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Here Be Monsters! How Chris Williams and Netflix Animation’s The Sea Beast took to the high seas. By Rich Johnson
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ig Hero 6 director Chris Williams is no stranger to the ocean, having also co-directed 2016’s uplifting Disney musical adventure, Moana. Baymax and a whaling harpoon are propped in the corner of his studio — both past and present reminders of his work — and it is already clear, as he begins to talk about his new animated feature for Netflix, The Sea Beast, that there’s a genuine sense of nostalgia coupled with his love of big movies. Ancient myth and Melville are inherent within such seafaring stories, but it was specifically from the uncharted maps of tall sailing ships (and taller tales) that Williams’ leviathan passion project grew. As much a Star Wars fan as the next person, it is his admiration for the ’76 King Kong and Raiders of the Lost Ark that provide more personal touchstones. At its colossal heart, The Sea Beast is all about such epic productions and a return to classic storytelling. “That to me is always compelling and I guess I really had the desire to take on a movie like these,” he notes. Of course, there are the movies… but then
also Williams’ curious fascination with old maps, especially the empty parts; those less familiar regions. “I found the ‘nothingness’ more compelling,” the director admits. “There was something revealing about human nature that we wanted to make these areas more exciting and more dangerous, marking them with monsters.” So, heading off into the unknown world, he embarked on his own journey to tell a big adventure story. The difference here is that the sea monsters on the map are real…
Anchors Away As one of the first projects to be greenlit by Netflix Animation, The Sea Beast took three and a half years to produce. With no beat missed during the pandemic, Williams admits early development helped a great deal, “I love the feeling of camaraderie and collaboration, so it was a challenge to form that relationship and challenge each other remotely. But people were invested early on and we hit our stride, making a movie big in scope and its ambition.” Around 400 people worked on the film, 10
of whom were directed by production designer Matthias Lechner (Zootopia, Encanto). Williams’ experience was staring through his screen for two years, working with Lechner, the rest of his Los Angeles team and Sony Imageworks in Vancouver, who provided the animation and visual effects. Lechner goes on to highlight, “Any movie is a prototype. So, you don’t know exactly where you are going until you get there. A lot of my job is to look into the director’s mind and ask the right questions. Unfortunately, you are an expert on this at the end of the movie and not at the beginning. But Chris is an excellent communicator.” It seemed to be all plain sailing — production designer in sync, director at the helm — following the same map from the beginning with their initial artistic references. These included: N.C. Wyeth, Frederic Remington and the Hudson River School movement; all of which captured the bold colors and spirit of the great outdoors they were looking for. “These painters were the original jumping-off point,” notes Lechner, “I didn’t want it to look
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june|july 22
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