Embark on an Epic Quest with DreamWorks Animation’s “Abominable”
From the studio that gave you How To Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks Animation’s new film Abominable takes audiences on an epic 2,000-mile adventure from the streets of Shanghai to the breathtaking Himalayan snowscapes.
When teenage Yi (Chloe Bennet, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, she and her mischievous friends, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Peng (Albert Tsai), name him “Everest” and embark on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth.
Saying goodbye to Yi’s mom and grandmother, the trio of friends will have to stay one step ahead of Burnish (Eddie Izzard), a ridiculously wealthy financier intent on capturing a Yeti much like the one he stumbled upon as a boy, and Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson), the zoologist trying to keep the wild creature out of her patron’s greedy hands, to help Everest get home and rejoin his family.
As the journey of their lifetimes becomes a flat-out race to the finish, Everest will help Yi, Jin and Peng unlock an inner bravery they didn’t know they had and—as they strive to return the mystical creature to the place where he belongs—Everest will help them discover where they truly belong, too.
Director Jill Culton (Open Season) wanted the story to explore themes of deep love and loss in an honest and direct way. As the story begins, Yi’s father has died and Everest is lost, separated from his family and unable to find his way home.
As she wrote, Culton wove the tale of an independent 16-year-old who has lost her father and has grown disconnected from her mother and grandmother, who are trying to get Yi to open up and rejoin the family. The filmmaker wanted Yi to be feisty and independent, a tomboy who’s not quite ready to reveal her true pain. “I certainly was like her when I was younger,” Culton says. “She feels like she doesn’t need anyone.”
Yi discovers Everest on her roof at a critical juncture in her life, when she is beginning to see that she needs to reconnect with others. Because Everest is leagues away from his own home in the Himalayas and desperately needs her help, Yi learns to open her heart a crack and decides to take him back to where he belongs.
It was also critical to Culton that audiences not see Everest’s home on Mt. Everest until he, Yi, and the boys arrive there. We experience Mt. Everest for the first time at the same time Yi does. “You have to earn the awe at the end of the movie,” Culton says. “You want to go on this journey with them to the Himalayas. When we finally get there and that shot opens up and we see the beauty of them, we wanted the audience to gasp and go, ‘I’ve been waiting for this!’ just as the kids in the story are in awe.”
In Philippine cinemas Friday, September 20, Abominable is distributed in the Philippines by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
