‘ChaO’ review: A visual marvel anchored by a familiar tale

Director Yasuhiro Aoki embraces classical motifs and zany humor in the lovable ChaO.

There’s a familiar fairy-tale structure at the heart of ChaO that belies a bustling, kinetic energy. Because while there’s a traditional format that works in tandem with the film’s narrative, the visuals are anything but. Directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, ChaO revels in visual splendor. Blending a mix of donghua aesthetics with its Shanghai setting, the rough and overdrawn lines of Masaaki Yuasa works such as Ping Pong the Animation and Mind Game, with the backgrounds evoking the xerography and ink strokes of 101 Dalmatians, the film somehow manages to be both a singular piece of visual storytelling while also throwing animation history in a blender to concoct a generous stylistic blend of cocktail.

It’s not so much revolutionary as it is refreshing. Especially if you’ve yet to broaden your tastes beyond Western-style animation that all too often defaults to a certain formula. Major studios like Pixar, Illumination, and DreamWorks work on a particular canvas, unwilling to break from tradition. Even the gummy and elastic designs of Sony Animation, across works such as Spider-Verse, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, maintain a consistent aesthetic. Perhaps the most inventive of the Western bunch – the stop-motion studio Laika – is limited by a continual fight for funds.

It’s what makes global animation so thrilling. There’s the recent masterpiece Flow, and the works of Japanese auteurs like Hayao Miyazaki, Naoko Yamada, Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda, Yuasa, and more. There are the darkly whimsical folk tales of Irish studio Cartoon Saloon (Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea), and the devastation of Alberto Vázquez (Unicorn Wars). The Triplets of Belleville filmmaker Sylvain Chomet continues his forward march of inventive animation that distorts space and figures. Ne Zha 2 was the highest-grossing film of 2025, while fellow Chinese animated sequel The Legend of Hei II reminds us of the improbably heights a low-budget feature can accomplish with the right hands involved.

It’s rough around the edges, but ChaO is worth it.

All in all, which is a very long-winded, effusive way of getting to the point: ChaO is worth the watch. And not just on its own merit (though that merits it alone.) But it is worth it for any viewer to broaden the range of animation they find palatable. Because when you’re watching something like the, albeit clumsily plotted, ChaO, it’s a reminder of distinctive global artistry.

Produced by Studio 4°C and distributed by Toei Company and GKIDS, the film floats along on a basic conceit. A mermaid princess becomes engaged to a human engineer. And it’s a premise that both understates where the plot will go while giving just the right amount of information. The twists and turns the film undertakes are both gleefully ludicrous and filled to the brim with tropes.

Written by Hanasaki Kino, the film follows an isolated young man, hapless but content, Stephen (Ouji Suzuka), who dreams of building an air engine for ships to lessen the harm propellers can cause if a sea creature or human were to run afoul of them.

The film takes its time in finding an emotional core.

The film takes place in a world where humans and merpeople exist, the coastlines blending into the more oppressive cityscapes, crevices flooded with seawater. And still, when Princess Chao (Anna Yamada) declares her love for Stephen, and the two become engaged, much to his initial bewilderment, the move is somewhat inexplicable. She’s larger than life and royalty, while he’s looked over despite some genuine ingenuity. They’re at immediate odds, despite Chao’s head over, uh, fins, for him. Because try as he might, he can’t quite get over the clash of their cultures and the fact that, for the most part, she appears more like a fish than a human.

In many ways, Stephen is a frustrating character. As viewers, we know the expected beats he’s meant to follow. We know that, for the perfect fairytale, he needs to overlook their physical differences and embrace the tide of romance dragging him further from shore. Chao herself is so lovable that it’s hard not to root for her. She makes a lot of mistakes, mainly because he never takes the time to help her acclimate, leaving that role to his friends while he basks in the success her arrival gifts him. He’s all of a sudden a pseudo liaison for humans and merpeople, while she is now out of sorts.

The film strikes an odd imbalance between predictability and unexpected narrative swerves. The last third of the film does a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s that last act that ensures we care about the couple’s fate. That and a somewhat bizarre but ultimately infectious musical interlude that splits the film.

Humor and visual excellence abound.

But while the emotional crescendo is effective, the real draw is the zany, off-kilter humor and the animation. Both of which build on critical, detailed work. In the former, it’s how characters move throughout this world. There are easy physical gags, such as someone who, in the process of trying to make a coffee, pours all of the components – coffee, cream, sugar – onto the ground, missing the mug. At one point, Stephen falls, his face hitting the cement. In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, when he stands, his face is completely flattened. On his trek to work, he habitually knocks his face into a hanging wok, lending itself to a fantastic payoff. A gag that begins in one scene doesn’t culminate until ten minutes later.

It’s a clever film with strong editing that helps cement its kineticism and flow. But, without question, ChaO stuns with the visuals. This is a gorgeous, striking film. And it achieves the aesthetic through an unusual combination of efforts. The backgrounds and scenery are beautiful. They add warmth to a world that the cool oceanic view could otherwise submerge. With vibrant, rich hues that embrace bold patterns and rich palettes, the effect is immediate, fearlessly utilizing the full color spectrum.

The bottom line.

ChaO might not be cohesive from start to finish, but what it lacks in structural polish it makes up for with the artistry. The film is gorgeous and refuses easy, familiar designs for ones that skew a little stranger and a little rough around the edges. Perfectly befitting for a film about two characters from different worlds trying to meet in the middle for a sweeping romance.

Chao is out now. Watch the trailer below. 

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Images courtesy of GKIDS and Studio 4°C.