Rewrites with Rachel: The Sea Beast

Last year, Netflix released the animated movie The Sea Beast. I saw the trailer and was intrigued. I like pirate movies, I like animated movies, and the main character is voiced by Karl Urban. What's not to like?

But unfortunately, the movie fell a little flat for me. The premise is great and there's a lot of potential here. But they made a few decisions that detracted from my overall opinion of the movie.

So today we're looking at how I would rewrite this movie to be even better and the kind of story I hoped it would be.

Blurb: In an era when terrifying beasts roamed the seas, monster hunters were celebrated heroes and none were more beloved than the great Jacob Holland. But when young Maisie Brumble stows away on his fabled ship, he's saddled with an unexpected ally. Together they embark on an epic journey into uncharted waters and make history.

Spoilers Ahead!

Change #1: Give it a different main conflict

The main conflict of the movie Jacob and Maisie learning that the sea beasts aren't the monsters they've been told. The problem is, we've seen this story before in How to Train Your Dragon, and that movie does it better. Here, it feels so cliche when it's revealed the monsters aren't such monsters after all. When it became apparent that was going to be the conflict, I almost rolled my eyes.

The thing is, this movie has a lot of potential for other great conflicts. There's a minor storyline about the government wanting to replace the hunters with the navy. Or there's a lot of great conflict between Jacob and his father figure, Captain Crow, about the way they do things. But instead, they went with the sea beast thing.

If I were writing this movie, I'd make the main conflict be between Crow and Jacob, because I see the most potential there. Rather than fight about whether sea beasts are monsters, I'd have them fight about whether being a hunter is worth it. Make it a changing with the times, new versus old kind of film.

I may not like her character, but her hair is beautifully animated.

Change #2: Remove or change Maisie's character

I'm not going to sugarcoat it- I hate Maisie. She's the obnoxious child character that somehow knows more than the seasoned sailor and is always right. I also hate how she's disrespectful and the film always has Jacob become a bumbling idiot around her.

You could handle this two ways. 1) We could take Maisie out entirely and lean on Jacob as our main character. This would work well with the above conflict change and give us more time to develop Jacob (who is a bit flat in the movie).

Or 2) We could change Maisie to a boy and include more of a father and son side to the conflict. I like this option slightly more because I actually like the scenes where Crow compares Maisie to Jacob when he was a boy and Jacob looking out for and protecting someone else. I just don't like Maisie as a character.

So we could change Maisie to a boy and maybe have him be found in the ocean, like Jacob. Jacob takes him under his wing, but at the same time, starts falling out with Crow. Then we get a lot of juicy conflict about being a father and whether raising a child as a hunter is a good idea.

I really hate their character designs.

Change #3: Remove the government storyline

At the end of the movie, literally right before the conflict, Maisie discovers all the pirate's books were written by the government and decides that means they've been lying to everyone about the sea monsters being bad. It's so out of left field and really makes the whole "sea beasts aren't bad" part even worse.

Beyond being a last minute addition, it doesn't make sense. We don't get a good reason why they'd want to start a war with the sea monsters. Wouldn't that make their ocean based kingdom lose more than it gains? How are they going to trade with other countries if they can't safely deliver their goods?

So I would take this part out entirely. It isn't necessary and doesn't work with the other parts. Instead, I would again ramp up the old world versus new world conflict, like in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Small Changes

• I'd get rid of the cute monster sidekick. This movie already has a lot in it. The animal sidekick takes everything too far.

• Change the Red Bluster's design. It looks dumb and purposely not evil looking.

• Give the epic first mate more screen time. She was so cool and did like nothing in this movie.

Overall, there's a lot of potential with this movie. The world is cool. The animation, especially the characters and ocean shots. There are lots of cool pirates. People actually get hurt, something you don't see a lot in kids movies.

It just falls short in a few important ways, making it a slightly frustrating watch for me.

Have you seen The Sea Beast? If you have, do agree or disagree with my changes? Tell me in the comments.