The Sea Beast is an animated film with a simple but adventure-packed narrative that follows Maisie and Jacob on their journey across the waters as they fight and try to uncover the truth about the war between humans and sea beasts.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The film opens with an introduction to Maisie’s history, as well as that of the fight between sea beasts and humans. Maisie explains the latter by reading out from the pages of her favourite book, ‘Tales of Captain Crow and the Inevitable.’
The book recalls a time when sea beasts were formidable creatures that would ravage shores and kill humans. To counter this, a new profession of monster hunters emerged to kill the beasts before they could threaten the land.
Out of these, the Inevitable is one of the best known ships, with Captain Crow leading the crew. Jacob is next in line to become Captain and is one of the bravest sailors the land has known. The crew is looking for the Red Bluster, the most dangerous of all sea creatures.
After a mission where they catch another sea beast but fail to capture the Red Bluster, the ship comes back home, and they celebrate the victory over the former beast.
It is here that Maisie approaches Jacob and asks to join the crew. She is an orphan, and her parents were monster hunters who passed away while at sea. He believes she is too young to fight the beasts and sends her away.
The next morning, the crew mates go to report to the king and queen of the land, who commission their voyages. There, they are shocked to learn that the monarchs aim to disband the monster hunters and launch an army of their own to combat the sea creatures.
Jacob suggests a competition between the two crews- whoever captures the Red Bluster first wins, and gets to continue on the voyage. The monarchs agree and they set sail the next morning, only to find Maisie stowed away aboard their ship.
She pleads for permission to stay, and Captain Crow agrees. They eventually catch up to the Red Bluster, but the creature is too powerful. Maisie cuts off the rope tying the ship to the beast in order to save the lives of those on board, but both Jacob and Maisie fall into the sea.
In a turn of events, it is the Red Bluster that saves them, and the two start to see a new side of the sea beasts. The creature leaves them on an island, and Maisie begins to question everything she has been taught about the sea creatures.
She names the beast Red, and convinces her to take them to a safer island. Jacob vows to never kill a sea beast again, and Red takes them to the promised island where they come across the two ships.
A huge fight ensues, and Captain Crow captures Red and steers the ship back home. Jacob and Maisie try to protest, but to no avail. Maisie is locked in a room and as she goes through the books there, she discovers that all the lies about the creatures being formidable creatures were started by the ruling monarchs.
The Sea Beast ending explained in detail:
The true colours of the monarchs
As Maisie flips through each of the books about sea beasts near her, she realises that they were all published under the emblem of the monarchs.
She realises that the sea beasts never really hunted humans on the land, and lived a life of peace in their waters. It is only when they were attacked by humans that they retaliated.
She also comes to the realisation that the king and the queen have used this public fear of sea monsters to conquer more land, and create these divisions.
Maisie rebels against this system, and frees Red. She relays what she has understood from her findings to the people in the kingdom, and the monarchs flee from the area as their plan has now been discovered.
Peaceful coexistence
When she frees Red from the bounds around her limbs, Maisie also calms the beast down and stops her from attacking the kingdom.
This shows the crew members aboard the ship, as well as residents of the kingdom that the sea creatures are not beings to be feared.
They would cause no harm to humans if they are treated well.
Red, Maisie and Jacob are freed, and they sail out of the kingdom, to a life of peaceful coexistence- where humans do not hunt the sea creatures, and they stay in their waters.
Doing the right thing
As soon as Maisie realises that there is a history of lies abound in these hunting voyages, she rebels against the system of the monarchy, and stands up for what she believes is right.
She does not want to torment the sea creatures any longer, nor have more lives lost due to this unnecessary war.
She challenges conventional knowledge, and aims to uncover the truth. She vocalises what she believes in, and does the right thing, regardless of the consequences she might have to face.
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