Heroes of the Golden Mask (2023)

 

 Movie Name/Year: Heroes of the Golden Mask (2023)

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Length: 1h 22min

Rating: Unrated

Production/Distribution: Arcana Studio, CG Bros Entertainment, Trigger Music, Fox VFX Labs, Heroes of the Golden Mask Films, Gravitas Ventures, The Exchange, Paramount

Director: Sean Patrick O’Reilly

Writers: Xiaoming Yao, John Wilson, Dennis Edwards, Jim Kammerud, Jacob Semans, Brian Smith, Richard Lasser, Chris Wyatt, Merrill Hagan, Benjamin Townsend, Sean Patrick O'Reilly, Brandon Violette, Jacob Fox, Patrick Rieger

Actors: Ron Perlman, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Patton Oswalt, Christopher Plummer, Kiefer O'Reilly, Byron Mann, Osric Chau, Kiefer O’Reilly, Sean Patrick O’Reilly, Zeus Mendoza, Kingston Chan, King Lau, Jane Eastwood, Albert Steven Tsai, Rickie Wang, Jett Wu

 

IMDb Blurb: Charlie, a wise-cracking, homeless, American orphan is magically transported to the ancient Chinese kingdom of Sanxingdui, where a colorful team of superheroes need his help to defend the city from a brutal conqueror. Charlie joins the heroes, and secretly schemes to steal the priceless golden masks that grant them their powers.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

I want to begin by saying that I overall enjoyed my experience watching Heroes of the Golden Mask. There were several factors that drew me to this movie when we watched trailers while preparing for the June 2023 Top 20 article. It made both Selina’s list as well as my own. 

One big reason I was keen to watch Heroes of the Golden Mask as soon as I could was because of the cast involved. I’ve had a soft spot for Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) projects dating back to the 80s. I’ve also enjoyed productions featuring Patton Oswalt (The Goldbergs, The Sandman, 80 for Brady), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Guns Akimbo, The Voyeurs, Day Shift), Keifer O'Reilly (Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom, Midnight Sun, Mixtape) before. 

 

Last, but certainly not least, Heroes of the Golden Mask was the final movie renowned Christopher Plummer (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, All the Money in the World, Knives Out) worked on before his passing, and I wanted to see his final project in homage to his storied career. 

The story looked like it might just be pretty good, too, so that was a plus. 

Now that I’ve watched Heroes of the Golden Mask, I can’t say that it lived up to all of my expectations, but it did a pretty good job. 

This is going to be the kind of movie that younger kids might get a kick out of, but teens and adults might find their attention drifting now and again. There’s definitely a good message, and it’s interesting that the story was inspired by actual artifacts. It might encourage research on the topic if anyone desires to delve deeper. Parents just might want to gauge their children’s tolerance level beforehand, because there are some creatures and situations that might be a little scary for the very young involved. The story does also involve some intense loss experienced by some of the main characters. 

 

The animation was really the only thing that took away from the experience for me - and I really tried to look past it to the overall narrative. There were flashes of greatness but they were surrounded by some aspects that felt unfinished - like the storyboard scenery accidentally made it into the final cut, or a graphics card was having a hard time keeping up while loading a large video game. 

 

I really try not to put too much weight on the visuals, however, sometimes it just can't be helped. It can be distracting if things look.. well, off.  In today's age with the amount of digital content available out there, projects that are less polished are unfortunately going to pale against the veritable mountain of other content.

I think it’s one of those things that you just have to take with a grain of salt, however. This wasn’t made by a big-budget A-list animation studio, after all. Arcadia Studio is still relatively young and has the potential for growth. So far its projects have been a little off-the-wall but there have been some good ones in their repertoire so far - such as the Howard Lovecraft series, such as Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (2016). They’ve also got a few quirky titles like Panda vs. Aliens (2021). While I’ve seen and enjoyed the Lovecraft films, I haven’t seen the others. 

 

I think writer and director Sean Patrick O'Reilly (The Steam Engines of Oz, Howard Lovecraft adn the Kingdom of Madness, Corrective Measures) did the best he could with what he had and is really starting to find his feet in the industry. I think his projects have the potential to get better from here. Of course, I am an eternal optimist so take that how you will. 

Now that school is letting out and kids are finding more time on their hands, Heroes of the Golden Mask might be a great way to get summer vacation started for the younger crowd. 

Heroes of the Golden Mask is set to release in theaters and On Demand starting Friday, June 9th, 2023.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –None

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – None

 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

Trust the Dice: Parental Guidance Rating – PG

Movie Trailer: