Currently streaming on Netflix, Chris Williams’ elaborate, animated ‘The Sea Beast’ is a seafaring tale set in a 17th century fantasy world where sea monsters are hunted down and killed to save threatened humanity. It begins as an Errol Flynn-style Hollywood adventure with burly sailor Jacob (voiced by Karl Urban) who discovers and then bonds with a plucky stowaway Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator). Eventually Maisie changes Jacob’s ideas about the sea monsters and recorded (and written) wisdom about their supposed threat to mankind. Williams, a Disney veteran who shifted to Netflix, won an Oscar for the 2014 ‘Big Hero Six.’ He was interviewed for The Boston Herald. That has been edited and condensed.
Q: Chris, you’ve worked with having a female heroine before with ‘Moana.’ Was it always going to be our swashbuckler and this young girl who idolized him? Or was it ever going to be toss a coin and it could be a little boy or a little girl?
CHRIS WILLIAMS: It’s always a big thing that we talk about with one of those choices. You want it to feel random but at times they’re deliberate. In this case, we had this very stereotypically masculine character in Jacob and the idea of just a different flavor, just a different energy in young Maisie felt like the way to go. We didn’t spend a lot of time agonizing over the choice one way or another. She just was a young girl. And then the really important thing was: What’s she like? What’s her personality? What does she bring into the story? You know, that became ultimately more important than gender.
Q: Well, it seems that a pirate movie is pretty masculine by definition. And by just being a little girl, she’s bringing a whole feminine or feminist slant into what you’re doing. Changing that changes a lot of things right away. No?
CW: Yeah, one of the other decisions early on was we knew that we were making a movie that evokes a certain era from our history. But it’s a fantastic world. So we were able to change the makeup of the ship to actually reflect our world today: It’s men and women and people of all different ethnicities. That was really a stake in the ground early on for us.
Q: And the king and queen? It’s a surprise they are not the king and queen of England. This is another Fantasy Zone, yes?
CW: Yes, the whole world is just a made-up world that resembles ours in a lot of ways. But it’s not. It’s a different world. And the fundamental key difference between our world and this world is the sea monsters. It’s had a huge bearing on the course of events, the course of history, in this fantasy world.
Q: This is first and foremost a family film but it’s a pirate movie dealing with killing — the killing of sea monsters. How much violence can you put in there? When you envision something, what are your standards? Who or how do you establish standards?
CW: It becomes very intuitive. What feels right to me. I certainly never think of it in terms of this being a ‘kids movie.’ Or what would kids want to see? We made a movie for me and for the story team and we talked about what we think would be the best version of this movie. My tastes tend to be relatively accessible. I didn’t go off to Netflix to make my ‘Reservoir Dogs’ you know what I mean? At the same time, there is a bit more of a sense of peril and danger than other things that I’ve worked on for sure. I suppose that does ‘age up’ [the audience] as they say a little bit. Those sort of calculations and those concerns, they’re very dangerous when you’re working on the story. You just have to trust your own intuition about what feels right and the kind of movie you’re trying to make. Without second guessing yourself.
Q: When you look back after being at Disney for what 20 years –
CW: 25 years
Q: — and then going out on your own, do you look back and think that was the craziest thing I’ve ever done? Or was that the scariest thing I’ve ever done?
CW: Probably. Because I moved from Canada to work in Disney when I was pretty young and worked there almost — I almost said lived there — I worked there for 25 years. I grew up there, I made great friends there. I still have great friends who work there. I’m very proud of the movies that I’ve worked on at Disney. I had great relationships. I left on good terms. But the thing for me was I worked there half my life. I just felt this urge to throw myself into something different. Almost change for its own sake. Because I was very comfortable. But there’s a danger if you’re comfortable that you become complacent. I wanted to just throw myself into something new and see what came of it. And Netflix was this new brand to animation. They were, in a very aggressive and dynamic way, wanting to really build this animation studio. So I joined them very early on and was excited about being part of something that was just getting off the ground. It was very energizing for sure.
Q: Would you say that was a midlife crisis?
CW: I guess. If I’ve ever had one I’d say that was probably it.
Q: We were supposed to do this in person, I think 10 days ago or whatever, so I hope we do this in person next time.
CW: Thank you. Yes, I was in London for personal staff screenings on the movie and unfortunately got COVID and I was trapped in a hotel room for 10 days.
Q: Oh God, my nightmare.
CW: It was bizarre. The thing was the movie was kind of rolling on and people were experiencing it and seemingly really enjoying it, which is awesome. But in the meantime, I was trapped in a hotel room going a little stir crazy. But I’m much better now and glad to be home.
NEW DVDs:
A magnetic Denzel Washington, giving a full-out Movie Star performance as fledgling detective Easy Rawlins in ‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ (Blu-ray, Criterion Collection, R), makes this 1995 Carl Franklin adaptation of Walter Mosley’s first novel a true classic. Set in 1948 postwar LA, Franklin infused this murder mystery with period details that were meant to avoid film noir cliches. There are no blinds with shadows, dramatically contrasting visuals or even a femme fatale. Easy Rawlins is not, like Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammet detectives, cynical. He’s laid off from his aircraft job and almost accidentally finding his way in a new profession as a detective for hire. Washington, we learn in the commentaries, was very Method. He began wearing Easy’s suits and clothes a month before filming began. He didn’t smoke but inhaled in every scene where he was meant to. He lost weight and had a trainer for an hour of exercise every morning before filming began, knowing a buff sensuality was demanded. ‘Blue Dress’ marked Don Cheadle’s breakthru as the trigger happy Mouse – he won a SAG and several critics’ awards. In Criterion’s new 4K digital restoration, there is Franklin’s audio commentary, a 2022 conversation between Franklin and Cheadle, another new conversation with Mosley. There is also Cheadle’s screentest and, very fun, the Noir Alley eminence Eddie Muller onstage with Franklin in Chicago at a noir fest, answering questions from the audience.
ALMIGHTY MONTEZ Maria Montez was a cult favorite even before her early death at 39 in 1951. Was she simply, as her detractors insisted, a Queen of Technicolor clothes’ horse who couldn’t act? Or in her ornate and fantastic Forties melodramas opposite the often bare-chested Jon Hall, a cinematic goddess? The 3 films in the new ‘Maria Montez and Jon Hall Collection’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) certainly fuel the debate in a luscious brand new 2K Master. The 1943 ‘White Savage’ has Montez Princess of Temple Island whose paradise is disrupted by would-be thieves after her treasure. ‘Gypsy Wildcat’ (’44) has real-world echoes of what the Nazis were doing to the gypsies of Europe as an evil Baron blames gypsies for the death of a Count and imprisons them in a castle. Here comes Carla (yes Montez! Who else?) who witnessed the Count’s death and, as a plus, has a significant piece of jewelry hanging around her neck. ‘Sudan’ in ’45 was the 6th and final collaboration between burly Hall and seductive Montez. Again, Montez rules a kingdom in Egypt but is in disguise as a peasant seeking who killed her father during a slave revolt. She is aided by Hall’s pickpocket Merab. All 3 films have new audio commentaries. To say, ‘There will never be another like her’ is major-major understatement.
RICCI RICCI RICCI Christina Ricci is Laura, an endangered mother who with her young son Cody is fleeing her abusive ex-husband in the supernatural horror film ‘Monstrous’ (Blu-ray, Screen Media, PG-13). Cody has troubles at school and even more near his room at night when a monster — or is she a ghost he calls ‘the pretty lady by the lake’? — frequently appears. Laura finds life difficult with Cody and it becomes much more difficult when the boy disappears. Laura is a commanding figure for the actress who scored a recent personal triumph with Showtime’s sleeper smash hit series ‘Yellowjackets.’ As Misty a bespectacled Ricci is truly creepy-fascinating as the perpetual outsider among the group who survived a plane crash decades earlier and is now the one who begins pulling the survivors’ strings. 
OSCAR WINNING SURPRISE One of the great showbiz Cinderella sagas, Paddy Chayefsky’s 1955 ‘Marty’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) was a small black-and-white film, expanded from a live TV version in 1953. It was intentionally ‘small,’ focusing on ordinary people, especially a bachelor Bronx butcher named, yes, Marty and played by Ernest Borgnine in a rare leading role. Previously Borgnine was a memorable military bully and brute who killed Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning ‘From Here to Eternity’ so this was a seriously dramatic turnaround. Borgnine’s Marty Piletti is 34 and facing the reality that he’s destined to live his life alone – until he meets an equally lonely schoolteacher, Betsy Blair’s Clara. Behind the scenes during this blacklisting era, Blair was controversial with her support of left-wing causes and there was a threat to replace her. Happily, her then-husband Gene Kelly defended her and Chayefsky, who had complete control over all aspects of this film version, demanded she stay. ‘Marty’ entranced the world with its low-key realism and perceptive screenplay by the monumental Chayefsky –he would ultimately nab 3 Screenwriting Oscars with ‘Marty,’ ‘The Hospital’ (’71) and ‘Network’ (’76). ‘Marty’ became the first film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and Cannes’ top honor the Gold Palm. It also won Borgnine the Best Actor Oscar. This brand new 4K restoration has an audio commentary and includes 2 versions of ‘Marty’ in different projected ratios, widescreen or the classic ‘box’ figuration.
POITIER’S TWO SEQUELS Sidney Poitier reprised one of his most memorable characters, the Philadelphia policeman Virgil Tibbs in 1969’s Oscar-winning ‘In the Heat of the Night,’ with two sequels. First was the 1970 ‘They Call Me Mister Tibbs!’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, R) which relocates Tibbs from the Deep South to San Francisco where he must sift clues amid a political cover-up and attend to his wife. The next year in 1971’s ‘The Organization’ Tibbs is in mortal danger from the police and a drug syndicate for his links to a vigilante crew of ex-heroin addicts who are really trying to do good and bring attention to this imported killer flooding American street life.
BURGERS TIMES TWO Summertime is Burgers Time! That’s one way to look at the release of 2 meat-related family hits. The animated ‘The Bob’s Burgers Movie’ (Blu-ray + Digital Code, 20th Century Films, PG-13) is a feature described as a ‘musical comedy-mystery-adventure’ adapted from the long-running TV series. A ruptured watermain creates a sinkhole right in front of Bob’s Burgers, blocking the entrance. Can their business stay open? The live action ‘Good Burger’ (Blu-ray, Paramount, PG) arrives in a limited edition Steelbook celebrating the 1997 film’s 25th anniversary. Here are Kenan & Kel whose Good Burger is likely to be overshadowed and ruined by the high-tech Mondo Burger just across the street. Fast food counter dudes El (Kel Mitchell) and Dexter (Kenan Thompson) are suddenly enlisted in a battle against Big Business. Costarring Sinbad with cameos by George Clinton and Shaquille O’Neal. Special Feature: the original ‘Good Burger’ sketch from the 1994 ‘All That.’
SUPREMELY SILLY Cheeky and extremely silly as always, ‘Reno 911! The Hunt for Q Anon’ (DVD, Paramount, Not Rated) begins as the Reno Sheriff’s Dept. has been ordered to serve court papers to the mysterious head of QAnon known only as Q. What does this really mean? Our stalwart band of Nevadans must go deep undercover on Q’s Booze Cruise. An additional bonus for this 2021comedy: no less than 10 (count ‘em!) deleted scenes.
SPOTLIGHTING MASS MOCA Meryl Streep narrates the remarkable story of MASS MoCA in Jennifer Trainer’s 2019 documentary ‘Museum Town’ (DVD, Kino Lorber, Not Rated). We follow the industrial shutdown of a rural Massachusetts factory that devastates the town and the people who believed that the beautiful if abandoned brick buildings could be re-purposed as … the world’s largest contemporary art museum. An empowering saga with an eye-opening look at the power of art to change lives – and a town.
KILLER BUGS!! Summertime with picnics, hikes and beaches means exposure to a world of threats, from mosquitoes and wasps to sharks, Lyme disease-carrying bugs and now super spiders. Do horror films with savage bees or creepy crawling tarantulas make us feel better about being exposed to Nature? That’s one justification for these ‘classic’ Bugs Really Do Kill entries, now in brand new 2K Masters. When a plane from Ecuador crashes in California with a cargo of coffee beans, its hidden stowaways are 8-legged tarantulas who quickly get busy with any nearby humans in the 1977 ‘Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated). ‘Terror Out of the Sky’ aka ‘The Revenge of the Savage Bees’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) in 1978 follows the cult hit ‘The Savage Bees.’ Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., a TV stalwart since the early ‘60s, leads a counterattack on the killer bees. He’s helped by bearded Dan Hagerty (TV’s ‘The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams’) and volatile Tovah Feldshuh who in the future would become a mainstay of feminist lawyering in ‘Law & Order.’ Both films have informed audio commentaries and spectacular newly commissioned cover art from Vince Evans.
DOUBLE DOWN WITH DAVIS & LAWFORD Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford were surprisingly popular as a cinematic duo as is evident in this newly packaged Double Feature. Davis and Lawford were celebrated members of the semi-notorious Rat Pack, the Vegas headlining crew of jokesters and funsters led by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Lawford’s celebrity had been boosted as President Kennedy’s brother-in-law. Sammy and Peter certainly were mismatched in terms of ability. There was nothing the phenomenal Davis could not do – sing, dance, act, do impressions, write, carry a Broadway musical. In contrast, Lawford was limited to ‘acting’ with an emphasis on Cary Grant-style British charm. In 1968 the 2 teamed for a comedy with racial overtones as London nightclub owners engaged by the British Secret Service. When a dead spy is discovered on the premises. Davis is Salt and Pepper is Lawford in the aptly named ‘Salt and Pepper’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, PG-13). Two years later they reteamed, now as full-time detectives, in ‘One More Time’ directed by Jerry Lewis, the comedian turned filmmaker. Buoyed by cameos by the formidable British horror icons Christopher Lee as Dracula and, yup! Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein, ‘One More Time’ let Lawford play twins, one a Lord who is murdered. To solve the case Lawford’s Pepper not surprisingly takes on his dead twin’s identity.
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