Netflix, out now

Written and directed by Chris Williams, who previously wrote and directed Bolt, directed Big Hero 6, and cowrote and co-directed Moana, this is an animated family adventure on the high seas, in which orphan Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator) stows away aboard the ship of the legendary Captain Crow (Jared Harris), whose piratical-looking crew are the heroic hunters of gigantic sea monsters which have long plagued the Kingdom’s coastline.

During her travels, which is something she shares with Moana, she’s assigned to the care of the greatest hunter, Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), and they find themselves marooned before learning some hard truths about the monsters, thanks to a giant kaiju which Maisie dubs “Red” because… it’s red.

Although the nautical imagery is all of 18th Century pirates – down to Captain Crow’s costume echoing the costume of Ian McShane’s Blackbeard in POTS: On Stranger Tides – and First Mate Sarah Sharpe (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)’s Jolly Roger hat ornament, in fact there are no pirates. They’re all honest sailors in the service of the King (Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter), who is shown in very much a Georgian style. They are hunters, and so the movie is more about humans’ relationship to the sea monsters, which are very big threats to everyone at sea in the film.

So, with Maisie open-minded about everything, including how the war with the monsters started, and having some unexplained – beyond just the trope of kids getting things that adults are too closed-minded to – connection to Red, and to a smaller blue creature called, you guessed it, Blue, are we looking at a more nautical How To Train Your Dragon kind of vibe?

Well, no, though Red does pull a good Toothless expression at one point. It won’t take an adult viewer long to notice that the hunters using harpoons, and subtle influence of whalesong type frequencies in the sound mix means we’re seeing an allegory about learning that hunting large creatures just to be rid of them because the King says so is bad.

There’s nothing wrong with that message, but some of the pacing issues the film has make a number of developments just seem out of the blue: how does Red understand Maisie? (Well, OK, it has a huge head, so plenty of room a huge brain;) How come Sarah Sharpe sees the light so suddenly? What is Blue and how does that connection to Maisie and/or Red work? There’s definitely a feeling that if it had been a limited series there’d have been time to get into that, and that it at least needs a lot of trimming in the first half and some additions in the second half.

The action is great, and the performances are mostly excellent. Karl Urban makes a fine wannabe swaggering but actually confused and frustrated hero whose heart is the in the right place, while Jared Harris brings a surprising and subtly wide range to the gruff, shaven-headed Crow, with unexpected moments of depth, wisdom and pathos among the grumpiness and determination; he’s simultaneously villain by circumstance, and mentor. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is good snappy fun as Sarah Sharpe, while relative newcomer (she’s been in an episode of Endeavour and had a small role in Morbius) Zaris-Angel Hator really deserves a breakthrough for her perfection voicing Maisie, who actually carries the viewer past those pacing issues during the runtime, leaving them to bubble up afterwards.

Let’s not forget the main beasts, from the opening monster, to the crab monster fought by Red, both of which are suitably nasty and scary for the younger audience, to the small cute Blue which is clearly intended to be marketable as a plushie, and so has actually the least creative value of the creatures… And then there’s Red. Being a family animation it’s easy to assume – and probably correctly on at least one level) that they were aiming for a Dreamworks Dragons vibe and worldbuild, but in fact it works just as well as a play on Kaiju, and especially the Lionsgate Monsterverse. Red does quite a few Godzilla expressions and poses – from various eras of the Godzilla franchise – and is quite effectively used in the sort of role that we’re used to seeing Godzilla in: based on (a) Monster Island, defending the heroes against other monsters, being under threat from governments who don’t understand his value…

Hell, the ship on which Maisie’s parents went down was called The Monarch just like Monarch Industries in the Lionsgate Monsterverse. That can’t be a coincidence.

Anyway, to recap, this is good fun, and has the right mix of thrills, scares, laughs, and character to be a success, with special note to Jared Harris. It has a fun score, and a clever sound mix, and the animation is as up to scratch as you’d expect from a current Dreamworks or Pixar animation. It has a hopefully breakout performer in the voice of Zaris-Angel Hator, and an intriguing expressive kaiju in the form of Red – and it would be very nice to see and hear more of these two. The visual style is lovely, with an ahistorical pseudo-Georgian 18th Century feel that just seems right, while it’s interesting to note that if there’s an actual confirmed character death in it (other than referenced in dialogue as occurring before the events of the film), it slipped past unnoticed.

It has pacing issues, which are either the reason for or result of being a Netflix release, with a first half too long before the reveal of the monsters being contextually whales, meaning characters just suddenly switch certain ways because the audience knows the truth. That does leave a slight taste of frustration in the mouth, as it’s really good, but you know it could have been even better.

Verdict: As it is, kids up to a certain age will probably add a point to the score here, but there’s no question it’s a fun movie with some surprising depths in the voice performances, and recommended. 8/10

David A McIntee