorer series, I knew what I was expecting with the fourth instalment in this franchise, and indeed, Tad and the Magic Lamp played out almost exactly what I would expect… with one nasty surprise towards the end.
If you had seen the previous 3 Tad movies prior to this, this movie would have been familiar: Tad and his friends finding an artifact, and hilarity ensues, except this time, Tad had his baby daughter along for the ride, focusing on their bond and also Mummy’s backstory (since much of the story focuses on his past). Indeed, this movie was as funny and engaging as I would expect, though not as highbrow as some of the other family-friendly foreign CG animated movies I covered this year, including Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog earlier this year. While Mummy was indeed quite annoying (I personally do not like him based on what I felt in the third Tad movie), exploring his past actually made him more well-rounded than being just the gang’s comic relief character. Other than that, nothing new on this instalment.
The animation is also on the same level as the other three movies: competent and good quality enough for family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, with decent action sequences and designs, but there is one thing I dislike about the animation style in the 4th Tad movie: no, it is not the generic CG designs I came to expect, but during the end credits, some images used are most likely from the usage of generative A/I, which is a huge no-no for me. I draw a line when it comes to this piece of technology junk ravaging the internet, and sadly, it seems Lightbox Animation Studios failed to read the room on this one.
The other elements are exactly what I would expect for this, and as for my level of enjoyment, despite what this movie entails, I had a decent time with the 4th Tad the Lost Explorer movie. Yes, this was not highbrow entertainment for me, and the use of generative A/I at the end credits bothered me, but I had a good time with this movie, especially towards the end.
Overall, if you want your Tad the Lost Explorer fix, you will be delighted to know that the 4th Tad movie delivers just that, even if there were a couple of issues that I find it unforgivable in this day and age. Otherwise, consider some of the other animated movies I covered in this Rundown, especially All Wishes Come True.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
This was one weird but entertaining Rundown for sure, and I am sure that this Rundown will provide some recommendations for what to look out for in your next watches.
Well, it is that time of the year where I cover a big mainstream animated movie and in this case, we are heading back to DreamWorks for their next adventure I the Philippines. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
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