The Sea Beast – Film Review

In an era when terrifying beasts roamed the seas, monster hunters were celebrated heroes — and none were more beloved than the great Jacob Holland. But when young Maisie Brumble stows away on his fabled ship, he’s saddled with an unexpected ally. Together they embark on an epic journey into uncharted waters and make history.

Chris Williams‘ The Sea Beast is the kind of animated movie they just don’t make anymore. Even though it was made by the folks over at Netflix Animation, it almost completely and totally feels like an early 2000s DreamWorks film. For years, I’ve been wanting an animated film like this, and boy did this creative team deliver the goods.

The whole movie revolves around the sea, monsters, pirates, and hunting for treasure, so if you’re not into that kind of swashbuckling style of story, then you might not get too much excitement out of The Sea Beast. But for myself, this was an immensely entertaining film that had seriously impressive action sequences, incredible animation, great vocal performances, and a heartfelt albeit highly predictable story.

Throughout the course of the movie, we follow Jacob Holland as he is tasked with the mission of slaying an outstandingly massive sea beast in order to impress his crew and get a mighty good reward. But, unlucky for him, along the way he is straddled with the company of a young, brave, adventurous, but highly annoying little girl that gets on his nerves.

At the start, they can’t stand each other, but… you know what ends up happening. It’s a fun dynamic for sure, but it’s been done to death. What makes it tolerable here are the performances from Karl Urban and Zaris-Angel Hator. They work magic off one another, delivering two of the most energetic performances of the year so far.

The story is nothing new and it does, sadly, end in a highly predictable way. But honestly, the rest of the movie beforehand I found to be not predictable at all. Chris Williams and Nell Benjamin penned a surprisingly in-depth script that gives our lead characters plenty of juicy things to do, complete with some impressive and much appreciated character development.

Of course, since this is an animated movie, it would sort of be a crime to not talk about how the film looks. It’s gorgeous. This may very well be the most stunning animated movie in the past few years. Every single frame is one that you could easily put on your wall. The attention to detail here is second to none, and constantly left me astounded.

Honestly, this movie brought out my inner kid. I am twenty two years old, and so naturally, I don’t get as hugely excited watching animated films anymore. Movies like Minions: The Rise of Gru would’ve thrilled me as a kid, but now, I just find them to be the definition of “meh.” But this film made me grin from ear-to-ear the entire time.

The Sea Beast is a mighty impressive animated swashbuckling adventure with a compelling story, great voice performances, and astounding animation.