Stablemates: The Sea Beast (2022) · 7:12pm Dec 7th, 2023
Go, Retro! Looking through my blogs for unfinished business, I see I left the reviews of Netflix animated movies unfinished. Not gonna do a bunch of reviews all at once, so today's solo feature will be The Sea Beast (2022).
Thoughts below the surface!
Blog Number 241: "One Small Thing" Edition
For those curious, the prior post with reviews is this one: Stablemates: Non-Pony Netflix Animated Films. In that post, I reviewed six Netflix-exclusive animated movies (in alphabetical order). In a prior post again, I reviewed the G5 pony movie, which you can read here if you're curious: My Little Pony: An Overdue Generation. So that can count as the start of the reviews, technically, since it counts as a Netflix-exclusive animated movie as well.
Although it only works in gross measures rather than specifics (because sometimes "what I like most" is a moving target), if I had to take a stab at ranking them, I'd probably go with this:
- NIMONA (2023)
- Klaus (2019)
- Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)*
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
- My Little Pony: A New Generation (2021)**
- Back to the Outback (2021)
- Gnome Alone (2018)
* A special case, as I admire it a lot more than I personally like it, so take that as you will.
** I'm undecided about this one, and on another day would probably knock it one down the list. It depends on whether I'm emphasizing the hits or the misses.
That should catch you up. Now we've got the old out of the way, let's go with the new! Oh, and...
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Sea Beast (2022)
Oof, movie, nooo. You had me, then you lost me...
The nicest thing I can say about the movie is that it struck me early on as a hybrid of How To Train Your Dragon and Pirates of the Caribbean. Like, good Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it stayed within that mould for a solid hour plus. Gimme another hour of it, and I'd be praising this movie to the skies, including the funny faux-British slang that I don't think we Brits would ever utter no matter how drunk we were.
If I had to pinpoint the single biggest strength of the film, it's the immersion. This film throws everything at the idea that sea beasts and hunting collectively make for a full-blown glorious subculture in this world, with a fantastic opening action scene specifically designed to revel in that attention to detail.
Side note: this movie looks fantastic.
The sailing jargon, the tactical decisions made by the crew on the fly, the woven character dynamics (especially Captain Crow's obvious but "hidden depths" hatred of sea monsters, which implies a personal backstory without spelling it out), the mix-and-match design of the sea monster that tests the Inevitable (this franchise's Black Pearl as the ship for our heroes), the mystery behind the Red Bluster, and the way the tension and threat level are managed throughout, all capped by a breathless framing device that makes it clear why little Maisie Brumble would totally want to throw herself into this dangerous world: if you're not won over by this opening section, I don't know what else to tell you.
The Pirates of the Caribbean comparison doesn't begin and end with the sailing. There's a grimness to the cast - most obviously in their brutal lifestyle and in the barely-papered-over, Ahab-like hostility of Captain Crow - that's contrasted with the fancy-schmancy Georgian-esque glamour of the clueless upper classes (because when aren't the upper classes out of touch in these kinds of movies?).
Sadly, there's no Jack Sparrow or Hector Barbossa to add any above-and-beyond anarchy, irony, or intelligence to the proceedings, but at least our main hero Jacob can be summed up as "Will Turner if he was actually a character". And Maisie's complete lack of survival instinct in her gushing desire to jump into a subculture with a low survival rate is darkly humorous in a dramatic irony kind of way.
(Also, the fact that the director was involved in Moana probably explains better the emphasis on sailing and water effects).
The How To Train Your Dragon comparison is easier still to spot: the sea monster designs. The Red Bluster itself bears a bit-too-unfortunate a resemblance to Toothless, but overall I like the seal/otter influence in its design and the relatively streamlined simplicity of its overall shape. A smaller monster called Blue (not exactly stretching themselves for names) shows up later as the obvious cute animal sidekick, though the fact that it looks like a bug-eyed fish and flops around like a bag of fat tempers the audience groans somewhat.
I also remember a hippo-mouthed yellow elephant seal-looking thing, and a fight with a giant crab, and also the opening sea monster design (which is my favourite for its hybrid approach), and though nowhere near to the extent of HTTYD, the designs are at least pleasingly varied and suggest a massive ecosystem that used to exist in-universe.
So that's the endorsement! There's plenty of adventure, and not as much comedy as I was expecting - you'll go a long time without belly laughs, so they come across more as opportunistic than built in - and enough grimness that, for over an hour, it works really well. Perhaps it could push the boat out more with monster variety, but then again it's a plot point that they're on the verge of extinction anyway, so on a worldbuilding level it's solid enough.
If I had to pinpoint the single biggest weakness of the film, though, it's the pacing.
Not just the pacing, but I get the impression the pacing is what ultimately results in the issues piling up.
The first hour plus revels in detail and feels comfortably right, so I don't have a problem with that, but it makes for too great a contrast. In the last hour, the plot suddenly needs to pass checkpoints at a faster and faster rate, and this need to speed towards an obvious yet ambitious climax really hurts it, in my opinion.
Let me count the ways.
Firstly, it screws over the imagination. Once we leave an island full of monsters, it's mostly the Red Bluster and Blue plus the skeletons of past monsters, and it's not a good idea to peak too early with an imaginative fantasy world. Compare and contrast: HTTYD got this right by spacing out the introductions and explorations of the various dragon species, culminating in an epic battle against the biggest and baddest of the bunch.
Instead, The Sea Beast gives us an increasing focus on one major monster player and the humans, which isn't bad per se, but which is hampered by the limited personality of the one major player (the Red Bluster has some amiable and aggressive traits, but unlike Toothless, it never feels like it has an engaging interest beyond that surface level reactiveness) and the fact that there's only one, maybe two humans of any depth.
Secondly, it hobbles the moral. Jacob and Maisie take their sweet time coming to the conclusion that sea monsters aren't the mindless killing machines they've been propagandized as, and they're our two main heroes. It's slow and gradual, and thus feels relatively natural.
If the plot had been content to stick with them, and maybe give Captain Crow some room to change his mind, that'd fit the pace and scope better. But no, we have to convert an entire kingdom, all at once, based on hearsay and with a royal conspiracy into the mix, in - like - the last ten minutes.
I'm sorry, but that's too much, too late. It feels really rushed with hardly any foundation in the final act, and the King and Queen have been such nonentities for most of the film that it's kinda pointless pinning them down (ambiguously, at that) as the main villains in the finale.
Plus, it feeds into the super-easy resolution: instead of giving the kingdom time to breathe in the implications of centuries of demonization, we just scapegoat it onto two baddies who can be shooed out. It's severely underwhelming for a premise that requires challenging the social foundations this thoroughly.
Again, HTTYD shows the way. We get a long time to come to grips with both why dragons are so hated and why Toothless and later the other dragons are being unfairly maligned. Yes, it gets to cheat a bit with the Green Death, but again, it's all about the pacing. We have the whole movie to see both sides before we narrow down the corruption to one individual, which then requires a gradually built-up alliance to overcome. And it's all anchored by the fantastic slow burn of Hiccup and Toothless transitioning from presumed enemies to mutual tolerance to deep friendship.
The Sea Beast really struggles with the balance. We get a clear idea early on why sea monsters are so hated, but once it's properly introduced the Red Bluster proves to be mostly just a tolerant conflict-avoider and (barring one crab fight) remains in that mode till the climax. So instead of a gradually growing bond that feels tested and earned, it comes across as a not-particularly-condemning neighbour helping out the heroes because it can, and then suddenly being required to be the foundation for a new social movement.
I don't know about you, but to me it just feels too mild and stop-start at best, and not nearly deep enough at worst.
Thirdly, it requires some weird backpedalling later on, which hurts the subplot payoffs. At one point, Captain Crow makes the in-universe equivalent of a deal with the devil, which is treated as some kind of super-serious line being crossed. He buys a deadly poison from a shady witch character whose influence on his sanity will - no, wait, she never appears again. But merely the threat of the poison is enough to raise the tension - oh, never mind, it just puts the Red Bluster to sleep. Anyway, the price Captain Crow has to pay for this unethical move is - haha, what price, it literally doesn't matter once the final fight begins.
There's a rival ship made by the upper class to surpass the Inevitable - an over-the-top cannon cluster called the Imperator, which Captain Crow criticizes as impractical. This deep class rivalry and facet of the hunter subculture informs the film...
...not a bit. It's ignored for the rest of the movie save for one scene, and said scene involves it going down in, like, ten seconds. Fine, that's kinda the point, but it's lame. It's easy. It's unsatisfying as a payoff. Commodore Norrington's ongoing rivalry this sure as sugar ain't, so what was the point of bringing it up in the first place?
And I've already mentioned how the royals are nonentities up until the story needs them to be the masterminds behind the whole misunderstanding, except it's not even clear how culpable the current King and Queen are. After all, the lie's been ongoing for centuries, so who's to say the only deliberate liars weren't simply the first generation, long dead and gone?
Overall?
I feel like I'm being really down on the film, and there's the chance that the sequel in the works could be poised to retroactively patch over many of these last-minute problems (most obviously, by making the social transition rockier than it was presented here). For the majority of the time, it is good and arguably great. Had the second half kept to the quality of the first half, this could seriously be up there with Klaus and even NIMONA, in my view.
Still, I cannot emphasize enough just how much it sinks in the final stretch. Not completely, and not enough to totally destroy my goodwill towards it. I'd recommend it regardless. But an ending does have a disproportionate effect on the overall experience, so I kinda have to devote a disproportionate amount of the review to cover it.
Once again, I think that'll do for now. Potential candidates for next time include Wendell & Wild, The Willoughbys, Wish Dragon, and - if I get around to it - a look-in at The Magician's Elephant (since iisaw mentioned it in the comments to my last "Stablemates" blog post). Again, if you feel like bringing something up I haven't mentioned here, be my guest.
Till next time! Impossible Numbers, out.
I'm the guy that watches Y'allTube videos on 1.5x speed or higher, and has sometimes shouted, "Just get on with it, already!" at books. With that said, it may not come as a surprise that I thought the pacing of the last part of The Sea Beast was one of its strengths.
I think you fairly accurately laid out the beats of the story as they would have happened given more time. And that is precisely the problem: most people watching already know exactly how the third act will play out, and if the movie obligingly trudges through those beats, audience engagement will wane.
This is, of course, a YMMV / IMO situation. Many people I know prefer slower paced "expanded narratives," whereas I emphatically do not. I once heard a bit of writing advice (I wish I could remember where) that I took as Holy Gospel: If you find yourself writing a scene with connecting material that your readers will find obvious and easily predictable, skip it entirely.
Another highly personal reason why I rate this movie higher than I might otherwise is all the well-executed nautical stuff. Even the ignominious failure of Imperator is a highlight for me because the moment calls back to the historical examples of the Near Instantaneous Nautical Hubris Implosions* of Mary Rose and Vasa.
I will repeat my recommendation of The Magician's Elephant, with the additional information that I found it very entertaining mainly because it doesn't fit into any of the usual molds of mostly predictable animated movie plots. (Novelty is also something I'm addicted to.)
Oh! Also a rec for Hilda even though it's mainly a series, but with two movies stuck in. There's no point in describing it if you haven't heard of it. Just watch the first two episodes (30 min each) and you will know if it's for you or not. Again, the novelty factor is a big plus.
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* NINHI, pronounced "ninny." Usually used for lesser disasters like blowing your spinnaker to shreds.
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I see. Understandable enough. I tend to like a film not so much for creative twists (though a good twist is appreciated) and more for character chemistry or having an enjoyable flow in the moment. HTTYD is a classic example, as it's not hard at all to figure out where the plot is going, but the moment-to-moment worldbuilding and character exploration and so on have enough conviction that they're just right to me. That's why I tend not to mind slower-paced or more immersive stuff, however predictable: I like to soak in the atmosphere and get a feel for what I'm in for. So yeah, very much in the expanded camp.
Ah, there you have the advantage. I couldn't tell you more than that I had no problems with any of it in the moment.
OK, now I'm really curious...
Haha, already seen it, already love it! Oh, and look: a third season just arrived!
Also, what was the second movie, sorry? I've seen Hilda and the Mountain King, a.k.a. the unofficial Third Season before there was an official one, but I've never noticed anything else on Netflix.
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The last episode of season three is a mini movie or double-length episode. We're marathoning the whole thing now that season three is up, and it's really worth the rewatch! I had forgotten all the delightful details. What wonderful worldbuilding! There are very few fantasy worlds I would actually want to live in (most are nightmarish when you really think about them), but Hilda's is one of them.
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🤔 I might be misremembering, but weren't there some nightmarish elements in Hilda as well? I vaguely remember one episode that involved a giant destroying their home casually, and another wherein Hilda accidentally cast some kind of mind-altering curse. Or did you mean in a relative sense?
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No, you're not wrong about that. There is a lot of scary stuff that goes on in Hilda's world. But the "monsters" are very fully realized characters and as such, they have their own lives and motivations going on that make them open to negotiation if not outright friendship. Magical FUBARs like with the Tide Mice are possible, but that sort of thing doesn't seem very common. By contrast, Hogwarts has a yearly bodycount directly because of children being encouraged to fumble around with deadly magic.
So, I suppose it is a difference relative to other fictional worlds, not just in severity, but also in kind from the all-too-common fantasylands infested with unthinking evil. Episode 106, The Nightmare Spirit is a pretty good example. The dream demon and the rat king are legit horrifying, but can be dealt with on a one-to-one basis, without either side "losing."
EDIT: Now further into my rewatch, and... yeah, maybe not as cozy a world as I remembered. The writers put in a throwaway line that reveals they know what the typical reaction is when a person picks up a severed human head for the first time. Yikes!