The animated film The Eight Immortals! presents the pre-immortal history of the Eight Immortals in the form of an adventure tale that focuses on cooperation among ordinary individuals. By adopting an anti-heroic group structure, it redefines the standards for heroism, changing the criterion for judging heroic behavior from identity to action. Using close textual analysis as its main approach and relying on theories of character engagement, this article looks at how non-conventional motives, complementary modes of action, and decisions regarding responsibility contribute to the formation of this anti-heroic group. At the same time, the comic dislocation and the spectacle of the immortal world establish a structure in which aesthetic familiarity exists alongside the attraction of the divine realm. However, the fact that heroic qualifications are opened up to ordinary people does not mean that the general population achieves full subjectivity. Limitations to the film’s representational potential arise because of the uneven distribution of narrative importance within the group, the lack of continuous action by ordinary people, and the ethical simplification of institutional criticism. From the point of view of New Popular Literature and Art, the study of mythological animation should be able to distinguish between the masses as objects of representation, as subjects of action, and as participants in the production process.