"OVER THE MOON" TEACHES AN TIMELESS LESSON WITH AN ANCIENT LEGEND.

"Over the Moon" earns a place in the Netflix Top 10 list with its vibrant imagery and captivating soundtrack. Surpassing the quality of most Netflix originals, one would think Disney or Pixar produced it. However, its original material makes it ineligible for a place in the Pixar timeline or the Disney Princess lineup. Alas, "Over the Moon" is a film that stands on its own.

The story of a girl's struggle to overcome the grief of losing her mother, she embarks on a journey to learn the truth behind the legend of the Moon Goddess. Her faith in this deity drives her passion for astronomy and engineering. However, it taints her ability to move on from her mother's loss.

Meanwhile, the world threatens to change around her. Her father finds someone new, and Fei Fei cannot cope. She confuses moving on with forgetting. Desperate to keep the memory of her mother alive, she embarks on a journey to prove the existence of the Moon Goddess and her eternal love for Houyi. She reasons that if Chang'e can love Houyi for eternity, then her father could do the same. Could and should.

Thus, she escapes into her imagination, flies to the moon in a hodge-podge rocket, and finds the brilliant city of Lunaria. Not even her vivid imagination gives her what she wants, because her subconscious teaches her the important truth that she buries in her mind.

Not everything is as it appears. The Moon Goddess is no saint. She is a selfish woman who cost her true love his chance for immortality. Her punishment is to spend eternity alone on the moon. Lunaria is a prison, not a kingdom. She is alone with only her tears as company.

She is nothing like the woman in the stories from her childhood. Chang'e is self-aggrandizing and selfish, drowning in a sea of denial. Her main goal is to bring back her true love, instead of finding happiness elsewhere. This is the picture painted by Fei Fei's subconscious.

Chang'e is the embodiment of Fei Fei's insecurity. Both suffer from great loss and denial. Both push away the opportunities to move on. Both fall into a deep depression when their missions fail. Both must learn to overcome their grief. They do this together.

Fei Fei must overcome her grief in order to avoid become like Chang'e,a womanimprisoned by her selfness and must live eternity alone.

Healing is not forgetting. Fei Fei accepts her new family with an open heart. She finds happiness with them. She interprets the legend of the Moon Goddess with new eyes. It is a story to which she relates. A girl in grief becomes a strong young woman with two loving mothers.