Story

Fei Fei (voice of Cathy Ang) lives with her mother (voice of Ruthie Ann Miles) and father (voice of John Cho) in an idyllic Chinese village. They own a bakery and are busy preparing delicious mooncakes for the upcoming moon festival. Fei Fei loves it when her mother tells her the beautiful legend of Chang’e, the moon goddess who took a magic immortality potion and was banished for eternity to live on the moon, leaving her true love Houyi behind. But then Fei Fei’s mother becomes ill and dies, leaving her daughter the gift of a soft white rabbit.

Four years later, Fei Fei is a young teenager and her father is starting a relationship with another woman (voice of Sandra Oh), who has an annoying eight-year-old son, Chin (voice of Robert G. Chiu). Fei Fei feels deeply hurt and still misses her mother very much, so she tries to think of a way to stop the relationship going further. Fei Fei uses her scientific talents to design a rocket to take her to the moon. She thinks that if she can prove that the legend of Chang’e is real, she can convince her father that true love is eternal.

Fei Fei, her rabbit and Chin zoom into a cosmic wonderland. Here Chang’e (voice of Phillipa Soo) appears as a pop diva with a sharp tongue, surrounded by thousands of cute, luminescent and psychedelic moon creatures. In this alternate universe, Fei Fei and Chin learn many important lessons about love, grief and moving on.

Themes

Death of a parent; grief and loss; Chinese culture and mythology; space adventure; new parent relationships

Violence

Over the Moon has some very mild, slapstick violence. For example:

• Chin keeps running into walls as he tries to climb them.
• Characters have some bumps and falls.

Sexual references

Over the Moon has some romantic references. For example:

• There are some meaningful glances between Fei Fei’s father and his new girlfriend.
• The rabbits seem to be slightly attracted to each other.
• There is a romance between Chang’e and her lost love Houyi. They embrace and look longingly at each other.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

Over the Moon has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, when Chang’e is performing her pop song, she wears tight, sexy clothing and unrealistically high-heeled shoes.

Product placement

None noted.

Coarse language

Over the Moon has some mild coarse language, including ‘ding bat’, ‘butt’ and ‘poo’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Over the Moon is an animated musical fantasy that weaves traditional Chinese mythology around the story of a young girl overcoming the loss of her mother and accepting that love can grow and include others too.

Over the Moon is a little confusing at times, especially in the second half of the movie, when the story jumps from a beautiful Chinese village to a psychedelic cosmic universe. But children are likely to enjoy the cute, bright animation, the sweet songs and the positive messages about love and family.

The main messages from this movie are that our hearts can expand to love more people than we thought, and that it’s important to let go of grief.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include inventiveness, creativity, determination, compassion, family and the pleasure of sharing food.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like how it feels when a parent or parents begin new relationships. You could ask children what they think about the way Fei Fei deals with her father’s new relationship.