The Sea Beast (2022)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Sea Beast (2022) – C. Williams

Nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film for the next Oscars (2022 films), The Sea Beast begins as a straightforward seafaring tale, following a ship commissioned to kill sea beasts for the King and Queen. Jared Harris voices Captain Crow, the single-minded eye-patched leader whose exploits have already made it into storybooks. His number one sea-monster-hunter is Jacob Holland (voiced by Kiwi Karl Urban) who was rescued from the sea as an orphan. Stowing away on the ship is Maisie (Zaris Angel-Hator), a much younger orphan who proves to be the moral conscience of the film (because kids’ films always have a moral). After a more realistic first half, the film shifts gears (and style) when Jacob and Maisie are swallowed by the fearsome Red Bluster, an enormous magenta sea beast. They wind up back on the monster’s home island and learn that history is written by the victors and/or you can’t always believe what you read. At the same time, Captain Crow seeks vengeance against the Red Bluster and is ready to use evil means to get it. Although I felt the film sagged a bit during its sentimental middle part, it held my interest as a result of its stellar animation (they’ve really improved with hair and the ocean) and direction (by Chris Williams who previously directed Moana, 2016, among other films). A bizarre nod to Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) reminds us that the sci-fi film’s family tree begins with nautical tales.