“Sea Beast”: a review of the film

Macy Bramble, the hilarious hero sea ​​beast, is a little girl with a giant personality and chart-topping daring. At the beginning of the story, he is determined to reclaim his place in the monster-hunting lore of his maritime country; By the time he’s finished, he’s changed that tradition in a way that’s not only sharp and profound, but deeply moving. Chris Williams, whose main credits include big hero 6 s boomade a great-looking, gripping film whose emotional undercurrents are all the stronger for not playing against the backdrop of shock.

The frantic rush of the opening sequences might suggest we’re being pushed into familiar, action-packed animated territory. Of course, there’s a lot of intense action, battles, and more. sea ​​beastAlong with sweet and fluffy. But as Macy’s story unfolds, the questions she and the film ask defy expectations. The film’s idealism has a subversive side as it aims at war, greed and hypocrisy, undoing official lies and tearing down buildings and, more importantly, making way for something better.

Set in a world of fantastical creatures and great ships, set in the year 1700, sea ​​beast It combines cartoon style with stunning photorealism. Shooting the water, the film’s main setting, is particularly powerful, whether filmmakers capture the dirt and shine on its surface or delve into its tranquil depths. The sky also has a picturesque eloquence, as well as conjuring fire, fog and candlelight. But the main thing in all this is the nuance of the character.

Eleven-year-old May comes to life with stunning animation and the lively voice of newcomer Zaris-Angel Hator. Just as Macy takes on famous sailors and arrogant aristocrats, the young actress fares well against seasoned professionals like Jared Harris and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

In addition to its larger themes, Williams and Nell Benjamin’s screenplay is about two orphans and their unlikely bond. The first is Mace, whose monster-hunting parents died in a fairy-tale encounter with giant ocean creatures. The other hunter is Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), who also lost his parents at sea. The aftermath of her shipwreck and the rescue of Captain Crowe (Harris) are captured with chilling intensity in the film’s brief first scene.

As Raven’s second-in-command, Jacob has become a legend, his adventures chronicled in a book that Macy, with no lack of dramatic flair, reads aloud to her fellow orphanage members. They are an ecstatic audience, but Jacob’s exploits are more than a bedtime story for Mays, who sees the sea as her calling. Intent on serving alongside a famous warrior, he escapes from an orphanage and ends up on his ship, inevitably impressing Captain Raven and worrying Jacob. First Officer Sarah Sharp (Jean-Baptiste) handles the Macy’s break-in with the same confidence she brings to everything else.

Set against a diverse set of figures from the ship’s crew, the Ahab-style revenge saga centers on the austere and pampered Captain Crowe, whose face has the rough, chiseled appearance of a ship’s figure. Your enemy is not a large white whale, but a mighty red blaster, an enormous manatee-shaped beast with a rhinoceros horn, with a wide mouth of incisors that resemble an animal’s faces. How to Train Your Dragon, and expressive yellow cat eyes. It’s been 30 years since Crowe lost one of his eyes in a fight with Blaster. Now, if he is successful in his quest to defeat the beast, he plans to resign and hand over the reins to Jacob.

Although Jacob was known for his arrogance and pep talk with the crew about the glories of the hunter’s life, his ambivalence permeates nearly every exchange. The father-son dynamic between him and the captain leads to speculation about his purpose in life, which May’s presence forces him to explore. At the end of the story, when Jacob and Macy faced countless dangers at sea and on land, her suggestion that they be reunited forever as a family, and how that tears it apart, captures the two inner lives in a few succinct lines. to the perfection of Urban and Hathor.

Likewise, Sarah Sharp’s insecurities undermine her military career when Macy urgently needs help. And you don’t have to delve too far into Captain Crow’s militancy to see a man torn apart by a failed mission and a sense of mortality, or even the end of his career.

Captain Crow’s ultimate mission is to retrieve the Emperor, a mega ship designed to make old school hunters like Crow and Jacob obsolete. Gilded to the brim, with dozens of guns, it’s a ridiculous monument guarded by the wily Admiral Hornagold (Dan Stevens), who clings even closer to the favor of the King (Jim Carter) and Queen (Don McEachan) and leads. Your war with Red Blaster and all the beasts of the sea.

Separated from Crow’s ship for most of the film, Jacob and Mace encounter several beasts, including a giant purple crab. Blue, a little creature with quail feathers, turns out to be not only a cheerful colleague, but also a loyal friend, as well as a reminder that all so-called monsters were once adorable children.

sea ​​beast However, he has more on his mind than he realized. Macy’s General Questions is just over halfway through the story, shifting focus, instilling healthy suspense, and finally tackling issues like scapegoating and winning the war. Heavy stuff, and yet Williams keeps the visual delights and jokes flowing, never losing sight of fearless Macy and conflicted Jacob, or how these two orphaned souls come together.

Every action, whether tense, moody, goofy or cute, subtly raises Mark Mancina’s score. Palace, whose killer lyrics are mixed with comic glee, goes to the heart of this heady mix. dick mobythe book of jonah Kong vs Godzilla It is a story of the poverty to the riches of great heroes: how much do we really see and hear around us? As May, who claims to be an inadvertent sailor, tells Jacob, “The world is big. And you don’t know everything. “