‘The Legend Of Hei II’ Blu-Ray Review – Epic Animated Sequel Levels Up By Every Metric

When an attack shatters the fragile peace between the spirit world and humanity, Hei teams up with Luye, the last disciple of his Shifu Wuxian, to expose a conspiracy that threatens both realms – and the bond they’ve sworn to protect. With gorgeous, hand-drawn animation from directors MTJJ and Gu Jie, The Legend of Hei 2 is the long-awaited follow-up to the 2019 feature The Legend of Hei, delivering an emotional and action-packed story that will resonate with audiences new and returning.

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Video Quality

The Legend of Hei II comes to Blu-Ray from GKIDS with a glorious 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio. The colors are vivid and deftly saturated with sumptuous permeating every inch of the screen. Highlights are carefully maintained, and black levels are deep with no semblance of crush, compression artifacts, or other digital anomalies. The hand-drawn animation techniques are bursting with exciting detail and texture. Every sequence seeks to top what came before, leaving you astonished by what is happening in this space. This feature embraces the dynamic characteristics at the core of this creative team while never allowing the reality to feel unbelievable. The character designs are consistently rendered without a hiccup. The transfer handles every change in the environment with the utmost stability, including no jagged lines or color bleeding. This is what animation is all about!

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio lossless track presented here in its original Mandarin, along with an English language dub. The film is presented with optional English, English SDH, Simplified Chinese, French, and Spanish subtitles. From the opening siege, this is a very action-packed spectacle, and the audio track thrusts you right into the middle of the chaos. The environmental detail in the surround channels is unflappable as the sounds ground you in the space. The soundscape capitalizes on its narrative ambition with some exquisite texture to the world. Dialogue comes through crisp and clearly without getting overshadowed by any competing elements. The score and soundtrack add powerful emotions to various moments as they move the audience with the surround sound presentation. GKIDS has provided an audio presentation that is a real winner. 

Special Features

• Animation Production: A five-minute piece in which the creative team discusses the epic increase in scale for the sequel, the challenges of animating certain moments, and more. 

• Sound and Dubbing: A nearly six-minute featurette in which the ensemble discusses the process of returning to their characters, the new developments in this installment, and more. 

• Animation Breakdowns: A 21-minute series of videos is provided in which you witness the evolution of key moments in the film from rough sketch to finished form. 

• Trailers & Teasers (4:34)

Final Thoughts

The Legend of Hei II takes everything that worked well about the original film and scales it up for an even more epic outing. While the original film played it a bit safe as it laid the groundwork for this world, this entry trusts that you are acclimated with the characters and jumps right in with an intriguing “whodunit” plot that sidelines a major character for much of the film while introducing new people who quickly get us invested. The action set pieces are thrilling and may be enough to hook newcomers who are trying to keep up with the rules and lore. It is a very impressive follow-up that will make you want to embark on the entire journey. GKIDS has released a Blu-Ray with a fantastic A/V presentation and a fine assortment of supplemental features. Recommended 

The Legend of Hei II is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: GKIDS and Shout! Studios have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.