Due to a fluke of metaphysics and a spot of villainy, Nezha (Lyu Yanting) is born as the reincarnation of a demon. His parents, nobles both, decide to let him live, promising to keep him away from a nearby village whose residents are understandably fearful, especially once Nezha turns out to be a mischief-making brat. Children won’t play jianzi (similar to hacky sack) with him. He can conjure fireballs on command, and his idea of fun is devising Rube Goldberg pranks involving, for example, a booby-trapped bridge and a venomous snake.

But perhaps he is good at heart — and it may not matter, given that he has been cursed to die by lightning at the age of 3. (The concept of age is somewhat loosely applied in this cosmology.) “Ne Zha” has some fun with the boy’s apprenticeship to a bumbling but immortal master who teaches him a “disguising spell,” and with the sequence in which he bests a monster who can turn people to stone. The movie overstays its welcome with a finale that dissolves in a blur of dark clouds, fire and ice.