Netflix Animation has certainly had its ups and downs in the relatively few years the streaming service has been making its own animated content. Netflix has worked with directors who previously worked for Disney, Universal, and other major animation studios, and while Netflix has been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars for films like Klaus and Over the Moon, Netflix has yet to have a film that has become a massive hit for them. Especially with Netflix canceling animation projects earlier this year, it seemed like the great Netflix animated original might never come to pass.
Yet the outlook for Netflix Animation in 2022 looks surprisingly robust. Not only have we already had Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Odyssey earlier this year, but the end of the year will see Henry Selick teaming up with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key on Wendell & Wild and Guillermo del Toro co-directing his take on Pinocchio. Helping this sea change, however, is The Sea Beast, from Chris Williams, director of Disney’s Bolt, Big Hero 6, and Moana. Williams’ work was essential to the changing opinions of Disney moving towards computer animation, and with his first film with Netflix, it seems like he might be helping do the same thing for the streaming service.
The Sea Beast takes to the water and follows Captain Crow (voiced by Jared Harris) and his crew of sea monster hunters that includes Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), Crow’s second-in-command and the closest thing he’s ever had to a son, and Sarah Sharp (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a badass swordsman aboard the crew’s ship, The Inevitable. As The Inevitable sails on to face their most dangerous monster yet, known as The Bluster, they discover a stowaway in Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator), an orphan girl who worships the stories of Captain Crow and his impressive crew. As Maisie goes on this adventure with her heroes, she starts to see how the tales she’s read all these years might not be the whole truth, and that maybe these sea monsters aren’t actually monsters at all.
Williams, who also co-wrote The Sea Beast with Nell Benjamin, certainly brings some of his Disney flair to this latest venture. Maisie’s discovery that the world she once believed in has echoes of Bolt, the unity of The Inevitable reminds of Big Hero 6, and the sea-bound adventure clearly reminds of Moana. But especially compared to the other animated Netflix Original films, The Sea Beast has more of that magic that made Williams’ films for Disney so wonderful, even if it never quite gets to the quality of his previous work.
While the adventures on the water in The Sea Beast boast some of the film’s most beautiful animation, the character and monster design leaves much to be desired. Urban, Harris, and Hator are doing fantastic work with these characters, but the designs already look like they’re from an age of computer animation long past. The monster designs are also a bit basic, especially when compared to a film series like How to Train Your Dragon, where so many of these monstrous characters can be told through the way they look.
Thankfully, it’s the screenplay of The Sea Beast that makes it special, as Williams and Benjamin are exploring the idea of revisionist history, and how so much of history is defined by who is telling these stories. The Sea Beast is also fittingly saltier than your standard animated film, with slightly surprising dialogue and an understandably relaxed take on alcohol—a rarity for what is essentially a kid’s film. But The Sea Beast’s best scenes come in the quieter moments, as Jacob and Maisie have to reckon with the realities of their worlds not being what they originally thought.
The Sea Beast doesn’t necessarily mark a complete shift in quality for Netflix Animation, but it certainly seems like a step in the right direction for the company’s animated projects. The Sea Beast might not become the gigantic animation success Netflix is hoping for, but it definitely looks like the tides are starting to change in their favor.
Rating: B-
The Sea Beast is now available to stream on Netflix.