Are you planning to watch Over the Moon on Netflix? After chatting with members of the cast and previewing the movie myself, I'm sharing why every family needs to watch this film.

Over the Moon is one of Netflix's most highly anticipated family releases of the year.  This animated movie follows the journey of a girl who…..flies to the moon.  Literally.  In the film, 13 year old Fei Fei travels to space to prove the validity of the classic Chinese story of moon goddess Chang’e….but she ends up exploring so much more.  The movie shares Fei Fei's grief over the loss of her mother and her emotions as her father begins a new relationship.  It shares Chinese traditions, and introduces an amazing extended family and cast of characters.

To me? There is no better time for this movie.  This was my own daughter's first exposure to the The Mid–Autumn Festival (the festival shared in the film), moon cakes and many other elements of Chinese culture that were shared in the film.  And my belief? In a time when Chinese culture is under an intense amount of negative attention and hatred…..it is more important that ever to show our children the beauty of cultures other than their own, ESPECIALLY the Chinese culture.  This movie is an amazing jumping off point and inspired us to learn more!

 

Over the Moon: Why Every Family Needs to Watch This Film

I had the opportunity to sit down with Margaret Cho who plays Auntie Ling in the film and Ken Jeong who plays Gobi.  Their thoughts about the creation of this magical movie were inspiring and reinforced how important this film is.

“Well, I think it's really about diversity and it's really about showing this multicultural sort of landscape where we have this kind of sharing of all of these traditions and, you know, making it part of what holidays are all over the world. And also, what it–an Asia America looks like. And so, I think it's really important now more than ever that we have this kind of diversity.” –Margaret Cho

“Yes, I think–you know, I think appreciating one's cultural specificity allows you to realize that, you know, universally, we're all the same. But, there are so many relatable elements that you don't have to be Asian to love Over the Moon because I think the deeper you go, you know, you realize the broader the appeal, you know? And I think that's kind of–I think that's the way with filmmaking in general is happening within the Asian community, like, from Crazy Rich Asians to Tigertail that was on Netflix. That was, like, my favorite movie of the year, you know, which really is about a father and a daughter.  So, they're–you know, I feel like the deeper we go, you know, as Asian American artists, you actually can yield bigger global satisfaction.”-Ken Jeong

Now, you guys know I love a girl power movie and a strong female character.  So in addition to the amazing cultural elements of the film, I love that we see a GIRL BUILD HER OWN ROCKET TO THE MOON.  And I'm not the only one who appreciated that message.

“It's so important for girls to have strong role models in cinema to emulate and, you know, this is, like, a really important thing. Like, you know, we look to movies to realize our path in life, you know? It's more important than we know.   And so, I think it's really great that she's so smart, she's so strong, and she gets there.”-Margaret Cho

Over the Moon will be available on Netflix on October 23rd