Netflix Review – The Sea Beast (2022)

If you blinked quickly towards the end of last month, you probably missed the arrival of Netflix’s The Sea Beast in cinemas. It was little more than a toe in the water exercise, paving the way for the its main launch on the streaming service this week. Yet this robust animated seafaring saga deserves much more – certainly in of screen size.

Back in the days when monsters dwelled in the depths of the ocean and fearless sailors set out to kill them, young Maisie Brumble (the voice of Zaris-Angel Hator) is steeped in all the myths and legends about them, so much so that she stows away on a sailing ship in search of adventure and a sea beast or two. The crew, with Captain Crow (voiced by Jared Harris) at the helm and the heroic first mate Jacob (Karl Urban) by his side, are on course to track down a Red Bluster, the most feared of all sea creatures. But, during the course of the expedition, Maisie and Jacob become lost at sea while locating the Bluster and the little girl becomes friends with the monster. Cue complications and no little soul searching.

With Netflix cutting animation jobs, there’s a strong chance this family adventure just scraped through, yet it has quite a pedigree. Behind it is Chris Williams, who directed Disney’s Bolt, Moana. Now he’s, dare we say it, jumped ship to Netflix and his experience at the House of Mouse is inescapable in both the visuals and the storyline. Some of the action sequences, especially an early one with an especially tenacious monster, are superbly composed and, on a bigger screen, would happily stand up against more extravagant live action titles. The animation hits the heights at times, but can’t resist being derivative – a capital city looks like a combination of French and Italian architecture – and, ironically, it’s the monsters themselves that are the biggest weakness. The Red Bluster, despite its size, is perhaps the least frightening of all the creatures emerging from the deep and they all look as if they had been designed by committee.

The familiar Disney themes of understanding and peace are there but most surprising of all is just how derivative the storyline is, drawing on a multitude of references from Moby Dick all the way to How To Train Your Dragon. Despite the beauty of the animation and some effective voice acting from the likes of Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the most loyal of shipmates, Sarah Sharpe, and Karl Urban, having some time away from The Boys to play Jacob, its tendency to lean just a touch too heavily on other stories is a distraction. But there is more than enough here to keep both adults and children amused – even excited – and foster the hope that Netflix isn’t getting out of the animation game for good.

★★★1/2

Animation, Adventure | Cert: PG | Netflix from 8 July 2022 | Dir. Chris Williams | The voices of Karl Urban, Jared Harris, Zaris-Angel Hator, Dan Stevens, Marianne Jean Baptiste, Kathy Burke