I have read a lot reviews about this movie. And when it comes to Chinese movies, reviews more or less come with political bias. And I hope, my review can clear things up a bit.
This is a well animated movie, for average movie goers the animation is more than acceptable. But does the animation reaches 2019 Pixar standards? No, the expression on the character is limited, specially on Ah Xuan. The skin and body lack elasticity and weight, and the cloth dynamic is weird. What stands out technical wise, is the background and sets. They are painstaking made to resemble traditional Chinese ink paintings. The animator took the full liberty of making the fight scene, they are a visual spectacle. Super-nature powers, light beams, mythical creatures fills up the screen at times, which may not be everybody's cup of tea. But sure is entertaining.
There are complains about the storytelling element. For the Chinese, the story of white snake is one of the most well known fiery tells. It is like the story of Santa Claus or tooth fiery for the westerner. For that reason, the creators did skip the world building part, expecting the viewers can fill in the rest. It is also true that the tempo is sometimes slow for this movie, but after all, the white snake story was always a love story and not a action film.
And the biggest controversy of this film, the sexual under tone. This movie features an animated kiss scene, sexy villain and implied sex scene. Some people are offended because they think CG animation are for Children. But this is a love story, more importantly in the fiery tell white snake was pregnant with Xu Xian's child. How do they have a Child without having sex? And I don't want to Discourage anyone, the sexual tone is a very minor part of this story. It kind of feel like 2D Disney style sexual tone.
In conclusion, great movie with a non-western story. I see you are a man of culture as well.
