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movie review - The Sea Beast

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Movie night comes to Netflix once again. This time in the form of the animated flick The Sea Beast. It's about a young girl who becomes obsessed with her nation's perennial struggle with the monsters that rule the surrounding oceans. She stows away on a monster-hunting ship, and causes herself to become marooned with the ship's lead hunter .. and one of the sea beasts.

Realizing that the beasts are not in fact monsters, and realizing also that the monsters are being persecuted despite some of the humans knowing the truth leads our plucky heroine toward a stand against the authorities. Where will the hunter land in all of this, and will it matter when the beasts have been hunted to near extinction?

Along the way there are a few curious loose threads introduced, including a whole thing about a witch who seems to exist only to move the plot along by providing a poison suitable for the monsters. The villains in the story are also really one-dimensional. But for a kids' movie, you can live with these things. I mean, how many times have I seen "Cars" and that whole thing is a train-wreck.

Recommended. But only for movie night. There's a bit too much here that doesn't entirely add up.