Movie Abominable

POSITIVE ELEMENTS：

⛄ Jin, a social media-focused friend, join Yi, and his basketball-loving little cousin, Peng, and the young Yeti’s three teenagers set out to do the right thing. They name him Everest — after the mountain, they have to find a way to reach somehow— and do all they can to rescue the animal. Along the way, Yi discovers that the route they follow across China is almost precisely the direction that her father wanted to take. And the journey helps Yi not only communicate with her father’s memory but also find a sense of peace by sharing with her peers, her pain, and loss. In the final analysis, the movie implicitly emphasizes the importance of friends and family in finding a way through profound personal loss and grief. We see Yi’s mother and grandmother Nai Nai, reaching out to Yi repeatedly and trying to express their love to the wounded and isolated teenager. And they both rejoice after her adventure when Yi returns home with open arms. After experiencing beautiful and magical things, one primarily selfish character experiences a softening of the heart.

SPIRITUAL CONTENT:

⛄ It turns out that the Yeti, Everest, possesses magical abilities that are mystically connected to nature’s links. He can do incredible acts of what we might call natural magic by humming low bass notes such as growing giant blueberries. And transforming a field of flowers into an ocean-like rolling wave. At one point, too, that magical ability is given to Yi. The girl was lying to her mother early on, claiming she had sold the violin of her uncle.

⛄ Nevertheless, we note that the instrument is hidden away, and Yi reserves to play it as an almost religious kind of communion between her deceased father and herself. Later, with his own magical Yeti hair, that violin is accidentally broken and mended by Everest. Yi then plays the violin on a giant Buddha statue on the mountainside, which her father always wanted to see. Thanks to strings made of Yeti fur, the beautiful music and the resulting mysteriously sprouting flowers symbolically reflect Yi’s suffering, sorrow, and spiritual healing in away. Yi plays the violin a few more times in moments of great need and risk for its strong magical abilities. Jin is primarily fascinated with technology, his smartphone, and social media, and he rejects the idea of any mystical or religious aspects in the universe at first.

⛄ Thus, his perspective changes when he experiences some inexplicable mystical things. “It’s been a lie for my whole life,” he moans in wonder. A snapshot of Yi, her mom, and Nai Nai visiting the giant Buddha statue at a later date are shown during the credits of the film. That being said, the film never explores aspects of Buddhist religion beyond focusing on that beautiful image. Peng looks up at the sky and says he’s been told the stars are the ancestors who died. Yi later looks up to see a twinkling star, maybe a nod to her dad watching her from above. Peng even wishes for a dandelion.