The Legend of Ochi

A24's first family feature film offers a decent throwback to the 80s sci-fi fantasy stories that were created and it's clear the filmmaker has a lot of passion. The colorful background, designs, costumes and the special effects are all wonderful and beautifully designed to capture the atmosphere and tone. Alongside with the layers of the designs of the creatures and the make up. It reminds me a lot of The Neverending Story vibe.

With the musical score being pretty good and the atmosphere, I appreciate the new world concept the filmmaker is able to make as I love to see a new whole world to be made or explored. The performances from the cast are all pretty good and the creature, Ochi, is so cute!

However, what holds the movie back from being good is the writing and structure. The writing offers new concepts and ideas but the cliche approach to how it navigates the scenarios starts to feel uninteresting and doesn't hit the emotional impact. Alongside with the thinly written characters that really made me struggle to connect with their goals or understand their motivations. Kind of a shame since I love the vibe but I did wish the writing was better.

Overall, it's a good movie from children as it is a clear film for family entertainment. A24 recently has been having a weird timeline of movies ever since they opened to make more commerical films.