However terrifying the ocean could be to our ancestors, it is only a little less so to modern computer animators — realistic bodies of water are a famously nightmarish task. Director Chris Williams beat the odds once already with Polynesian-themed charmer Moana. Now he has made The Sea Beast, a thoroughly admirable maritime adventure.
Recent Pixar spin-off Lightyear inspired a painfully shrill critical debate about its shortcomings that also spotlit how rarely children are well served by big film studios. Consider this an outlier: a zesty and inventive rip-roarer for the under 12s made by Netflix without the comfort blanket of existing intellectual property.
Instead, we get nautical daredevils — and a plucky girl stowaway — dispatched by a wealthy monarchy to battle sea monsters. Williams and his colleagues bring both sides of the equation to vivid life. Giant tentacles attack gargantuan ships, their rigging seeming to reach the heavens. The storytelling too is impressive, the usual trite life lessons rejected for chewier stuff about who gets to write the history books. Here Be Monsters indeed.
But the animation is the headline act, knockout detail embedded in breathtaking seascapes. A lightning storm viewed from under the waves among translucent jellyfish is a hit of pure cinema. Kudos to Netflix for a showstopper. Still more to Williams for sneaking through such a strong physical likeness between the film’s glowering, Ahab-ish captain and the company’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
★★★★☆
In cinemas now and on Netflix from July 8
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