That oft-filmed and televised mythic Chinese folk hero “The Monkey King” earns a slick, slapshticky animated treatment for Netflix in his latest incarnation.

He’s a classic flawed “hero,” a manic brawler and antic egomaniac, on a quest to join the “immortals” in Buddha’s heaven. And the film, produced by Hong Kong legend Stephen Chow, is an amusing and most-kid-friendly “musical” variation of the tale.

All of the movies I’ve seen — live action and this — find different settings and foes to battle in their assorted quests. But the general idea is the same. He’s a fury in fights with his magic “stick” (staff), and he loves to make everything about him, his wants and his immediate needs.

He needs to learn Buddhism.

A monkey with laser beams for eyes and a few other supernatural survival skills pops out of a rock and grows up to have the wisecracking voice of Jimmy O. Yang and save a tribe of forest monkeys who will never take him in, because he’s doomed to be an “outsider.”

He defeated a baby-monkey-kidnapping Tiger Demon thanks to an “ultimate weapon” staff he swiped from the Dragon King under the sea. The Dragon King hates the “air breathers” on land, travels by means of a tub toted by his minions and REALLY wants that “column” (“stick”) back.

As he is voiced by “Saturday Night Live” breakout Bowen Yang, we know he’ll be entirely too bitchy to let this theft go unpunished. And that he’ll have his own production number “under the sea” somewhere in the second act.

“So watch me rise up, open the skies up and take the world by STORM,” he croons.

But that’s later. The newly-self-crowned Monkey King first figures the way to joining the immortals in heaven is by vanquishing 100 demons. But when he’s done that, he realizes he’s never going to be more than an annoyance to the Emperor (Hoon Lee), who lets Buddha (BD Wong) convince him to leave this “monkey” to “find his own way,” ddiscover his “destiny” and grow into someone worthy of hero-worship and even immortality.

The Monkey ventures under the sea and into hell and up to heaven along the way. The tone of the various quests is just jokey enough, with some laugh-out-loud one-liners and exchanges scattered throughout.

“Hey RED girl,” the Monkey snaps at the Red Demon attacking a remote village. “Levave these poor, unattractive people alone!”

“But the kids are RIPEST this time of year,” she complains.

The “King” takes on an over-eager “assistant,” Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), who acts as hype-girl and aide who doesn’t think she belongs in the shadows. She paid no heed to the wise old ape who warned his people of this hot-headed attention-hog.

“He doesn’t LOVE you. He only wants you to love him!”

That’s a personality flaw no leader should have, especially not an immortal one.

The animation is sharp, the animated action beats fluid and fun. There are a few songs by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss of the musical “Six,” pleasantly-silly in a “Who’s the simian you’ll find shimmyin’ to to the TOP” sort of way. One metal number mimics Metallica, probably a first for kids’ animation.

Bowen Yang is the vocal and character highlight, a Dragon King preening and scheming with his minions, providing “sides” (pages of script) for his not-Broadway-ready fake garden/poisoned “magical” peach play meant to trick the monkey into giving up his “stick.”

“Boxtrolls” and “Open Season” director Anthony Stacchi’s film feels Westernized and modernized and yet generally faithful to the source character. There’s even a reference about him taking a “Journey to the West,” the epic novel Monkey King was introduced in, which has also spawned film adaptations.

Netflix has made several animated films that can bear comparison to the very best of Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and others, even if it has yet to produce one that deserves a place among the true classics on the animated pantheon. The antic-energy attached to slack pacing of this saga’s “quests” suggests Netflix isn’t quite up to producing an animated classic. But “Monkey King” is still as good as anything the major animation studios have released in this “down” year for animation. .

Rating: PG, violence, a urination gag

Cast: The voices of Jimmy O. Yang. Bowen Yang, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Hoon Lee and BD Wong as Buddha.

Credits: Directed by Anthony Stacchi, scripted by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman and Rita Hsiao. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:32