Everest: The Young Yeti – Abominable (2019)

Directed by: Jill Culton, Todd Wilderman | 97 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Tara Hetharia, Roben Mitchell, Matheu Hinzen, Derek de Lint, Kim van Kooten, Loretta Schrijver, Jacob Derwig, Levi van Kempen, Denise Aznam, Beau Schneider | Original voice cast: Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Joseph Izzo, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Michelle Wong, Rich Dietl, James Hong

Yetis and bigfoots are apparently ‘hot’ in animation land. The films ‘Son of Bigfoot’ (2017), ‘Smallfoot’ (2018) and ‘Missing Link’ (2019) were released in a short time. These animated films are very different in style, but they all revolve around the same mythical creatures. Such is the case with ‘Abominable’ (2019), released in the Netherlands under the name ‘Everest: De Jonge Yeti’ (probably because many compatriots break their tongues over the word ‘abominable’). This film comes from the DreamWorks stable and is in line with the fantastic ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ trilogy, as it also revolves around a teenager who doesn’t really connect with his peers, makes a special friendship with a magical being. The yeti Everest, with its high cuddly factor and expressive eyes, is also strongly reminiscent of the dragon Toothless from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’. But where the film revolves around a boy, the hero in Everest: The Young Yeti is a girl, and the Viking Age has been traded for twenty-first-century China. The film was made in collaboration with the Chinese Pearl Studio and is sometimes reminiscent of a tourist promotion film of the immense Asian country, as many attractions are visited by the heroes on their journey to Mount Everest.

Yi is a girl of about sixteen who lives with her mother and grandmother in the metropolis of Shanghai. She has withdrawn a lot since her father’s death. During the day she flies out to earn money with all kinds of small jobs such as walking dogs and helping the elderly with their computers. In the evenings she is exhausted that she hardly takes the time to talk to her mother and grandmother – who have no idea what she is up to. Clear case of flight behavior. Yi saves for a trip through China, which she was supposed to take with her father. In the evening she crawls on the roof to play a song for him on her violin. Then suddenly she finds a large white yeti on the roof of her apartment, which she calls Everest. The creature turns out to be on the run from a crazed former explorer who hopes to earn a lot of money with him, his assistant Dr. Zara and their army of poachers dressed in black. Yi takes the yeti under her wing and decides to bring him back to his home: the Himalayas. Inadvertently, she gets two stowaways with her: her neighbor boys Peng (a little boy who is crazy about basketball) and the snooty vain boy Jin, who has grown together with his mobile phone. Together they travel through the most beautiful places in China, while trying to stay out of the clutches of their pursuers.

Everest: The Young Yeti was written and directed by Jill Culton, who made her directorial debut with “Open Season” (2006) and gained experience as a storyboard artist in the Pixar studios. On paper, the story sounds pretty standard (except for the setting in China), with a group of children being hunted by a bunch of villains. But the way that story is fleshed out in ‘Everest: The Young Yeti’ extends the film well above average. The biggest asset is the wonderfully cuddly yeti itself, a large woolly ball of fun that you can embrace without any effort. Moreover, Yi is also an appealing heroine: she is not your average girl, has been through a lot and is therefore strongly formed. She finds solace in her music and her violin playing also has a magical effect on Everest. Peng and Jin are along for the comic relief, but in any case Jin is also going through a development, although not as surprising as Yi’s, but still. That the grief for her deceased father is so heavy on Yi’s shoulders, is sometimes very thickly smeared (it had not been necessary), so that the emotion is somewhat toned down. That’s exactly where ‘Everest: The Young Yeti’ compromises on the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ trilogy.

Where ‘Everest: The Young Yeti’ makes up for a lot, however, are the beautiful settings and the magical moments that Culton treats her viewers to. Everest is in close contact with nature and can summon the power of nature when needed. That produces beautiful scenes, for example when he enchants a bunch of bushes after which a torrent of oversized blueberries comes at the four heroes. In another impressive scene, they sail in a small boat on an undulating yellow sea of ​​rapeseed flowers that thunders over the land like a tsunami. The revelation they have at the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan should be the emotional highlight in the film, but that is just a bit too much. Although that may also have to do with the choice of music; Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ could have been replaced here by a more traditional oriental song, preferably instrumental. Yi’s violin playing, for example, is much more striking; even the yeti gets hit by it. The voice cast is perfectly fine; in the original version, alongside Eddie Izzard and Sarah Paulson, many Chinese and Asian-American actors – including Tenzing Norgay Tranoir, the grandson of the renowned Himalayan guide Tenzing Norgay, who first climbed Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary – are featured in the original version. the authenticity. In the Dutch translation we hear Tara Hetharia, Kim van Kooten, Derek de Lint, Jacob Derwig and Loretta Schrijver, among others.

Of course ‘Everest: The Young Yeti’ follows the well-known paths and is played on the emotion here and there. But DreamWorks counters that with a handful of captivating characters, beautiful settings and some dizzying magical moments that express an enormous reverence for nature, which amply tilts the balance in the right direction.