April 28, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
If Willem Dafoe followed every bit of advice that Oscar winner Gene Hackman gave him, audiences probably wouldn't be treated to the delightful new independent film, “The Legend of Ochi.”
In a recent interview with IndieWire, Dafoe mentioned how Hackman advised him early in his career never to work with first time directors. And while this might be solid advice for young actors breaking into cinema hoping to be shepherded by an expert filmmaker, mentorship can go both ways.
Having a performer with the credentials of Dafoe in a filmmaker’s directorial debut can also help shepherd along the next generation of movie makers.
With Isaiah Saxon’s freshman feature, Dafoe is a supporting yet influential part of a pseudo coming of age story that's part “How To Train Your Dragon” and part “The NeverEnding Story” with a bright-eyed wonder that will draw children in and just enough nostalgia for Jim Henson style puppetry to entice older audiences to engage with the family friendly fantasy.
The film follows Yuri, a young girl living in a remote Scandinavian island town forced to join a troop of boys hunting down a mysterious monster known as the Ochi that seems to be causing chaos and killing farm animals in the remote village. Her unlikely friendship with a young Ochi creature leads the two on a journey to get the injured Ochi back to its family safely.
German actress Helena Zengel, best known for her role in the Tom Hanks western “News of the World,” has the makings of a well-considered, developed character despite a limited framework left for her in Saxon’s screenplay.
Her Yuri is a unique blend of naïveté, brash independence and caring environmentalist whose isolation stems from being the only girl in a world full of men due to the absence of her mother, which makes her isolated and yet driven to do the right thing in spite of the objections of her father.
Dafoe provides a familiarity to American audiences as Yuri’s father and continues a wide and lengthy filmography of eccentric characters brought to life by the veteran actor.
While his Maxim is far more family friendly for “The Legend of Ochi” than his recent turn in the Oscar winning “Poor Things,” there's a bizarre twist on masculinity to Maxim that is present within the script, but takes Dafoe's unique blend of gravitas and committed determination to playing the dry humor street in order to let jokes come out naturally that really helps propel a somewhat light narrative forward.
Saxon’s unique vision for his debut extends especially into its distinctive visual style, which evokes both the faded, diverse color palette of a Wes Anderson comedy as well as a sort of hand drawn texture ripped out of the pages of a storybook.
But what truly sets “The Legend of Ochi” apart is the uniqueness of the Ochi characters brought to life practically on screen through a number of collaborative puppeteers who animates not only the titular character, but Ochi of all sizes in ways reminiscent of “NeverEnding Story” and “The Dark Crystal”
This innovative practical approach helps the film truly stand apart in family cinema given the overwhelming amount of computer graphics developed for Disney live action remakes of their animated classics.
While it's evident throughout that audiences are seeing puppets acting opposite Zengel, this is not jarring in the least thanks to the lived in vintage film cinematography from cinematographer Evan Prosofsky that evokes these 80s classic films, but also in the special way that Zengel naturally bonds with a puppet to create a compelling emotional relationship.
Although it's unlikely to make any best of 2025 list, this uniquely original tale and stunning practical effects make “The Legend of Ochi” a criminally underseen family friendly adventure film that cinephiles with young children may well bond over as they try to inspire a new generation of movie lovers.
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