After 20-plus years of working on Disney animated movies, from Mulan to Raya and the Last Dragon, Chris Williams takes his first solo directing credit on Netflix's The Sea Beast, a rousing animated adventure that shares a lot with his Disney work. A plucky young orphan hero sets out on a grand voyage, bonding with a surrogate parent, facing danger, and learning some valuable life lessons along the way. There's even a musical number of sorts, lending a further air of familiarity to the film. Despite, or perhaps because of these similarities, The Sea Beast delivers a fun, family-friendly animated feature.

The Sea Beast is also heavily reminiscent of DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon movies, especially in its second half, as it reveals more about the giant sea monsters that have plagued the people of a fairytale-style kingdom for centuries. In the town of Three Bridges, no one is more revered than the hunters, the brave sailors who take to the seas to track and kill the horrifying beasts that used to come right up to the shore and attack humans. At least that's how it's told in the book that young orphan Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator) reads over and over to her fellow residents at a children's home.

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Jacob and Maisie in The Sea Beast

Maisie, whose parents were hunters before being killed in battle, wants nothing more than to become a hunter herself, and she gets the chance when she escapes the orphanage and stows away aboard the Inevitable, the most fearsome hunter ship in the fleet. It's led by the legendary Captain Crow (Jared Harris), but Maisie forms a connection with dashing hero Jacob Holland (Karl Urban), who's set to take over for Captain Crow when he retires. After failing to deposit Maisie back at the children's home, Jacob takes her under his wing, which mostly involves trying not to get her killed.

There's a lot of set-up in the first half of The Sea Beast, which at two hours is a bit long for a kid-friendly animated movie. Williams and co-writer Nell Benjamin establish the father-son dynamic between Jacob and Captain Crow, who rescued young Jacob when he was an orphan like Maisie. They establish the rivalry between the hunters and the Royal Navy, which is threatening to take over the entire war against sea monsters, leaving hunters behind. The movie also introduces the Moby Dick-like obsession of Captain Crow with a particular elusive sea monster he's been chasing his entire career. With all of that going on, there seems to be little room for Maisie, who's just a child overwhelmed by all this intense activity.

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Then The Sea Beast's story shifts in its second half, as Maisie and Jacob end up separated from the Inevitable, stranded with the sea monsters and discovering a whole new perspective on the battle between monsters and humans. It's not hard to guess what the truth will turn out to be, and those discoveries are all in service of fairly bland messages about tolerance and respect for nature. What's compelling about The Sea Beast isn't its moral lessons but the world it creates and the characters within that world. The hunters are like pirates without the plundering, with plenty of eye patches and wooden legs, and The Sea Beast conveys their rich history, passed down via songs, stories, and tall tales over multiple generations.

The animation on this Netflix original production reaches the same high standards as its Disney and DreamWorks counterparts, from the bustling city to the roiling sea. The sea beasts themselves look gorgeous, ranging from imposing and scary to cute and goofy. Maisie befriends a baby sea monster she names Blue and treats like a dog, who seems tailor-made for plush toys, but Williams also conveys the awe-inducing scale of the massive monsters as they pass under boats or rise up to attack.

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Maisie and Blue in The Sea Beast

There's enough sense of peril in the action scenes to feel like the characters are genuinely risking their lives while making sure that the protagonists always narrowly escape any real harm. That may be a bit disappointing for adult viewers hoping for a more serious fantasy action movie, but The Sea Beast successfully balances its cuter moments with periodic major set pieces.

The connection between Maisie and Jacob also follows a predictable path, and their evolution from antagonists to allies isn't always convincing. Urban and Hator have appealing chemistry, though, and Harris makes for a perfect counterpoint as the grizzled, world-weary sea captain, a role he played in a very different context in the underrated AMC series The Terror. It's easy to root for these characters, who have good intentions even when their actions are misguided.

That makes it only a slight letdown when The Sea Beast's plot goes exactly where viewers expect it to at nearly every turn. Williams clearly learned a lot during his years at Disney, and he applies all of that knowledge to The Sea Beast, making it a familiar but still satisfying animated feature for families.

The Sea Beast is now playing in select theaters and premieres Friday, July 8, on Netflix.