Wish Dragon Review: Time to Watch Aladdin

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What happens in Wish Dragon?

Din and Li Na were the best of childhood friends until one day Li Na’s dad moves her out of the neighborhood. Ten years later, Din is now a college student who dreams of reuniting who’s now famous for her father’s wealth and being a model. While Din tries to get good grades to please his mother, he also tries to make some money by delivering food to help him buy clothes to impress Li Na.

One day while delivering food Din meets a man who claims to be a god and who gives him a teapot as payment. Later that day Din opens the teapot revealing a magical Wish Dragon that will grant him three wishes. With the help of the dragon named Long, Din hopes to reunite with and impress Li Na. 

Who are the characters in Wish Dragon?

Wish Dragon features three main characters: Din, Li Na, and Long. Din is from a poor family. Although he is poor, he spends his time delivering dumplings instead of studying. He really cherished his time with his childhood friend Li Na before she moved. After she moved, Li Na became rich and knew many powerful people. Long is a Wish Dragon who resides within a teapot and grants his master three wishes that do not involve time travel, killing someone, or making someone fall in love.

Wish Dragon Review

This movie is an interesting one as it is a movie that starts so uninspired and a rip-off that I didn’t want to finish it but in the back half it pulled itself together and made for an enjoyable ending. Now if you read that summary and thought is this Aladdin you would be correct, at least for the first 45 minutes. It is so similar I thought that Netflix could have a lawsuit on their hands for the nearly identical plots. That first part of the movie was quite scary as I had been looking forward to the film and it was looking like it was going to turn out to be a dud.

About 50 minutes in however the film starts to become interesting as the characters’ get to be more than Aladdin rip-offs and the b-storyline becomes more entertaining. Din and Li Na in the second half of the film are charming and quite funny with their relationship growing naturally. The henchmen in the film are funny as well and their scenes were always a highlight even during the front half.

The character of Long the dragon is a tough one for me as I am a huge fan of the Genie in Aladdin and his character felt the most like a rip-off and he didn’t land as a character for me through most of the film with his jokes being unfunny and being a less likable Genie that is until they explored his backstory. Long’s backstory and the way his development is shown really made me like the character by the end of the film and kind of made me see him more fondly looking back.

On top of that, Long isn’t even that cool of a dragon. Now you don’t need a real dragon like we see in Harry Potter or GOT, but animation dragons can be awesome. Take Raya and the Last Dragon as a good example.

The film also succeeds more when it leans into the Chinese culture aspect as it gives it a more unique and distinctive identity. The plot gets a lot better in the second half as well when it is allowed to explore more different character interactions and motivations. 

All in all, this is an okay film that ends on a high note. If like me, you’re sitting there at the beginning thinking you would just rather watch Aladdin stick with it. It gets better and more original throughout and by the end, I would say it was a good enough experience for me to recommend it.