The Legend of Ochi

One of the most visually interesting movies I've seen in a while. They certainly went for the nostalgia vibe, giving an 80s feel to the scenery. Plot was a bit boring for me, a tad predictable, but still enjoyable. I'm not sure if it was an issue for just my theater or an issue with the sound production, but it was incredibly loud throughout yet dialogue remained soft. I found myself covering my ears in many parts due to the overwhelmingly high-pitched sounds of the ochi and the background score and sounds just to be struggling to hear many of the characters when they spoke. Props for using an orchestral score. It was beautiful regardless of volume and added to the warm ambiance of the movie. Warming to those sensitive to loud and high-pitched sounds, you may not want to see this one in theaters.

The Legend of Ochi is a very ambitious project for someone to tackle as their directorial debut and I give praise to Isiah Saxon for really going for it. The world building here is pretty solid for the most part and the movie starts off with a strong setup and some good action. The main Ochi creature himself is very endearing and his connection with the young girl is very sweet. The fact that the creatures are practical is awesome. The movie has some funny moments especially the scenes with Willem Dafoe and that main duo. However the movie loses the plot a little bit in the second half. Character actions feel like they're forced in order for the plot to continue and some of the pay off feels cheap. The movie's ending feels a little cliche and because of that I feel like this movie is going to have a hard time really engaging general audiences. Overall it's an entertaining enough movie and I love that Saxon got to express his creative vision, but some more fleshing out of the world and characters could've helped.

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.

Once again, the world is introduced to a supremely cute and photogenic creature meant to evoke child-like joy. The only difference is, this isn't some E. T. knock-off, but more like a dark Disney film from the early 80s.

Filled with dark imagery, ominous music and some deep themes about parental control and relationships, The Legend of Ochi gives us a sense of fear, joy and triumph amidst the backdrop of the Carpathian Mountains. It's rare to see this kind of movie made these days, especially since the hyper reality of the film's world has a touch of Wes Anderson. Fortunately, the film doesn't go too hard in that department as the world feels a little more real than Anderson's sensibilities.

Overall, the story starts out pretty strong, giving us a very good foundation to focus on. However, it's the muddled middle where the problems begin. A couple of overly convenient contrivances occur, and while they were certainly meant to move the story quicker, it was still jarring in their sudden entrance.

The only other complaint was sometimes the VFX shots didn't look convincing, but this was a low budget movie and they did a good job considering their limitations. Overall, I found the film to be a joy and interesting to look at, which is fine from time to time.

All that I knew about this 2025 fantasy movie titled "The Legend of Ochi", from writer and director Isaiah Saxon, was the title of the movie and what the poster looked like. I had no idea what the movie was about when I sat down to watch it. But of course, any movie that I haven't already seen deserves a fair chance, and thus I opted to watch this movie too.

As I had no expectations to the movie, I have to say that writer and director Isaiah Saxon definitely delivered here. The storyline in the movie was rather entertaining. Sure, it was a bit simplistic if you think about it, but there was just something fundamentally beautiful about the story and the way that it was told. I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the entire movie.

The movie has a pretty small cast ensemble, and with only a few familiar faces on the cast list, which were Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson and Finn Wolfhard. Needless to say that the acting performances in "The Legend of Ochi" were good.

The CGI effects in the movie were spectacular. The creature design was great and they looked realistic and life-like on the screen, which really added a lot to the overall enjoyment of the movie. And you can't help but get swept away by the cuteness of the small creature in the movie. And I was rather impressed with the way that they managed to portray characteristics in the creature through the use of CGI. Proper special effects or CGI effects in a movie such as this is a make or break thing, and thankfully it was great here and thus served in favor of the movie.

"The Legend of Ochi" is a good and enjoyable movie for the entire family, regardless of your age.

This is definitely a movie that I would recommend you to sit down and spend 95 minutes on watching.

My rating of writer and director Isaiah Saxon's 2025 movie "The Legend of Ochi" lands on a seven out of ten stars.