A young boy is whisked away to the mythical land of Tao where he becomes the center of a conflict between an evil lord and a group of animal warriors.
A young man, Ryan, suffering from a disability, wishes to join the other kids from his schools football team. During an initiation rite, Ryan is swept away through a whirlpool to the land of Tao. There he is hunted by the evil Lord Komodo, who desires the boy as a key to enter the real world. Ryan is rescued by the protectors of Tao, five humanoid kangaroos, each embued with the five elements and virtues. Ryan learns his valuable lesson while saving the land of Tao.—R. L. Strong <[email protected]>
At the beginning of the film, protagonist Ryan (Mario Yedidia) is a widow's son with a minor physical disability, who is given an antique book, called the 'Manuscript of Legend', by his mother's friend, a Chinese-American restaurateur. The inciting action occurs when Ryan, anxious to join the school football team, is challenged by the players to cross an underground canal and write his name on the far wall, to prove his courage. In crossing, he falls into the canal and resurfaces in a parallel reality, called the Land of Tao. There, he is rescued by Elysia (Marley Shelton) and taken by her to the last of the oases known as Lifesprings, where a variety of people, some human and others half-human and half of diverse other species, live in peace, in hiding from the conqueror Komodo (Angus Mcfayden), the principal villain of the story. The Manuscript of Legend, meanwhile, is intercepted by Komodo, who resolves to decode it, and use the secrets it contains to conquer the Lifespring and invade Ryan's world.
At the Lifespring, Ryan becomes the pupil of the sage Master Chung (Chao Li Chi), and befriends his disciples, the titular Warriors of Virtue: a small set of martial-arts champions, of a species resembling anthropomorphic kangaroos; whereof Yun (Jack Tate), their former leader, is in disgrace for killing Elysia's brother by mistake, while the others continue under Master Chung's tutelage.
Matters come to a head when Elysia betrays the Warriors and Ryan to Komodo, who kills Master Chung in single combat, captures the Warriors and Ryan, and begins his assault on the Lifespring. While in captivity, Ryan decodes the Manuscript, and reconciles Yun with his comrades. In the battle that follows, Ryan reveals one of the Manuscript's secrets to the Warriors, who use it to deprive Komodo (and presumably his followers) of his powers and memories. The now-amnesiac Komodo is then adopted and re-socialized by the people of the Lifespring. Guided by the Warriors, Ryan returns to his own world, where he defies the football team's challenge and goes home, his morale much improved by the adventure. This concludes the film.
