First of all, it’s very clear that this movie is way different from those other yeti-focused films. Most importantly, the yeti in this movie doesn’t speak, unlike in those other films. This yeti, named Everest by the young girl who discovers him on her metropolitan Chinese rooftop, is more of an animal than a person. We were treated to a sequence where the girl Yi (
Chloe Bennet) does a series of odd jobs to try and pay for a trip across China that she’s been desperately planning. Of course, she is interrupted by the arrival of this yeti (we didn’t see the sequence where the yeti escapes from a private lab and how he winds up on that rooftop, but it sounded exciting).
One of the sequences we saw was a lengthy, dialogue-free sequence where she meets Everest, tries to help him repair his injured arm, and starts to understand that she’s got to return him to Mount Everest. It was a beautiful sequence, a stunning showcase of the animation and the performances that the animators gave Everest and Yi, the sort of thing that anyone working in animation loves to attempt. And, it should be noted, the animation even in an unfinished form, is absolutely astonishing and ranks amongst the best the studio has ever produced, particularly a moment when Yi plays her violin on the rooftop, the entire city opening up beneath her as she plays. It’s stunning.