Netflix ‘The Sea Beast’ Movie Review

My family is always looking for a good movie to watch together! This weekend, we decided to check out The Sea Beast on Netflix. Without leaving our home, it felt as though we had a theater experience together. In the story, a young, determined girl stowed away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter. Although the story was predictable at times, the animation was so thrilling that it kept my attention through the very end.

As the movie began, the scene showed Maisie Bramble, voiced by Zaris-Angel Hator, reading aloud to the orphans in her orphanage from a book about the grand warriors who fought terrible sea monsters. When she snuck out of the orphanage at night, she ventured off to avenge her parents’ death that the sea monsters had caused.

After she hid aboard the ship, she encountered Jacob Holland, voiced by Karl Urban, whom she admired from the pages of her book. They journeyed the ocean together, they began to trust one another, and they made new friends along the way.

Visually, the movie had stunning production value, which came from its director’s background and experience at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The Sea Beast was directed and co-written by Chris Williams, whose previous credits including writing and directing Moana, Big Hero 6, and Bolt. He was also a story artist on Frozen, Zootopia, and Tangled.

Each sea monster looked different from the next. In several scenes, the sea monster coming out of the water with its mouth wide open added tension to the storyline. As they leapt across the screen, my whole family paused our conversations, and we put down our devices to see each moment. Two kind-hearted sea monsters played a big role to the main characters, and they help create a twist in the story.

Different camera angles showed the exterior of the sea monster and inside its mouth and nostril, and this made the movie interesting to watch. However, my family wondered how people could ride in a sea monster’s nostril and not get incredibly wet from the water! If the sea monster breathed air through the nostrils, wouldn’t wind be blowing past the protagonists? Curious minds must know.

I liked the animation style, which gave the backdrop a realistic look with every glittery splash of water in the ocean. The eye-catching vivid colors were most noticeable in the contrast between the bright red sea creature and the deep blue ocean.

The movie shared an empowering message. Truth prevailed over ignorance. Having empathy towards those who were misunderstood helped to create a kinder world. Challenging traditions that were hurtful or based on incorrect ideas required much braveness, and it was possible when people joined one another to speak up together.

I didn’t feel that the message was shown in a new and different way from other movies that are out right now since my family predicted the ending 15 minutes into it. However, I enjoyed the connection to some of our favorite movies. Mostly, the story was aligned with How To Train Your Dragon‘s message of large creatures not being as bad as people thought.

Sea voyages reminded me of Moana, as did the message of unexpected friendships and the story of a younger girl knowing right from wrong more than the adults understood.

My daughters cried out, “Just like in Pinocchio!” when a large sea creature swallowed the two protagonists.

Friendly sea monsters reminded me of Luca, but instead of taking place on the coast of Italy, the setting was an ambiguous kingdom in the 17th century inspired by old nautical maps that showed illustrations of sea monsters.

Overall, my family enjoyed the movie because it was fun to watch the adventurous voyage and the sea monsters. Fantastic visuals were an unexpected joy from Netflix. We were happy to have our home theater feel like the real thing. I would recommend The Sea Beast for ages five and up due to some fight scenes.

The Sea Beast is now streaming on Netflix.