The Sea Beast is a movie from Netflix’s own animation studios created by Chris Williams. He’s the chap that made Big Hero 6, which was so good it won an Oscar, and Moana. Sea Beast has a superb voice cast consisting of Karl Urban, Zaris-Angel Hator, Jared Harris, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. But is it worth a watch? YES!
I do love me a good animation, and The Sea Beast is beautiful. I honestly don’t know why I had never heard of it before it just appeared! But I am glad it did. Sitting at just under 2 hours long, it filled my Friday evening up with warm fuzzy feelings. So, what is it all about?
The life of a legendary sea monster hunter is turned upside down when a young girl stows away on his ship.
Wiki
Of course there is a lot more to it than that. Our main heroes in this are Jacob Holland (Karl Urban) and as Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator). Jacob is a young monster hunter who has grown up under the tutelage of Captain Crow (Jared Harris). Crow has said that when he retires he’ll leave his ship and captaincy to Jacob, not to mention the burden of being a monster hunter. That kindda sums up what the main theme of this movie is, burdens. Ones of historical proportions and ones of personal trauma.
Beast revenge
You see, we don’t know WHY there is a war against the monsters; it’s just always been this way. But that changes when a hunting expedition goes awry and he’s left for dead. Of course he isn’t dead though, he’s actually just done a Jonah and has been swallowed by Red Bluster, the biggest monster of them all. But Jacob isn’t the only person swallowed alive by Red, Maisie has too! Maisie stows away onboard The Inevitable, Crow’s famous ship, as her parents were killed by monsters and she wants revenge. And now Captain Crow is also on the revenge path because he thinks Jacob is dead. Yes, revenge is a theme here but so is forgiveness.
A sea story
It’s a fairly basic story. Jacob and Maisie catch a ride inside Red to an island where they land. They are attacked by monster crabs, Red saves them, proving not all monsters are bad, and they become friends. The morals in the movie are lovely, and any young kids watching will hopefully learn a thing or two about being nice to each other. Kiddies will love Blue, a… um… a ‘blob’ of something that is rather damn cute, merchandise the snot out of it! Red is also beautifully animated and reminded me quite a bit of Toothless from How to Train your Dragon. You really feel for the poor creature, and understand its own personal trauma brought on by humans.
Without giving anything away the film also makes some political comments about history, and what is taught. Do we believe what is in the history books if they are written by a government? I suppose this might be a child’s first glimpse into what propaganda is and how it can ruin people. Oh, and dan Stevens lends his voice to Admiral Hornagold, a right jerk! But he is funny, as is the entire movie.
Red, blue, Crow, all of them are charming and make watching The Sea Beast one of Netflix’s best movies. I hope they carry on with this phase of animated marvels. I give this a…
9/10
A visually stunning movie that has many a message for us. Superb character work and a wonderful soundtrack make this slightly longer than it needs to be movie worth every second.
All the series and all the movies couldn't put society back together again.