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Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Sandra Oh are among the all-star voices in this likable but generic story of a San Francisco teen and a posse of animal shapeshiftersThis perky, likable but profoundly derivative animated feature arrives just in time for both lunar new year and the February half-term school holidays. Like a shop-bought char siu bao, it’s over-sweetened but moreish: Chinese-flavoured comfort food in cinematic form. The story, based on a novel by Laurence Yep, revolves around teenage Tom (voiced by Brandon Soo Hoo) who lives in San Francisco with Amah (which means “grandmother”), voiced by Tan Kheng Hua; the latter is an eccentric old dear who insists on slathering their 19th-century house in so many good luck charms that people leave oranges on the doorstep thinking it’s one big shrine.It turns out that Amah is the guardian of a purple stone that can be turned into a phoenix; it is your basic magical MacGuffin that the film’s shapeshifting villain Loo (Michelle Yeoh) is after to do something nefarious. Luckily, Amah is tight with an Avengers-style posse of animal-people-zodiac entities, characters who zap back and forth from human shapes to talking animals at will. Chief among them is Hu (Henry Golding), the tiger of the title, a hunky, bearded daddy type when in his human form. But with such a strong-willed, independent-minded feline disposition, Hu must learn how to be a better teacher for Tom, his new apprentice, so they can foil Loo’s evil plans. Clearly, this has been made by people who are all Team Cat. Continue reading...