Stephen Chow’s ‘Monkey King,’ Plus ‘Boons and Curses’ and ‘Mech Cadet,’ Coming to Netflix in 2023

Three new animated feature films from Asian American creators are coming to Netflix in 2023, including Stephen Chow’s “The Monkey King,” starring the voice talents of Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Jo Koy, Ron Yuan, Hoon Lee, Stephanie Hsu, Andrew Pang, Andrew Kishino, Jodi Long, James Sie and BD Wong.

“The Monkey King” is inspired by the famous Chinese tale “Journey to the West,” in which a special monkey fights gods, demons, dragons — and his own hubris. The film is executive produced by Chow, with “Over the Moon’s” Peilin Chou and “How to Train Your Dragon 2’s Kendra Haaland producing. Anthony Stacchi (“The Boxtrolls”) is directing.

“The Monkey King has endured for generations with his unique character and spirit,” said Chow. I’m so excited to be collaborating with Tony, Peilin, and everyone at Netflix to bring this joyful tale to audiences worldwide!”

Additionally, “Boons and Curses” and “Mech Cadets” are also hitting Netflix in 2023. From creator and executive producer Jaydeep Hasrajani and series co-executive producer Jake Goldman, “Boons and Curses” is a comedy-action animated series set in the magical land of Maya, where a cosmic war looms. Inspired by ancient South Asia, the adventure comedy centers on a three-foot-tall hero made of butter, who takes on Raj and his monstrous army. The show is described as: “Claiming to be a cursed warrior from another time, Baan may have been transformed into solid ghee but he won’t let that stop him! Teaming up with Rani, a young thief with delusions of grandeur, Baan must use every arrow in his quiver if he wants to defeat the Raj.”

“Growing up, I used to think of the hyphen in ‘Indian-American’ as a separator between two parts of myself,” said Hasrajani. “With ‘Boons and Curses’ I want to turn that hyphen from a wall into a bridge, not just for me, but for anybody who has ever felt that they were caught between two worlds. Using the beauty of South Asian mythology, folktales, and culture, our talented and passionate crew is so eager
to share an exciting and hilarious adventure that can resonate with everyone the world over.”

“Mech Cadets” is an animated series based on the Boom! Studios series “Mech Cadet Yu” from Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa, executive produced by Boom! Studios, Japanese studio Polygon Pictures Inc. and Aaron Lam, who also serves as the writer and an executive producer.

Set 50 years in the future, after a terrifying alien species attack, “teenager Stanford Yu works as a janitor at the Sky Corps Military Academy. But he’s only dreamed of one thing his entire life — to pilot a Robo Mech, giant robots from outer-space who came to our aid. When he finally gets his shot, Stanford and his classmates must put aside all personal differences and work together as a team in order to defend humanity against a new invasion of aliens.”

“It is important for us to create stories that exemplify our teams’ diverse voices and art as a studio based in Tokyo, Japan,” said Polygon’s Jack Liang. “As part of our mission ‘to do what no other has done, in unparalleled quality, for all the world to see and enjoy,’ we are ecstatic to have alongside with us, our supervising director, Tohru Patrick Awa, writer and executive producer, Aaron Lam and our talented diverse team of writers, to visualize the wonderful story created by Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa and Boom! Studios. We all are honored to
work with Netflix, and to tell a story that we hope will inspire future storytellers around the world.”

Said Netflix Animation manager Jane Lee: “These films and series join our incredible slate of animation from world class Asian American creators with different styles, unique voices, and a broad range of stories to tell including Academy Award-nominated film ‘Over the Moon’ from Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou; ‘City of Ghosts’ from Elizabeth Ito; and upcoming series and films like ‘Centaurworld’
from Megan Nicole Dong; ‘Oni’ from Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi; ‘Ghee
Happy’ from Sanjay Patel; ‘Witch Boy’ from Minkyu Lee; and ‘Steps’ from Alyce Tzue.”

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