The Sea Beast

If you or your children enjoy monsters and sea battles this is the movie for you. Someone referred to it as "how to train your dragon sea addition" and I would completely agree.

As an adult I was entertained throughout. Plenty of laughs and valuable lessons demonstrated within the plot points. Immediately after it finished it was requested that we watch it again.

There are a few moments of bloody fight scenes and some words that I would consider inappropriate for my 6 year old, but overall it was a good movie.

There's nothing like a good story at sea! And this is the kind of movie you hope is as good as it looks. And to me, it delivered.

From the impressive physics, beautiful art direction, and immaculate visual execution.. to a proper story with a good message (and symbolism), charming and colorful characters, and dialogue that is never wasted or unnecessary. In fact, there's a lot of appreciated visual storytelling.. Just one look or one scene, and you can easily put yourself in the shoes of the cast. And while there is little to be said that hasn't been said before, it manages to create a bountiful world and story worth watching!

People might compare it to a certain Dragon film.. but that doesn't diminish the value of this one. Personally, I liked this one best, but I'm glad there's just more "colors" to enjoy for everyone. I only wonder if we'll see more of it, though I don't think we should. But one rarely ever knows what we want, until we are surprised with it.

As the movie said, "I have everything I need right here."

Okay. This story has been seen before. A clear example is How to train your dragon. But what is questionable is not precisely that, but the reasons why this argument must be seen again and again. There are traditions around the world that are often ruthless with the animal world. Things that today have no logic or coherent explanation other than the mere fact of belonging to a certain culture. Whaling in Asia, bullfighting in Spain, rodeos in Chile and much more. Traditions cannot be sustained over time only by honoring our ancestors. If we are damaging what surrounds us, it must not continue. The message of this film is very clear.

Speaking of the technical aspects of the film, it is an animation that stands out for its realism and textures within an animated world. The new technologies, which are not so new anymore, allow a beautiful hyper-realism that fills each plane with subtleties. The characters could have had better kinetics and gesticulation, especially in moments where the emotions were more extreme, but considering the audience it was addressed to, it is something that is forgiven.

Entertaining, great message, good voice acting (it was weird hearing The Butcher stop a monster from being killed), and great aesthetics.

Totally recommended.

'The Sea Beast' features incredible animation, and some of the most realistic animated characters (humans) I've ever seen - with regards to appearance and proportion. Jacob is also a rather sexy animated creation, mind you!

Speaking of Jacob, he is one of the film's protagonists. As a youngster, he was rescued by Captain Crow and has been living with him ever since. They are monster hunters. Fresh on the trail of the elusive Red Bluster, Captain Crow abandons the mission (against his will) to save a ship under attack by a sea monster.

The Royals pay Captain Crow to hunt sea monsters, but when he fails to capture the Red Bluster on his latest mission, they inform him they will no longer pay for hunters. Instead, they built their own ship, and the King challenges Captain Crow to see who would be the first to capture the Red Bluster.

An orphan, Maisie, who's parents were killed by a sea monster, stows away on Captain Crow's ship and join them on their adventure. The film's first half was mature, with action, adventure and even suspense all the way. It had an incredible sense of realism until that defining moment (almost exactly at the halfway mark) when it suddenly reduced the film to a 'cute' kid's adventure.

After that 'Pinocchio' moment (yeah, you'll recognize it when you see it!), the characters suddenly resorted to silly actions typical of animated films aimed at a younger demographic, and the suspense made way for humour (even slapstick). The believability was completely gone with the feared Red Bluster now being 'adorable'. The film even had a 'How to train your Dragon' character, Blue, acting almost exactly as Toothless.

The film nevertheless remained exciting (although not as much as the first half), and it certainly was entertaining.

Firstly, the visuals. Everything is visually gorgeous and well designed, from Bridgetown (think Victorian Venice) to the ships to the ocean. A lot of care was taken in the actual animation (i.e. Movement) of all of these elements. The waves and spray of the ocean look like they're from a documentary, the swaying of the ship looks truly forceful and the destruction of the town is full of debris and dust. Not to mention a clever little scene involving a rope and a coconut tree. This gives the entire film an immersive feeling and really raises the stakes as we can truly appreciate how powerful the forces of nature are.

Secondly, the dialogue was great. A lot of the film is just bickering between the sailor and the young child, which showed off their personalities and never got annoying. Every character in this film has such a distinctive personality that it's like we know them in real life.

Thirdly, it's not a very original story. Like many others, I thought of How to Train Your Dragon halfway through watching, as the characters and overall storyline are similar. Does this film add much to improve on that inspiration? Beyond the change in setting, not really. One glaring flaw is the the dragons in How to Train Your Dragon have much more personality, while the beasts in this film are quite tepid.

Overall, a good film. I still rated it 7/10. But it could have been higher if it differentiated itself from previous films and had a more compelling ending.