The Sea Beast (2022) User Reviews (312)

"I'm afraid anything I say will upset you"

[daisukereds · 7/10 · 10 July 2022]

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."

Good visuals, good banter, somewhat predictable storyline

[briancham1994 · 7/10 · 11 July 2022]

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.

watch it.

[maykalrif · 8/10 · 11 July 2022]

If it was a Disney movie, everyone would be talking about this movie, but unfortunately, not a lot of people saw this movie. For me, I saw the trailer by chance on YouTube, so I was interested. It is a very fun movie with amazing animation and a great story.

A message said before, but that needs to be repeated

[Movie_Rating_n_Ranking · 7/10 · 15 July 2022]

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.

Warming tale of friendship.....

[niloynil-36985 · 7/10 · 8 July 2022]

The story it self was great for me, they cover all of the aspect, bravery, comfort zone and friendship....

That last scene also have powerfull feels. Good job, really good job,,love it 😌

The first half was the best!

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 16 February 2023]

'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.

Excellent

[supermellowcali · 8/10 · 10 July 2022]

This is a fantastic movie for all ages. While oversimplified, this kind of story can only be so complex to work as what it is. I thought the animation was especially well done, because capturing the physics of the ocean, ships and objects together is super tricky. The girl's voice didn't really work for me (too young maybe) and some of the dialog could've been better,, but overall this is very entertaining moment to moment. Nice job!

An adventure filled with emotion through seas inhabited by monsters.

[J_Victor · 7/10 · 14 July 2022]

A menacing and murderous monster threatens human life, forcing us to hunt it down; however, someone eventually develops a bond with the beast, and fights to protect it from bloodthirsty humans. I'm sure some great movie came to your mind with this synopsis, but that's exactly the main plot of "The Sea Beast", a new Netflix animation.

Ok, the story doesn't have a fresh plot, and it's actually quite predictable, but that's where you (and I, at first) are wrong. The Sea Beast takes an overused premise and gives it a life and personality.

Maisie, a girl sneaks into the ship of a great sea monster hunter, Jacob. Together, they begin an epic journey through uncharted waters. The main objective of the "bloodthirsty humans" (that I mentioned earlier) is to find and kill a red giant marine beast, however, after almost crossing out this objective of their To-Do's, our protagonist duo are forced to release the beast in order to save the crew; Captain Crow is unforgiving and wants to end Jacob and Maisie's fate, but the red beast swallows them before that. It is obvious that the monster had no bad intentions and ends up creating bonds of friendship with our main duo.

Even if the main plot is nothing special, it's impossible not to be dazzled by the visual created for this film. An animation worthy of a Pixar classic, some breathtaking action sequences and a delicious story to follow, without ever stalling or getting boring.

I loved the subtext that monsters have been hunted for centuries due to false stories planted by the region's monarchy, thus causing the working class to venture into the sea to "keep the peace and ensure safety", while filling their pockets with money coming from spoils brought by the hunters. Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

The Sea Beast is an almost mandatory animation for anyone who likes the genre, and a magical experience for everyone looking for a family-friendly adventure. Go check this out ;)

How To Train Your Dragon - Sea edition

[lillemorthomsen-30837 · 8/10 · 8 July 2022]

As others put it: the plot is standard, sure.

However, despite being same'ol' plot, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Perhaps because the sheer diversity in the cast. Black, yellow and white (rough terms but I think you'll get my point).

Or perhaps it was the story and the fatherly/brotherly love to protect the little runt (the sweet little girl).

The movie dragged me in from the get go and kept me there - enough that I by the time the spear was thrown to save red against the crab, I was thrusting my fist in the air in triumph without even realizing it. Needless to say, I was hooked (no pun intended).

There was a very clear Captain Ahab seriousness set up against the sweet How To Train Your Dragon vibe throughout.

I liked it. Very much so.

Pirates Of The Caribbean Meets How To Train Your Dragon

[CinemaClown · 29 July 2022]

Pirates of the Caribbean meets How To Train Your Dragon in this simple, sweet & sumptuously animated sea voyage that's crafted with sincerity & rendered with finesse. The Sea Beast is a fascinating story about fantastic beasts & sailors who venture to find them and makes for one surprisingly delightful adventure-fantasy that packs no shortage of heart, heroics & humanity.

Co-written & directed by Chris Williams, the story takes its inspiration from several well-known sources and mashes them together to come up with its amusing premise. What makes it worth viewing & investing into however are the colourful set of characters who are scripted with care, bestowed with proper arcs & exhibit strong personalities. And it's their relationships that drives the plot forward.

The animation is rich in detail & gorgeous to look at and also gets much of the oceanic physics right. Add to that, the picture is breezily paced and its moments of action also carry that sense of awe & wonder that its vibrant score complements beautifully. Still, it fails to stick the landing as its simplistic themes & easily resolved conflicts only hurt its emotional impact and prevent it from realising its true potential.

Overall, The Sea Beast is a thoroughly fun, consistently entertaining & mostly satisfying offering that promises an enjoyable time to its viewers & delivers it effectively. Despite the familiar beats, there is a freshness to it but its last act also needed extra polish as there was more up for grabs than what the story eventually settles for. Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives by a big margin and it scores better marks than anticipated.

Mostly solid family movie!

[vttgnvcdy · 7/10 · 8 July 2022]

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.

Beautiful

[HlenSki · 9/10 · 10 July 2022]

Stunningly beautiful and colourful. Attention to detail in graphics is amazing. A story about befriending assumed enemies and leaving behind a generations long cycle of vengeance in exchange for peace. Effortless story telling. Funny, but in a warm fuzzy way, not over the top.

Wow!

[hannahwilliams-mail · 7/10 · 9 July 2022]

This is so cute! Amazing animation, great voice acting, good premise and just all around gorgeous! I loved this movie so much! I loved how sweet and adventurous Maisie was! Kudos to the voice actor they did an amazing job portraying Maisie's character! Red was perfectly cute and scary. The water scenes in the beginning with the sea monsters was actually quite frightening. Maybe it's just because I'm afraid of getting lost at sea or in space and being swallowed whole by a ginormous beast. I was watching the movie and I was like is that Karl Urban? And it is!!

Started off really strong

[messer-49320 · 5/10 · 12 July 2022]

Visuals and acting are a 9/10 probably - what absolutely destroyed this movie was the reveal and conclusion.

The backstory was excellent. We have monsters that will come and wreak havoc on civilization except for the rough and rebellious hunters who slay them. It's dangerous work for the hardest people. Our protagonist is a spirited girl who wants to be part of the hunter crew. We also find out the king and queen pay good money for killing the sea monsters. This is how the kingdom is well maintained. I did wonder how the king and queen are able to afford paying these mercenaries such massive sums but that wasn't important I guess.

The conflict introduced is the king and queen are going to make the hunters obsolete by building a massive warship which will be commanded by the kingdoms navy. The king and queen set forth a competition to see who can slay the biggest sea monster of all. This is a brilliant plot conflict point - the symbolism is technology + soldiers versus rugged hunters. Can society get rid of the proverbial gargoyles and still keep out the evil? So many great directions we can go from here.

But actually - the sea monsters are just nice massive animals that don't want violence.

But actually the war between hunter and monster is the product of state created propaganda.

But actually the massive war ship and military are basically nonentities that are wiped out the second time they show up on screen.

But actually the king and queen pay hunters to kill monsters because....because...well we aren't actually sure why.

So what's the moral of the story kids? The state is tyrannical just because. Monsters at the end of the world are only evil because the state tells you they are. If you just overthrow the powers that be, then you can make friends with monsters and live in peace and harmony with your pals.

Terrible story telling - so much potential wasted. The movie was pretty though. At least we didn't the see the return of the "men are stupid idiots" trope from Moana - the sexes were well represented in this one.

good animation but it has too much similarity

[AminGH-20816 · 7/10 · 9 July 2022]

The story is exactly similar to, how to train your dragon, in the Sinbad legend of the seven seas. I like that but the whole story was predictable, even beast reminds me of train your dragon, if the story was different it cloud be much better, overall recommend it.

Excellent animated film!

[UniqueParticle · 7/10 · 3 February 2023]

Karl Urban is incredible even in kids films which is impressive since he's been Billy Butcher in The Boys on Amazon which is very adult compared to this not related at all just nice to see a tamer character that is humble in The Sea Beast. Wonderful bonding throughout and a pleasant surprise of a great creature. One of the most lovely kids filmed fairly deserving of nominations despite not winning it's great fun and earlier I saw Knock at the Cabin which was disturbing nice to see something delightful afterwards, would highly recommend this charming adventure! Beautiful colors and solid experience for anyone interested the pace stays really smooth throughout.

A worse clone of How to train your dragon

[lehoan-77520 · 6/10 · 9 July 2022]

• Almost identical plot to How to train your dragon
• Fewer beasts(only about 4). The main one even has similar design and personality with Toothless.

• Ending is cringy, stupidly simple.

In summary, a poor stolen version of How to train your dragon. Well done Netflix, you thief.

A new step for graphics

[Spiritus33 · 9/10 · 8 July 2022]

Unlike some people here, that clearly need to upgrade or properly setup their tv, say, this is another step up for graphics. You can take it from someone that has seen and loved animated movies for a long time, this is amazing.

The lighting and reflections, specially through hair. The fabrics on cloth's, reflections in a puddle of water on the deck, different collouring throughout the day, underwater scenes and so on. It really pops off your tv. I would especially recommend an oled for this.

Besides all the graphical splendor, the story is compelling and bold. A mixture of Moana and Raya and the dragon. Liked the story, loved the graphics!

Great graphics, too predictable

[enadyo · 6/10 · 9 July 2022]

What's the use of great graphics if the storyline is so predictable?

A great play will be great if played in a yard. It will be greater if played on Broadway.

A mediocre script will remain mediocre no matter what.

Charming fun

[cardsrock · 8/10 · 25 February 2023]

This has the feel of a recent Disney Animated film, which is definitely a compliment. From a story that has some real weight to it, to a tiny, cute creature that never fails to provide genuine laughs, Chris Williams really has it all down from his time directing some of Disney's best animated films.

I was surprised by the route they took with the story, as I thought it would be a simple beast hunting plot. The Sea Beast has some real How to Train Your Dragon vibes and it honestly worked for me. It hits a lot of the expected story beats, but when your film is this delightful, you really don't mind. I hope Netflix continues to produce this kind of quality animated fare.

Teaches an important lesson!

[SoumikBanerjee1996 · 7/10 · 11 July 2022]

"Oh, you are lost, girl. Your parents died heroes"

"I want to believe that, but maybe you can be a hero and still be wrong"

Who would have thought a tale about fantastical sea creatures and a group of hunters would teach us one of the most practical lessons of our lifetime. The subtext willfully delineates the importance of peace and harmony and prioritizes the need for Love & Compassion amidst a world full of hatred and animosity. And on top of all, the narrative here inspires us to have a broader perspective on humanity and life itself!

From a very young age, we've been taught to hate, to discriminate; more often than not, we humans are advised to care only for our kind and let the rest suffer the consequences of our dreadful judgments. And this so-called naivety or selfishness, whatever you may name it, has been persistently misused by the people up in higher ranks! Just to please their selfish deeds, to appease their appetites for more authority and leverage. They had done everything they could to divide, to misguide.

Not only the Monarchies in distant history are responsible, but it's quite the same for the modern-day democratic systems as well. Their strategies may have transitioned to suit their newer agendas, yet those people in power continue to take advantage of common residents to satisfy their longings. "The Sea Beast" takes a firm stand against that very notion! The film in its own right may not be an embodiment of perfection but the underneath statement holds much greater significance and one that should not at any cost be disregarded.

The Red Beast

[oscarflash · 8/10 · 9 July 2022]

The Red Beast, Huge like fish, is how the story got it's new beginning. The Plot is about doing good.

Living a great life and dying a great death, shouldn't be about fighting the so claimed monsters rather, living in peace with them. It's about doing what's right for the greater good and telling the truth. Not selling more lies for our own benefits and to satisfy our greed.

It's a very nice anime about lot's of great meanings.

High Recommended. 8/10.

(First day of Eid Al-Adaha).

9th of July 2020.

Repackaged Moby Dick for the non-reader generation

[peterbreis · 7/10 · 24 August 2022]

A visually tasty mash-up of Moby Dick and the Dragon movies. Down to the sea beasts having the same faces as the dragons.

I only saw it because my 4 year old grandson desperately wanted to see it but was a scared by the monsters and needed someone to protect him

The colours of the beasts, characters and backdrops are stunning, as are the tall ships, rolling waves and underwater scenes. I was fascinated with the look and graphics, and ignored the flaws in the plot, script and dialogue.

Hollywood finds safety in recycled cliches, in this case the principle beast implausibly falls for a young girl despite she is part of the crew of the ship that harpoons it and we end up with the usual enemies become friends Sorry about giving away that surprise ending.

Ollie soort of liked it despite not understanding what happened and why.

Very good but also very bad

[huytranle-17956 · 4/10 · 22 July 2022]

A good graphics and colorful world in this movies deserve four points.

But it's just it, nothing to expect. It could have been way better and more special than How to train your dragon because it has all the good set up and so much potentials in this fiction world. But I think the director and writer is just bad and they ruined the whole thing. There's no story in this movie, everything is very predictable and somewhat cringe. It's just like the main character just happen to change their mind so quick because the script said so. I don't feel any progress in the character and I don't think that their actions make any sense. It's a 2-hour movie but everything feel so rush and it don't have the clear and highlight moment that could make the whole plot turn to a sensible way, the real moment that main character really find the truth. All the supporting characters are quite faint and unmemorable, in a lot of times, I don't know why they're even there.

Sometime I think they are trying to make a political standpoint through this movie that makes every plots, dialogs, transformations feel so weird and rush. And it's a kid movies, don't try to cram too much political in the real world to an animation film. Some good and decent story's about what is a good thing and what is a good-hearted person would like is enough. Stop putting woke ideology in every film, Netflix !!! A Korean Film is now more worth to watch and they're doing a very good job to make an excellent film than most of the crap western film.

Beastily overrated

[mrashtastic89 · 7/10 · 7 October 2022]

Daily reminder that overrated doesn't mean bad and that I actually quite enjoyed this film but it's far from a top 10 of the year, even though that's not exactly saying much.

The Sea Beast is filled and brimming with high tier animation, thrillingly suspenseful and intense action sequences, and amazing voice acting, especially from Karl Urban and Jared Harris, they are both fantastic in this film, the 2nd act especially had me hooked while the first act kept my interest very well.

But here's the thing, I seriously hated the central protagonist, she was both extremely annoying and incredibly idiotic through almost the entire movie, and it's also at least 20 minutes too long.

But those definitely didn't drag it down too much, The Sea Beast is a great Netflix watch, and I'm gonna give it a B+