Puppetry remains a uniquely lovely way to tell a family story at the movies. Who doesn’t love puppets? For a sweet Magical Realist fable like The Legend of Ochi, using puppets for the little creatures is inspired. Kids of all ages will love the puppets. Maybe they will bring you back to the good things of your youth: those now-classic family movies that felt woven from the heart out of handcrafted care. Form outweighs function in Isaiah Saxon’s debut feature, a charming surrealist fairytale about a young girl and an injured little creature she adopts, as the duo try to find home and belonging, together.
Aesthetic principles rule over all of Isaiah Saxon’s choices for the movie. Primarily a music video director, it’s clear that Saxon keeps visual priorities. There is not so much a story as a loose path of breadcrumbs leading around the Carpathian Mountains. Along the way, there is a sense of enchantment for the journey over this strange and foggy land and a sense of whimsy given to the characters.
The film is lead by Yuri (Helena Zengel), who feels at odds with her father (Willem Dafoe) and her brothers (centrally of note: Finn Wolfhard), and their bloodthirst for the elusive creatures called Ochi. When Yuri finds a small Ochi caught in a trap, she rescues him, and then goes an adventure to bring him home. Along the way, Yuri will look for her own sense of home and belonging while tracking down her mother (Emily Watson), while Willem Dafoe, dressed in random armor like an adventurer from the Elder Scrolls videogames, goes on a quest to bring back his runaway daughter.
There is hardly anything else. So, it’s good that Saxon has other priorities. Because the movie cannot get by on its thin and predictable story. Instead, Saxon pitches a balance of Andersonian whimsy and framing and Miyazakian wonder for the world. It works fine and is a small delight.
Over the course of six years of filming, The Legend of Ochi remained a taught fairytale fable, without any real bloat of superfluous ideas at all. It’s pretty straightforward: if you would like a family film that’s primarily joyful because of its puppets, this will work well as a nice aside for the whole family, a diversion from more fully featured ideas.