Director: Shannon Tindle
Genre: Animation
Cast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Julia Harriman
Duration: 117 minutes
Now streaming on Netflix
Ultraman’s presence in Western culture has always been at the margins. Despite being a fixture in Japan for 58 years, the character’s Western influence has amounted to very little. This small, yet notable impact includes comics published by Marvel, being the inspiration for Ant-Man’s costume in the MCU, and one hilarious South Park reference. But now, Ultraman has finally gotten the Hollywood treatment in the Netflix original film Ultraman: Rising, a charming, if safe, superhero adventure.
Ultraman: Rising also represents a new dawn for Shannon Tindle, who makes his feature directorial debut here after years of working as an animator, character designer, and writer across the animation industry. His mighty resume includes beloved films such as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings to hit animated series like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and The Fairly OddParents. Tindle was originally developing this project as an original story titled “Big in Japan” at Sony Pictures Animation, though when those prospects fell through in 2018, he was then able to retool the concept under the Ultraman IP at Netflix Animation with Tsuburaya Productions being involved in shepherding the film to fruition.
Handling the animation on Ultraman: Rising is industrial light and magic, who previously worked with director Gore Verbinski on Rango and with Shannon Tindle on 2022’s live-action hybrid Netflix show Lost Ollie. The strength of that relationship proves to be the secret sauce behind Ultraman: Rising‘s best moments, baked into Tindle’s grand vision for Tokyo-set kaiju battles. More important to Ultraman: Rising, though, are the personal stakes of the story, making for an animated picture built around a deeply emotional centre rather than explosive action.
–discussingfilm.net
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