'The Sea Beast': How a Disney alum made his dream project on Netflix

Disney director Chris Williams ("Big Hero 6", "Bolt") has left the studio after 20 years to pursue his dream animation project: "The Sea Beast", an adventure in the tradition of " 20000 Leagues Under the Sea". which is now streaming on Netflix. The film is about legendary sea monster hunter Jacob (Karl Urban), who pursues the Red Leviathan with the help of an orphaned stowaway, Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator). She eventually befriends the creature, which echoes "How to Train Your Dragon".

"It's one of those where I have to go back to the movies I loved the most as a kid," Williams told IndieWire. "The 70s version of 'King Kong', Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion action-adventure films about leaving the known world and venturing into the unknown. They really struck a chord sensitive in me, and I always wanted to make one of these films."

It was a vague notion that hung over Williams and became more insistent throughout his career. But it crystallized around his fascination with old sea charts, "where they would populate them with colorful illustrations of [monsters] to make these unknown areas more exciting and dangerous."

Still, Williams never bothered to pitch his idea to Disney, because he knew it was the wrong place. "It couldn't be a pure adventure story...it had to lead to comedy," he said.

"I ended up at Netflix because it was the antithesis of Disney," Williams said. "I don't want to say it sounds negative because I had a great experience at Disney, and I still keep in touch with my friends there. But I just wanted to disrupt myself and that was the idea that Netflix was a brand new [place] and could go in many directions."

"Beast from the Sea"

Netflix

At Netflix, Williams could be a solo director for the first time and assert more creative control. He worked with the streamer on the front end and collaborated with "Into the Spider-Verse" studio and "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" Sony Pictures Imageworks on animation. "I wanted to create a very big, immersive world with a real sense of history," he said. Despite her Victorian trappings, Williams has taken contemporary license by populating the hunting vessel, The Inevitable, with a diverse crew of men and women, including first mate Sarah Sharp (voiced by Marianne Jean-Baptiste). p>

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