The Sea Beast washes down this heavy thematic material with a playful tone and exciting, well-designed action.

| Dec 14, 2022

If you’re going to title your movie The Sea Beast, you need to commit to a beast that earns its billing.

| Jul 21, 2022

At a time when the American studios are struggling to deliver fresh animation, [Netflix] has undercut them with a period epic whose worthwhile lessons are tainted only slightly by preachiness.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2022

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.

| Jul 12, 2022

I found it very compelling, even though you know exactly where it's going to go from the very start.

| Jul 11, 2022

It is kind of goofy, but knowingly so and that's part of the fun of it.

| Jul 11, 2022

A whoppingly bland title for a singularly thrilling animated adventure is the only detectable flaw in this exquisite ocean-going yarn. Easily out-Pixaring Pixar, this is the third unqualified triumph from Netflix Animation...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2022

Fun, smart, and sneakily deep.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 8, 2022

A surprisingly fun, well-written and sweeping adventure that lands most of its gags and sentiment, and even thrillingly pushes the boundaries of animated action.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2022

Delightfully subversive.

| Jul 8, 2022

It’s a ripping yarn, a gorgeously rendered kaiju adventure on the high seas that uses fantasy to ask pertinent questions about the stories we believe, and who benefits from that belief.

| Jul 8, 2022

It's a rollicking yarn, stunningly designed and dynamically animated, with superbly cinematic editing, pacing, and framing, appealing characters, and a thoughtful conclusion. Watch it on the biggest screen you have.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 8, 2022

It’s as if the budget was allocated for the production design — the ships, the seaside town, and the water look top-notch in detail and photorealism — but then proved insufficient for other elements.

| Jul 8, 2022

This script’s greatest sin is its steadfast predictability. Lessons are learned and enemies are fought, but nothing very surprising happens in between.

| Jul 7, 2022

It’s hard to overstate how refreshing it is to watch an animated streaming movie that feels like it actually wants to be remembered.

| Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2022

The Sea Beast is notable for its refusal to dumb itself down for a young audience. It’s anchored by interesting and fairly complex characters who actually have arcs to play.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2022

This “Beast” wants to tell an original story about people willing to change their views and to stand up for those who are unjustly ostracized, and do it in exciting and bold ways. Mission accomplished.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 5, 2022

Consider this an outlier: a zesty and inventive rip-roarer for the under 12s made by Netflix without the comfort blanket of existing intellectual property.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 30, 2022

The Sea Beast was one of the last features to be completed at Netflix’s animation branch before it was dramatically scaled back last month as a result of falling subscriber numbers. Thank goodness it got out before the cuts bit.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2022

The Sea Beast gets the balance just right between rollicking action scenes, the inevitable didactic anti-hunting message about respecting other species’ right to exist and family-friendly humour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 22, 2022