Ejen Ali (2019)

To add, the cat stole the show...but I didn't mention that in the
review in order not to upset dog lovers.

I have no clue what Ejen Ali is all about, except I have been seeing its posters at the movie theatres I frequent here in KL. I totally didn’t know that it is a big-screen version of a highly viewed Malaysian TV animated series. Good, in that way I will not judge too much.

The last Malaysian made film I watched on a big screen was in 1990, one Fenomena, directed by Aziz M. Osman, that I recall watching with my late brother Balan, because we liked M. Nasir, the star of that flick, and the rock band Search which appeared in it and gave the title track. It was a good flick, judged by our standard here. But I stopped there, and just watched old P. Ramlee films on TV and discs.

Now, something urged me on to watch this, mainly because I was curious. Computer-generated imagery has been around for around three decades in Malaysia (our first exposure was the Benson & Hedges World Cup advertisements in 1986), and this film, an animated one at that, pricked my interest.

Needless to say, it was worth the price of the ticket. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the animation. It was clean, professionally done, almost good for the international market (almost, there could be more done with facial expressions which somehow seemed limited to me, but that’s me, a fan of Cagney, Brando, Sivaji Ganesan and P. Ramlee).

The action scenes were pretty good. I would want to complain about how sometimes it seems not clear, but I would complain the same about some contemporary live-action Hollywood films as well, so I will put the blame solely on my need to seek detail (I looked up for the condition that is a direct opposite of ADHD. It is called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo….Me? Hmmm).

And so, this is an action spy flick involving a kid, the title character, and his family, friends and the agency folks, which include an entire Mamak restaurant seemingly on the payroll of the spy agency cleverly abbreviated as MATA (I had to look it up online, I don’t recall it being spelt out in the film).

And so, the vocal acting is fine as far as Malay language films are concerned, more workmanlike I shall say. And the trouble is, they do talk a lot. Like, a lot!! Which I would say does not suit this kinda sci-fi infused animated spy flick. There’s awful lotsa yakking, and the dialogues seem to lack the authenticity of a Malay speaking environment. They seem more like written first with Hollywood English complete with the clichéd expressions and translated back to Malay.

What surprised me the most was the sub-plot concerning Ejen Ali and his “missing” mother. I mean, I actually did get a bit emotional during those scenes. Perhaps its because I am older, has a son of my own and am not exactly with him. Oh well…

All in all, it’s a fantastic output from a local production company. I salute the talent involved…and trust me, I believe I may have met some of them during my journo days when I used to cover ICT, and frequent Cyberjaya, especially Malaysian Digital Economy Development (MDEC) and these are serious hardworking young men and women who do not fall within the stereotypes of their background…Malaysians would know what I mean. They are good. Seriously good.

And so, I salute the folks behind the creation of this flick…apart from too much of yak yak yak..one other thing they should look at is the facial expression of the characters…its animation, therefore, more animated please. These are my only complaints.

Otherwise, bravo. Fantastic effort, and a good output guys!