Like an Amblin film for hipsters, The Legend of Ochi takes the narrative template of E.T. the Extraterrestrial and filters it through a deliberately mannered and artificial lens. Technically speaking, writer/director Isaiah Saxon has created something visually beautiful and stylishly put together. Is it good? That is a question that is heavily reliant on the individual tastes of each viewer.

Yuri (Helena Zengel) is a child living on the European island of Carpathia. Seemingly abandoned by her mother, she lives with her brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard) and obsessive father Maxim (Willem Dafoe) – who doggedly trains the village’s youths in how to hunt down and kill the monkey-like creatures called Ochi. When Yuri discovers a young injured Ochi in the forest, she pledges to nurse it back to health and return it to its family – putting her directly in the path of her father’s crusade.

Stunning physical effects and inspired design make The Legend of Ochi a particularly attractive feature; one that will likely charm many of those that grew up with the puppet-dominated fantasy films of Jim Henson like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. It really does draw heavily on a 1980s sci-fi/fantasy narrative, relating its story from a child’s point of view and putting them in a greater place of peril than more recent family films ever do. At the same time there is no doubting the film was produced by cult favourite production house A24, whose self-consciously arty works like The Green Knight (2021) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) have built them a strong dedicated audience. There is a heavily apparent influence from stylistic cause célèbre Wes Anderson: Saxon’s film feels remarkably self-aware and ironic, and will enchant some while irritating others.

Now I am genuinely slowly going deaf, but even so lead performer Helena Zengel delivers a particularly quiet, mumbled performance that can get quite maddening when key lines of dialogue get lost in the sound mix. Co-stars Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson are much clearer, but are obviously much more experienced as well. There is a rather arch, mannered delivery throughout, which serves to distance the viewer emotionally. On a personal level, this delivered what felt to be something to admire rather than actively enjoy. The drama never completely immerses, despite the quality cast and stylish production design.

The Ochi themselves, looking somewhat like a cross between a howler monkey and a Pokémon, are a wonderful achievement of design and execution. Also impressive is David Longstreth’s musical score, and Evan Prosofsky’s cinematography. The film looks and sounds fantastic.

In the end, it is the emotional core that suffers. The storyline is a little too simplistic, and does not find space for more complex emotion. It is all attractive, but also hollow. One winds up liking and appreciating the film, but also regretting that it is not a little more advanced and inventive beyond the visual effects. It all feels a bit too much like an earnest animated fantasy, beautifully drawn but stuck in two dimensions.