Day 383: I was beginning to think the beast did not exist. For over a year I have searched for the elusive creature, be he man or myth. One question haunts my every step, “Is there a good bigfoot/yeti motion picture, or is this just the stuff of legend?” What could possibly motivate the mind promoting such a myth? I believed the converse to be true, but for now the answer seemed as distant as the creature itself.
The quest began, curiously, in a theater last October for a screening of Smallfoot. The picture showed promise, but ultimately disappointed. In April, I discovered Missing Link. Again, I was encouraged, for how could Hugh Jackman lead me astray? And yet, the beast again proved elusive. For months, I studied the archives, yet films like Harry and the Hendersons and The Legend of Boggy Creek were even worse! What was I missing? Perhaps there were home movies of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Zach Galifianakis to cover the thesis; my speculation, however, proved inconclusive. I had begun to give up. Diary, you must understand I was in the depths of despair. There was no such beast as the good yeti picture.
Needless to say, I was skeptical with regards to the film Abominable; it was going to take a lot to make make me believe a yeti picture was worth the investment. Sometimes, I truly relish being wrong. Abominable is a bit derivative and relies too heavily on a dues ex machina, but this picture is otherwise a gem.
Independent urban teenager Yi (voice of Chloe Bennet) spends all of her free time making money the way kids make money: walking dogs, scrubbing dumpsters, and teaching old people how to find the off switch on a computer. What is her tireless quest for? To take the trip her late father always promised and never delivered. Awwww. I’m not crying; you’re crying.
And one day, while she’s stashing her pennies in her secret rooftop hideaway, she encounters a yeti … an immature yeti desperately hiding from the lab where he busted out. Spotting a billboard advertising Mt. Everest, the creature looks longingly at the disparate atmosphere. Instantly, Yi has a new quest – get “Everest” back home where he
belongs. It’s hard to have a quibble with such a sweet plot, right? It speaks to compassionate people of all walks.
Turns out the beast is intelligent, perhaps a lot more so than Yi or the two boys who come along for the ride: doofus Peng (Albert Tsai), and teen idol Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor – seriously? The kid’s name “Tenzing Norgay” and his film character is traveling to Everest; this can’t possibly be a coincidence, can it?) . It’s funny how much of this film parallels Up. Peng is a dead ringer for Russell and the idea is to get the rare creature back home and out of the clutches of the evil old man who wants scientific proof at all costs.
This brings me to the thing I needed to reconcile in my mind – Everest the yeti is magical. Oh? Yeti are magical? That’s a new one. Not only do these powers make for convenient escapes, one wonders why Everest didn’t use them to get himself home in the first place. Oh well; it’s a movie. Eventually, the magic displayed a nifty pattern and I forgave the whole dues ex machine use. It’s one of those wonderful parts of being told a good story: when you care enough about Marty McFly, you stop asking why he and the Doc didn’t go after Hitler. Abominable is like that; it is a very emotionally satisfying film. I loved Yi and Everest and Peng and Jin (eventually), and for that I was able to ignore how much this film resembled Up or Smallfoot or Missing Link. Normally, I’d have been very tempted to dismiss Abominable out-of-hand for being so similar to films I’ve already seen; that would have been a large mistake.
Three kids set out walking their yeti
(A magical creature, don’t forget-ty)
And without GPS
It could be a mess
They’ll end up in the Serengeti
Rated PG, 97 Minutes
Director: Jill Culton, Todd Wilderman
Writer: Jill Culton
Genre: Buddy road pic
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Yetis
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Megalomaniacs
