Over the Moon (2020)

Over the Moon feels like a modern fairy tale told with the confidence of a studio showing off its brightest paints: Glen Keane’s animation bursts into a candy-colored lunar dreamscape, then quietly lands on something tender and real. It’s an adventure powered by a child’s ingenuity and a heart still holding onto loss, and the movie treats that grief with surprising gentleness for a family musical. The songs and spectacle are big, but the vibe is even bigger—warm, sincere, and steeped in Chinese folklore and festival imagery that gives the fantasy a lived-in cultural texture. The story beats can feel familiar if you’ve seen a lot of animated quests, but if you’re open to a heartfelt, visually ravishing ride that earns its emotion, this one is easy to recommend.

Over the Moon is clearly aiming for a heartfelt, culturally rooted story about grief and learning to accept change, wrapped in bright musical fantasy on the Moon. The problem is that once it leaves Earth, the movie can feel like it’s throwing glitter at the screen to distract you from a fairly familiar, by-the-numbers plot, with pacing that turns chaotic instead of magical. The lunar detours and rapid-fire characters may wear you down if you prefer tight storytelling or a world that feels distinctive rather than “seen-this-before.” Still, the animation is polished, the central emotions are sincere, and if you want a kid-friendly musical that gently tackles loss without getting too heavy, it can land nicely.