Netflix has released a new feature-length cartoon “Sea Monster”. The well-known streaming service has attracted Disney veteran Chris Williams, the creator of Moana and the Oscar-winning City of Heroes, to work on the project. The novelty received an impressive budget and a proven author, but was this enough for the emergence of a new masterpiece of animation? Details in the review below.
Genre Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Family
Director Chris Williams
Cast : Karl Urban, Dan Stevens, Jared Harris, Cathy Burke, Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Netflix release
Release year 2022
IMDb website
Orphan Maisie Bramble lives in an orphanage with other children. Their parents were monster hunters but died, so the kingdom set up similar orphanages all over the country. The girl dreams of serving as a harpooner on the ship of the legendary Captain Crowe, along with the equally famous hunter Jacob Holland. Maisie runs away from the shelter, meets her hero, asks for a crew, but is refused. Then the heroine waits for the right moment and hides in beer barrels delivered on board. Later, she is found, but the ship is already far out to sea, and another sea monster looms on the bow. Yes, and Captain Crowe likes her impudence, so he allows Maisie to stay, which he will regret more than once.
The cartoon “Sea Monster” is almost two hours long. During this time, the authors manage to introduce the audience to the world and its background, talk about sea monsters and smoothly, and sometimes a little boring, introduce all the main characters into the story. True, it is far from always possible to keep the brisk pace of the narrative, so the cartoon noticeably sags already at the beginning, then closer to the middle, and even manages to get a little bored by the end. But suddenly the main story with monsters takes an unexpected turn and this covers the lethargy of some plot points.
In addition, the cartoon has a lot of spectacular action scenes, battles with monsters, chases and pursuits. The picture also pleases with an abundance of humor. True, there are also amusing, but dead-end branches of history, which for some reason have been started and not completed.
“Sea Monster” was provided with attractive but problematic protagonists. Maisy and Jacob are a wonderful on-screen duet. The characters naturally complement each other, conflict funny in the right places, and also evoke sympathy and compassion. But despite this, they are too secondary, especially the image of the brave sailor Jacob Holland – we have a kind of classic heroic character from any Disney cartoon.
There is also no full-fledged villain in the picture. Closer to the finale, the hero and the legendary monster hunter Captain Crow are gradually moving to this role, but it turns out badly. The character acquires the “honorary” title of a scoundrel, but possesses it not because of his essence, madness or frenzied malice, but simply because the writers wanted it that way.
The best aspects of “Sea Monster” – picture and computer graphics. Here is realistic and very beautiful water, detailed underwater world, monsters and ships. The visual elaboration of people is deliberately careless, which gives them some necessary rudeness for the harsh realities here. At the same time, the overall picture is bright and juicy, and the style resembles a mixture of Moana and Pirates of the Caribbean.
