Prime Day deals may be on the horizon, but not even a major sell-off can stop the cogs of the big streaming machine. The latest film to skyrocket the Netflix charts is the animated film The Sea Beast, which ended its debut weekend at #2.
Directed by Karl Urban, the film is proving to be a hit with audiences and critics alike. The film is currently rocking a 94% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes (opens in new tab), while audiences gave it an equally solid 92%. And unlike Urban’s other big streaming project, The Boys, this is something the whole family can enjoy.
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What is “The Sea Creature” about?
The Sea Beast is a Netflix Animation film set in a world where sea monsters are commonplace. So commonplace that there is an entire industry of monster hunters whose sole purpose is to track and kill the creatures and prevent ships from being lost at sea.
The most famous Monster Hunter crew is led by the legendary Captain Crow (Jared Harris), First Mate Sarah Sharpe (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Crow’s adopted son Jacob Holland (Karl Urban). Unfortunately, after a failed attempt to kill the Red Bluster – the worst monster to roam the seas – the crew will lose their royal funding.
After one last chance, the crew then finds Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator), an orphan girl hiding on the ship. Things obviously go awry and shenanigans ensue when Jacob and Maisie become separated from the rest of the crew during a Red Bluster attack.
What do critics think of The Sea Beast?
Many recent Netflix movies, including Persuasion and The Man from Toronto, have been mistreated by critics — but not The Sea Beast. Along with its impressive Rotten Tomatoes results from both professionals and viewers, it has an IMDB score of 7.1/10 (opens in new tab). Yes, those numbers will likely change as more people watch and rate the film, but nonetheless, it’s a pretty good start for The Sea Beast.
The Critical Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the move as “an original animated story that is often as daring as its characters” and continues that “The Sea Beast takes audiences on a journey worth taking .”
Brian Tellerico from RogerEbert.com (opens in new tab) gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and declared The Sea Beast one of the biggest surprise movies of the year so far. He noted his similarities to Moana and Pirates of the Caribbean, with a dash of How To Train Your Dragon.
Ross Bonaime at colliders (opens in new tab)meanwhile, gave the film a B- and said that The Sea Beast “may not be the animation giant Netflix is hoping for, but it definitely looks like the tide is turning in its favor.” And to Kevin Maher The Times (UK) (opens in new tab) noted that the film’s boring title doesn’t do it justice and the only flaw was in that “exquisite ocean yarn”. In fact, he declared the film to be “slightly better than Pixaring Pixar” and gave it a score of 4 out of 5.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Carlos Aguilar at The wrap (opens in new tab) noted that the film looks “superb in detail and photorealism” but proves to be lacking in other areas. Lena Wilson at The New York Times (opens in new tab) criticized the film’s “unflinching predictability,” noting, “There are lessons learned and enemies fought, but nothing very surprising happens in between.”
Outlook: Should you watch The Sea Beast?
By the sound of it, yes you should. These days, critic and audience opinions seem to be increasingly at odds with one another, so when they do agree, it’s always worth checking out. Not only that, but high-quality animated adventures that are suitable for the whole family are not exactly common. So if that’s what you’re looking for, then that definitely sounds like something to consider.
The Sea Beast only lasts two hours, which should come in handy for keeping the kids quiet for a while. But from the sounds of things, this isn’t a children’s movie as such, and adults should also find plenty of things to like about The Sea Beast. Also, now that The Boys is over, we kind of need to get our Karl Urban fix.
