We have to talk about K-Pop Demon Hunters

 Okay, okay. I watched it. I did. And I enjoyed it!

In case you've been living under a rock these past few months and don't know, K-Pop Demon Hunters is a Netflix animated movie about...K-pop stars (Korean pop singers) who also save us from demons who are breaking through from the other side. It was actually a lot of fun.

My daughter told me about it at the beginning of summer, but since I don't have a Netflix account, I had to wait until she came to visit and we watched it on her account.

What I liked about it

It was actually refreshing to watch something so fun without an "message" attached. The girls were relatable. sure they dressed up in their pop clothes but we have lots of scenes with them wearing comfy clothes when in their down time.

The characters are relatable. They're actually like real people, not artificial people. 

The demons were HOT. Popcorn is coming out of my eyes right now. Can you have a crush on a cartoon?

I love it that the characters weren't just pretty faces but they had real challenges.

The conflict was universal. Rumi is half demon and she doesn't want to be a demon. If they sing a really good song, they can seal all the demons out of this world and she won't have to worry about telling her two best friend who are also demon hunters that she's part demon. Although I don't have purple patterns on me, there is always the conflict of the parts of ourselves that we have to hide, even to those closest to us. I liked it that the conflict was also simple. They focus on one of the singers and the conflict and weight, meaning and consequences.

It was funny! I actually laughed out loud a few times. The animation, the drawings, were all so good.

It felt like it was made by people who actually like making movies. I dont' know if you've felt this way in the last little bit, but I feel like cinema has gone down the drain, maybe because too man execs in the kitchen or writing room or it's all written by AI. But whatever it is, our movies lately feel like a regurgitation of popular films. They feel soulless. As a storyteller, I'm not impressed. K-Pop Demon Hunters felt fresh. I could feel the passion in the songs, the animation, the characters. It was made with love. 

Things I didn't like (Spoilers!)

I was sad that that Jinu and Rumi don't get together in the end. The sacrifice is necessary, but it's still sad. (Not a romance--just a story with romantic elements.

All the spin offs that are coming. The live action adaptation. Series. Two more movies. So in case you haven't heard, after the global phenomenon of K-Pop Demon Hunters, Sony has green lighted (green lit?) a live-action adaptation and a couple of spin offs and maybe even a series. This makes me kind of sad. Because while the first one took almost a decade to write and produce, I am worried that these kind of "spin-offs" will just be the cheap "content" we're seeing from streaming services instead of real true story, passion and self from the writers.

Also, can I talk about animation being its own art form? There are so many delightful things about animation that when you make it live-action, gives it a dull, boring feeling. I know it's kind of en vogue right now to turn these animated movies into live-action, but I feel like we should just love the animated form. Now this is coming from someone who had a dad who would never watch anime or anything animated because it was "for kids." All I am saying is that animation is a beautiful medium to tell a goofy story that literally cannot be told in any other way. The expression of the characters, the popcorn coming out of their eyes will not be done in live-action. Sigh. Okay, as you were.

Did you watch K-Pop Demon Hunters? What did you think about it? What did you like/dislike?