The Sea Beast review

I watched the movie last night so I thought I’d give a mini review

For the most part, I actually like it a lot.

The creature designs were fun and it’s rare to see entirely aquatic kaiju. I do wish the main “monster” Red had a little more texture to her like maybe tubercles on her fins like a humpback, because she kinda looks like a sea lion version of toothless.

Also my inner phylogenetisist flared up and so a lot of the monsters are hard to classify for me… but also in one of the scenes I think a character sells their soul to a witch so there’s probably magic at play.

As for the story… it’s a little mixed

It’s a story about ending cycles of violence, how history is written by the winners, and how people in power will lie to keep their power. I do think it succeeds in telling this message to kids, and there were some moments I thought were pretty good, but it falls a little short under the scrutiny of an adult.

I think some characters change sides too easily and also I think a mob of people in a royal kingdom might need a little more convincing than being told “hey this war against sea monsters is just pointless bloodshed that was started by royalty, and then the royals lied about it for generations to keep it that way while they lived all cushy”. Like, maybe point out some of the lies in the books. Then again the speech was delivered by a child standing on the biggest baddest sea monster known (which everyone has been told for generations just mindlessly goes out of its way to kill people), which she also befriended and told to not hurt anyone, so maybe that’s what convinced everyone.

Ultimately I think it’s a good enough movie and I’m glad more pieces of media are tackling these topics nowadays, but it’s not anything exceptional in the story department.

If you want a good kids movie about how history is written by the winners, watch Trolls Wold Tour

If you want a good kids movie about how violence breeds violence, watch HTTYD

If you want a kid to learn about how those in power lie to stay in power, just tell them about the people in parliament or the White House

Other thoughts:

Visuals are amazing as expected for a big budget animated movie nowadays, although I was stunned by the water animations. Water is a nightmare to animate and I don’t think there was a single shot where it looked a little off.

There’s two curse words in the movie, ass and hell, a nice tasty vocabulary snack for the kiddles, would recommend

Having watched it a second time I think my harsh opinions on the story have alleviated a bit. It’s still not perfect but it handles its message better than I initially make it sound like it did.

Also I need a plush of Blue

A review of Kaijumax and its themes

(trigger warning for mention of dark topics. Also Kaijumax spoilers)

Something that continues to amaze me about the kaiju genre is just how versatile it is. Its ability to mesh with just about any genre is no doubt a reason why it has persisted for what is gradually creeping closer to a century. And of course the best kaiju media always has something important to say sociopolitically, and indeed that commentary is part of its dna. From warnings of nuclear weapons, to failings of a current government, to nationalism and even the state of the economy. But these are usually topics that affect pretty much everyone. Very rarely do you see a piece of kaiju media that says something about topics more personal or about the people in society who have the least power.

Kaijumax is one of those few.

Alright @dinosaurana here’s my illustration of your Ol’ Bertha. At the top of the image is a picture of your version so that way you can compare the differences. My signature is also at the top because well… I don’t want people to take my art and claim it as their own. And no, it is not a pair of breast it is a stupid face. I swear the amount of people who get that wrong…

I designed her to be an early Horned Goliath (with the idea of your retrosaurs being Poposauroids). You can’t tell, but I also had the idea of her being omnivorous in mind when I made this as well. Her brow horns were reworked into brow crest, kinda like how many non-coelurosaurian theropods have prominent brow crest. If you’d like, I can go back and make them horns. It shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to make such a minute change.

She came out slimmer than I wanted, but I tried fixing that and I couldn’t get it to work. I was also unable to fit her tail club into the image without unrealistically bending her tail. My canvas was already as wide as my software would allow me to make it, so meh. What can you do?

I think my take on Ol’ Bertha is a little low-slung and less spiky, but I think it works for her. She’s old and tired, and while she doesn’t have as many offensive capabilities as other Kaiju she makes up for it with above average defense and unparalleled tenacity. Kinda like Anguirus. Which would be fitting since, from what I can tell, Ol’ Bertha will be playing second fiddle to Koga.

So, it’s a long time overdue, but it’s time to go over this redesign finally. On a base level, I really do enjoy it. From the odd, lizard like feet, to the  Brow horns and miniature frill on the back of the head. The armor of the back looks absolutely wonderful, and the head gives off a far more reptilian vibe than the original ever did. These differences do surely make it better than the original, and for that I greatly appreciate it. I’m not so sure however that I want to take this as her final design though. I’m wanting to more pull away from the theropod stance, for both retrosaur and modern dinosaur, and into the neighborhood of something else. It does sit as a good design for in between, but as of now, I’m still trying all sorts of things. Still love her to death though, and saved in the design folder. Wonderful work.

And not to hijack this post, but I cannot seriously recall saying for a definitive that Poposaurids were the start of my retrosaurs. At all. I’m not normally one to try and give a definitive origin to things as big as that, especially since that we’ve never figured out exactly what lead to dinosaurs in the normal world. Adds that bit of mystery really. 

I'm glad you like it! Also I know that you never said that you're retrosaurs were advanced Poposauroids. I just wanted to toy with the idea.