Have you ever watched a movie so random and poorly written that it became funny? Well, I think that perfectly describes the forgotten Disney movie Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior.
In the movie, we are introduced to our protagonist, Wendy Wu. She’s a teenager in high school with the so-called “perfect life.” She has the perfect boyfriend, she’s popular, and she’s running for homecoming queen. Her mom works in the Chinese exhibit at a museum. Wendy’s life is completely normal until a monk named Shen from China arrives to teach her the ways of the Yin Warrior.
Shen’s first entrance into America is definitely… interesting. Not even 7 minutes into the film, and we already have a random scene that’s definitely unforgettable. Shen tries to hitchhike after flying to America. A truck passes him after his first attempt. He tries again, and it ends in another fail. But this time, he watches the truck, then pulls out some random super-speed power and speeds to the top of the truck. So, what does he do after getting on top of this truck? If you guessed anything other than meditation, you’re wrong. As he’s meditating, a bug gets crushed on his head. He looks up, and the scene ends. Starting strong, right?
Later that night, the first truck that passed him is revealed to be carrying a Chinese artifact that was given to the museum. The artifact starts glowing because it’s magical. While that’s happening, Shen finds Wendy’s house and knocks on the door, leading to a very awkward conversation with Wendy trying to close the door on him. Shen then does what he does best: using random super speed to enter Wendy’s house without her consent. This leads to a very anticlimactic fight, which ends with Wendy kicking him out.
Back to the magical orb: it takes over the body of a security guard, then switches to the brother’s body. The orb-controlled brother goes to Wendy’s house to try and fight her. But, like the creep he is, Shen is meditating on the roof of Wendy’s home—again, without her consent. Then comes one of the hilariously bad and pathetic fight scenes I’ve ever seen. This consisted of random slow-motion movement with no words, only music, for an agonizing 4 minutes.
After a lot of unnecessary filler, Wendy’s family soon finds out about Shen. Wendy’s grandmother, who liked Shen, tells the whole family that Shen is her “grandnephew on her second cousin’s father’s side” visiting. Everyone believes it, and other than her father, no one questions it. The night ends with Wendy and Shen having a conversation about relationships and the lack of love in their lives. The orb is still trying to possess Wendy’s soul. For the next 20 minutes, she and Shen are doing random training.
The movie ends with Wendy and Shen liking each other, even though everyone believes them to be cousins. And in the end, it doesn’t even show her going to homecoming. The entire movie was about her going to homecoming. Even the title has “homecoming” in it, yet she never even ends up going—at least not on camera. So, the whole buildup of her wanting to win or wondering what her friends might look like was worth nothing in the grand scheme of things. Especially if you were watching the movie for the homecoming aspect.
The movie isn’t really talked about much, but the few times I do see it mentioned, it’s mostly made fun of as a joke—while the film continues to try and take itself seriously. The only person online I’ve seen really talk about it was a video by theonlycb3, poking fun at the very interesting scene in the movie where Wendy is basically talking to herself while passing Shen in his final form: meditation.
I’d say it was an enjoyable movie—if you like stupidly hilarious movies with a semi-interesting plot of an ancient Chinese demon trying to destroy a high school girl.