'The Legend of Ochi' Review: Fantastical, yet lackadaisical
A24's first venture into family entertainment since 2022 proves to be a disappointing misfire failing to capture our imagination, aside from its gorgeous visuals and score
It’s never easy to make a movie, but making a quality movie for children must be one of the hardest genres to master. The amount of skepticism and scrutiny one must endure to make sure the entertainment they’re producing isn’t just entertaining and profitable, but good for both kids and parents alike is incredibly challenging. Some of the best kids films have satisfied kids as well as their parents. Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and Studio Ghibli have built their legacy as pillars of excellence for audiences of all ages, which makes it more interesting to see that A24 has thrown their hat in the ring. Most of A24’s indie-art house label appeals to film buffs with a penchant for the complex, thoughtful, and challenging, but Isaiah Saxon’s The Legend of Ochi (2025) looks to be the next film to make the leap.
However, that’s not to say that The Legend of Ochi doesn’t have a place in the lexicon of A24’s filmography, despite appealing to an entirely different audience. The film often feels reminiscent of the family films of the ‘80s with a darker, adult-friendly edge, like Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s The Dark Crystal (1982) or Martin Rosen and John Hubley’s Watership Down (1978). Unfortunately, where those films immersed audiences in a rich atmosphere of grime and grit and a mythos bursting at the seems with possibilities, The Legend of Ochi does the bare minimum in establishing its universe. What could have been a fresh new avenue for the studio misfires so adamantly from a storytelling perspective, and instead marks it as the first real disappointment of the year.
The Legend of Ochi tells the story of a secluded village in the northern forests on the island of Carpathia. The film focuses on a small family led by Maxim (Willem Dafoe), who leads a group of young hunters that include his daughter Yuri (Helena Zengel) and adopted son Petro (Finn Wolfhard). The group spends the evenings searching for and hunting the Ochi, a group of mammal-like creatures (think a baboon mixed with a lemur). Yuri feels at a distance from her father, with little idea of who her mother is, and doesn’t know where she fits in with her family. One night, Yuri stumbles upon an injured baby Ochi and quickly forms a connection. I mean, who wouldn’t, once you see how remarkably adorable this creature is? Unbeknownst to her father, she sets off on a journey to return the Ochi to its family.
While not the most original setup, The Legend of Ochi had the potential to subvert the expectations of a familiar plot. However, The Legend of Ochi’s biggest issue is that the film doesn’t allow itself the time for audiences to properly get invested in its characters, their motivations, or their reasoning for why the central conflict exists in the first place. The film fails to give us any compelling backstory or setup as to why this community has such a hatred or interest in hunting Ochi, so there’s zero reason to root for these characters. In a similarly setup, Dreamworks film How to Train Your Dragon (2010) does a terrific job of explaining the rationale for why dragons are so hated, enrapturing us in the story of a war thousands of years old that continues to rage on to this day. This pointless conflict fails to make sense to the main character, Hiccup. Upon meeting a rare, injured dragon, Hiccup decides to form a relationship and over time, slowly gaining its trust, studying its characteristics and eventually finding his village’s prejudice lacks merit. It’s through this kind of expertly crafted storytelling that we become invested and, over the course of time, begin to see the potential connection. The Legend of Ochi sacrifices this connection for a shorter runtime and an artsy aesthetic, failing to capture its audience in the process. The same can be said for the film’s world-building and logic for simple things. There’s a baffling scene, for example, where over the course of 30 seconds, Yuri and the baby Ochi flawlessly communicate with one another. What starts as the pair vocalizing simple words suddenly turns into full sentences until they’re communicating flawlessly with no explanation. It’s this sort of fast-forward plotting that desperately needs fleshing out for a stronger experience.
That’s not to say there’s nothing to appreciate in The Legend of Ochi. The cinematography from Evan Prosofsky, known largely in the music industry for his work on music videos, is excellent. Even with the film shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, The Legend of Ochi’s sharp aesthetic lends itself to a beautiful atmosphere and sense of place in the rustic European mountains. The same can be said for the score by Dirty Projectors frontman David Longstreth, which matches the personality of its gorgeous visuals. Finally, the film’s biggest achievement is the puppetry of its central characters. In researching the film’s production, it was stated that upwards of seven performers were used to bring the titular character to life, which is a massively impressive feat. However, all the craft and precision are wasted on a story that insists on its first draft ideas and lack of cohesion throughout. While the jury’s still out on whether or not A24 can universally transition into universal family fare, The Legend of Ochi assuredly isn’t the film to accomplish it. Instead, I’d suggest Dean Fleischer Camp’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022)–a much more thoughtfully crafted attempt at family fare from the indie darlings.
C-
Feature image credit to A24 via MSP Film Society
