The Sea Beast: an animated gem
Savannah Williamson, Staff Writer
“The Sea Beast,” a Netflix original film directed by Chris Williams, is charming, witty and warm. The movie has beautiful animation, a fantastic soundtrack, a heartwarming storyline and amazing voice actors.
The beginning of the movie introduces a pirate crew, hunting sea monsters on the fabled ship, “The Inevitable.” Amongst this crew, there are a few sea monster hunting legends aboard. To name a few, the captain of the ship, James Crow (Jared Harris), the sharpshooter who never misses, Sarah Sharpe (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), and the legendary Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), who can track and kill the beasts better than anyone. After a successful hunting trip, The Inevitable comes back to the harbor to celebrate their victory. In the town where the ship docks, a young girl, Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator), dreams of going on a ship and hunting sea monsters. She is so determined, she breaks out of her orphanage and runs into Jacob Holland. She tells him that she’s going to join his crew. He laughs and sends her away. A few days pass, and the Inevitable heads back out to sea. During a party on the ship, a barrel is opened and inside is a stowaway, Maisie Brumble. Captain Crow admires her tenacity and lets her stay on the ship, putting Jacob in charge of her. During the night, a sea monster attacks The Inevitable. In the attack, Jacob Holland and Maisie Brumble are thrown overboard and swallowed by the sea monster attacking them. However, the sea monster doesn’t eat them. The rest of the film is about Jacob and Maisie finding out who they really are, and learning that the sea monsters are gentle, becoming their own family amidst the chaos.
The animation and music were simultaneously amazing. Since most of this movie took place out on the sea, the animation of the water would have normally been the same. This movie took it a step further, and every time the scene changed, so did the animation of the water. This included the animation of beams of light and dark filtering through the water, and it moved and matched up constantly, and perfectly. It was very well done. The music by Mark Mancina complimented every aspect of the scenes. Since it was a pirate film, the music was put in 6/8 time, which gave it the bounce and fun feel of a pirate film and a sea shanty combined. Together, the animation and music were immaculate.
Every movie has to have actors, and in our case, voice actors. In this film, I believe that the choices for the voice actors were very fitting. The voices all fit their characters very well. And in the scenes where the characters were all together, every line flowed smoothly and there were little to no errors in the way the voice actors interacted with each other. Their chemistry was good, and in the moments where it was important to be serious or funny it was done with ease.
Overall, the movie is very well done and family-friendly. It is rated PG, which means some thematic elements, mild violence and language may be too aggressive for small children. The screenplay, written by Chris Williams and Nell Benjamin, supports the film’s phenomenal voice actors.
The piece has excellent music and visuals, but the ending of the story left me wanting something more. It lacked an ending that completed the story circle, even though it ran for approximately 119 minutes. This is why I rate “The Sea Beast” nine sea monsters out of ten.
