Chris Williams won an Academy Award for directing Disney’s 2014 animated feature Big Hero 6. After about a quarter century at the studio, he left for Netflix. Williams’ epic new movie The Sea Beast, about the quest of a monster hunter crew and a special little girl, debuts on Netflix July 8th. I’ve screened the first 40 minutes so far. Williams previews what families and action/adventure film fans can expect. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: We’re doing this [interview] about a month before the film is on Netflix. What’s left to do?

Chris Williams: (laughs) Well the truth is: it’s done. So now we’re just waiting to put it out into the world and hopefully people check it out and enjoy it.

JM: How does it feel that it’s done and ready to go?

CW: Oh my gosh. Wow. How does it feel? That’s a big question. It feels, obviously, good because (laughs) there’s no guarantee when you start out to make something this ambitious that you’re gonna get to the end of the line. And it involves working with hundreds of talented people (in this case during a pandemic). Certainly had its challenges. The movie is incredibly ambitious as far as the world building goes. I’m very proud of it and it’s a relief that we got to the finish line. And I’m happy [with] the way it turned out.

JM: Congratulations. You’re an Oscar winner. You won for Big Hero 6. You were at Disney for 20 years as a director, story artist and writer on many animated features, including Bolt (which I love). When did you know it was time to “set sail” on a new adventure at Netflix?

CW: (laughs) That’s a really good question. I moved from my hometown to Los Angeles to work at Disney. And I was at Disney for almost 25 years. And the truth is: I had a great experience there, and I worked on movies that I’m really proud of, and I have friendships and working relationships that go back decades. There was nothing negative. There was no reason why I had to leave other than just change for its own sake. I was getting very comfortable and was concerned that I, perhaps, was getting too comfortable and getting complacent. And I just wanted to disrupt myself and throw myself into something new and see what would come out of it. It was hard. It was stressful and sad, but also very exciting to know that I was gonna be going into a very different experience. I remember, very vividly, that first drive to work when I was working at a new place. I very much had that first day of school feeling: there’s a nervousness — you don’t exactly know what you’re walking into — but also a real excitement at the possibilities. I was fortunate to meet really amazing people that were really excited and committed to the idea of making a movie like this. And we were off to the races.

JM: It is a big action adventure, and there’s a sweeping sequence in the opening section that I love. Monster hunter crew on a ship at sea. How challenging was it to put that together?

CW: 10 out of 10. It was really challenging. (laughs) Just to do a CG animated movie on one of these ships that are really complex organisms in their own right. These ships have decent size crews and we really couldn’t skimp on that. There are a lot of characters and you’re out in the open ocean. You have gigantic monsters that are interacting with the human characters and ships. We knew from the beginning this was gonna be really, really ambitious. The nice thing with animation is: it’s a relatively small community that loves a challenge. They don’t run away. They say, “Let me at it!” That spirit definitely permeated this film from top to bottom. Everyone galvanized around the idea of making something that you haven’t quite seen before. The scale of the world and set pieces is pretty over the top.

JM: And I could tell with that sequence: the camera angles and movements are so key and so precise. [You and your team] give us angles and movements that, you’re right, we have not seen before in animation.

CW: It goes back to my love of adventure stories and action films. I grew up loving King Kong and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The entirety of Casino Royale has these incredible scenes. [Mad Max 2] The Road Warrior was a big one for me and then Fury Road. It’s pure cinema when you put together a great action scene. I really wanted to go all the way and see what we could do.

JM: And I was gonna ask you about your favorite cinematic beasts, so I’m sure King Kong is on that list. Who else?

CW: Just to circle around King Kong — that’s the one that came up most. I was so affected by that film when I saw it as a kid — the ’70s version. It’s not considered the great version of the movie, but it was MY version. And to me, it was great. The uncharted island. The venturing into the unknown world. And these huge setpieces with monster battles were super cool. But it achieved something else: an emotional connection with the creature. At the very end of the movie, you’re left with something that feels very moving and really emotional. And that’s a difficult thing to achieve sometimes with movies that have creatures of that scale. We kept circling around that one. That was our touchstone through the process. And [also] growing up: Godzilla. Watching those kaijus going at it: nothing better.

JM: And now there’s new versions of both of them! The 2005 King Kong terrified me. I was six or seven at the time, and I would just see pictures [of him] and that terrified me. And still when I see it to this day it brings me back to that moment. They’re powerful. Cinematic beasts can be really powerful.

CW: Yeah. And the technology now allows you to really make it feel convincing. It’s really really there. When I was a kid you granted more license. When you look at those older films: the original King Kong with the stop-motion, which I love, and the ’70s version with the big puppet hand… when you look at it now you think it looks fake. But at that time people were much more willing to give license. You just believed it. Now you can make things that look really convincing.

JM: One of the other things you really get right: the authenticity of the lingo and the dialogue. What kind of research went into that? All of the terminology and the feel of it all: really strong.

CW: Thank you very much. That was really critical for me. That was one of the big mission statements going in. I wanted this world to feel really plausible and complete and really immersive, so you got the feeling I got when I watched The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or Blade Runner. You’re in a comprehensive, complete world where there’s a history that led up to the moment the story started and you get a sense that the filmmakers know what’s beyond the frame you’re looking at. We had to do a ton of research. We went and visited a lot of these ships and learned firsthand how they work and operate. A lot of things that very directly came from the research made their way into the story. And as far as the language goes, I was inspired by Master and Commander, where sometimes they would get really dense with the terminology in ways that you sometimes wouldn’t understand every single word but you understood the intent and it made it feel very deep and grounded. And I wanted that for this movie more than anything else I’ve ever worked on. I wanted people to feel like they’ve been teleported to a time and place and get lost in it. Then the onus is on you to make it feel really complete.

JM: I can’t wait to listen to more of Jared Harris as Captain Crow. He’s already a contender for my favorite voice performance of the year — for a character I don’t quite know everything about yet and which way I wanna fall with him. Do I like him? Do I not wanna like him? But [Harris] is fantastic.

CW: Yeah, he is such an incredible talent. And I don’t think I’m overstating it to say I think he’s one of our great living actors. Mesmerizing to be in a room with him. He’s able to convey so many layers in his performance. He can be, at times, a force of antagonism in the story. But at the same time you see all these really good qualities he has and why he’s a great captain — and why the crew looks up to him and respects him. There’s a complexity to the character. Harris was the right actor to take him on.

JM: And the core, central relationship in this story is [between] Jacob and Maisie.

CW: The movie was really big and sprawling in its ambition, but the core relationship is Jacob and Maisie’s. The movie is more about that than it is about anything else, and that had to work. Are they good foils for each other? Do they bring the best out of each other as characters? Jacob comes on screen and you have this impression of him as this archetypal hero: courageous, strong and capable. He’s a good person and his heart is in the right place, so he’s this hero… but you also get this sense of little imperfections, including maybe a little bit of an ego. Characters like that become a balloon that you can inflate and then pop. Maisie’s the perfect person to come along and pop that balloon. She is a force in her own right. She wants something that Jacob thinks is not a great idea but she is unstoppable. She has him back on his heels, and it’s so fun to watch this guy reeling from his experience being with her.

JM: This is the perfect kind of movie for the summertime. What does the rest of your summer look like, Chris?

CW: (laughs) I’m gonna be doing a little bit of travelling. We’re going to France to premiere the movie for the Annecy Film Festival, which is really exciting. And then they’re gonna ship me off to London and New York to promote the film — to get the word out. I’m really proud of the movie and really amazed by what our crew was able to achieve.

JM: And then a nice break for you — you can relax a little bit?

CW: Yeah… I hope so. I’m not good at relaxing. We finished the movie and I spent my week playing XBOX and then I kind of got bored. And I was like, “Okay, I’m ready to make another movie. So here we go!” So I’m starting to think about what’s next. But, of course, my wife and my family are gonna make sure we do some family vacations first.