This new Netflix movie is a smash hit with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes

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last updated 22 July 2022

When I heard that Netflix was releasing a film called The Sea Beast I thought they'd somehow got hold of pictures of me in a swimsuit. But no! It's a new animated adventure that's much funnier than my little joke there.

With a cast including Karl Urban (Dredd, The Boys), Zaris-Angel Hator (Endeavour, Morbius) and Dan Stevens (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire, Sense & Sensibility) and both written and directed by Chris Williams it's got a stellar cast and crew. Williams also directed some of my favourite animated movies including Bolt and Big Hero 6, so the animators are in great hands here.

The film centres around a young girl, Maisie Brumble, who stows away on the ship of legendary monster hunter Jacob Holland. It's partly a homage to old adventure movies of the buccaneering kind, but it's also an original and entertaining action film with a big heart. And the critics and viewers seem unanimous that this is definitely one for your watch list.

Is The Sea Beast worth watching?

According to the reviews and ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, that's a big yes. New York magazine says that "the world of The Sea Beast is so realistically rendered, so detailed and physical, that much of the time it feels like a live-action adventure. It’s so thoroughly immersive it might make you believe in sea monsters." The Straits Times says that "the voyage is CGI splendour. It traverses mighty nautical battles, devastating tidal storms and luminescent ocean depths with a brief stop inside Red's cavernous belly." And Film Threat says that "the Sea Beast has a few clichés, and the ending wraps things up a little too quickly. But the animation and art designs are good, with the cinematography adding a lot of excitement."

I'm definitely going to force my kids to watch this, and when they're done we're off to Disney+ to watch some of Chris Williams' previous hits including Moana and the aforementioned Bolt and Big Hero 6. If you're looking for something to entertain the kids, they're great films that are just as much fun for grown-ups.

The Sea Beast can be streamed on Netflix now.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).