Lori Anne Porter, 11, watches “KPop Demon Hunters” nearly day by day. She estimates she’s seen it upwards of fifty instances. She additionally evangelizes.
“My sister had a sleepover, and she got to pick a movie to watch and she chose ‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ and she made all her friends at the party who haven’t watched it watch it,” Porter stated. “It was so fun because they were like, ‘This is gonna be so bad,’ and then they watched and they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty good.’”
“KPop Demon Hunters” is the animated Netflix superhit that’s on monitor to develop into the streamer’s most-watched movie.
If you’ve spent any important period of time with a baby between 5 and 15 not too long ago, you’ve got seemingly been subjected to repeated viewings and singalongs — and now you’ll seemingly be subjected to it in theaters, as Netflix releases the movie for singalong occasions within the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
I personally haven’t seen “KPop Demon Hunters.” Rather than carve out an hour and 40 minutes of my time to observe the film myself, I as a substitute spent two days asking youngsters to explain it themselves.
Turns out, “KPop Demon Hunters” is a fairly self-explanatory title.
“So, there’s this K-pop group called the Huntr/x,” Mia Cast, 10, defined. “And basically, the entire world sees them as pop stars, but behind the screen, they’re actually fighting demons that they have to keep off by singing songs that power the Honmoon, which is basically the shield that separates the demons and the humans to keep them safe.”
“Then a group of demons decide that they need a new plan, and they decide that they’re going to become a K-pop group too and steal the fans so that they can eat their souls,” Cast added.
This fan-stealing, demonic Okay-pop group is referred to as the Saja Boys. Drama, romance and epic combat scenes ensue.
“There’s demon boys that are like trying to defeat the hunters and at the end they defeat the demon boys that are just pretending to be humans,” Serena Phan, 7, stated. “It’s kind of sad. But still, it’s a really good movie.”
Per Phan and different youngsters I talked to, “Kpop Demon Hunters” is not a sappy, simplistic story of excellent triumphing over evil, however quite a shifting exploration of id and self-acceptance.
“The point of view it’s coming from is like, ‘It’s okay to be yourself. You don’t always have to just try to hide your personality just to show someone and make someone like you,’” Zuri Reid, 10, instructed me.
When I requested a number of the youngsters whether or not they discovered the film bizarre or scary, they dismissed my questions and as a substitute praised the film’s plot and characters. Reid particularly counseled the character growth.
“One of the main characters, Jinu, he just wants to destroy the world so he could get the voices out of his head,” she stated. “But then he actually develops his character like, ‘This shouldn’t only be for me, it has to be fair for everybody.’”
It is maybe a testomony to “KPop Demon Hunters” creator Maggie Kang and the writing crew that so many youngsters appeared to have a mushy spot for the demons. Spoilers forward!
“My friends, we were talking about it, and we were so upset that the Saja boys died at the end,” Deanna Iphill, 12, stated. “We just really love them. They’re supposed to be bad ‘cause they’re demons and we’re not supposed to like them. But if you take Jinu from the Saja Boys, he’s cool. He’s not a bad demon.”
In truth, the general consensus was that the subsequent “KPop Demon Hunters” film ought to embrace extra demons. (TheWrap not too long ago reported that Netflix is contemplating two sequels, along with a live-action remake and a stage musical.)
“I’d want to see Jinu coming back and Mira turning into a demon,” Evie Rodriguez, 9, stated.
“I wanna see the demons come back, but in a more friendly manner, instead of trying to destroy the whole world and conquer the Earth,” added Reid.
The youngsters who like “Kpop Demon Hunters” actually like “KPop Demon Hunters.”
“The story is really good, the music is really good, and it’s one of those movies that you can’t stop watching,” Blaze Soule, 8, stated. When we spoke, he had seen the film 4 instances and instructed me he deliberate to observe it once more the subsequent day.
Many of the children I interviewed attributed the success and recognition of “KPop Demon Hunters” to it being not like different films made for his or her demographic.
“It’s not like that regular Disney musical you see on Disney+ and you’re like, ‘Oh, I just want to watch this so I can hear the music,” Reid stated. “This is like a musical, but next level, modern musical.”
“I think what’s different about it is that it’s a demon movie and a K-pop movie mixed together,” stated Henna MacLean, 10. “Usually it’s just K-Pop or just demons.”
For Sienna Kwartowitz, 8, a part of the attraction is that it looks like one thing she isn’t imagined to be watching: “It’s like a kid movie, but it has a tiny bit of violence.”
The major factor you need to learn about “KPop Demon Hunters” is that the songs slap.
Three songs from the soundtrack have cracked the highest 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with “Golden” by the film’s fictional woman group Huntr/x peaking at No. 1. Nearly all the youngsters I talked to might sing the refrain of “Golden” or the Saja Boys’ saccharine “Soda Pop” flawlessly on the spot — sisters Deanna and Dalayna Iphill talked about that they knew the choreography and lyrics to each tune within the film.
“KPop Demon Hunters” additionally seems to have spawned a pleasant fandom of in-jokes and references. MacLean reviews that she and her associates are always texting one another strains like “I don’t think you’re ready for the takedown” and “golden.” When I requested Reid what matters she and her associates had been discussing across the film, she responded: “Let’s just say we weren’t really having conversations. We were having whole, full-blown singing montages.”
After conversations with a few dozen youngsters, I believed I had efficiently grasped the fundamentals of “KPop Demon Hunters.” Then, Reid ended our chat with this cryptic recommendation: “A message I have to say is that if you see someone drop their vocal patches, do not take it!”
Puzzled, I requested her what this meant.
“You’ll see when you watch the movie,” she replied with a playful giggle.
Seeing the fervor with which Reid and the opposite youngsters mentioned “KPop Demon Hunters,” I used to be persuaded. Maybe I’ll really watch it for myself.