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 like 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 & 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 center rather than explosive action.
This rendition of Ultraman follows baseball star Ken Sato (Christopher Sean) as he struggles to balance his daily life as a celebrity athlete with taking over his father’s duties as the legendary hero Ultraman. This balancing act takes a wild turn when circumstances force Sato to look after the offspring of his greatest foe, a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju named Emi. Despite Emi’s rough exterior, the kaiju cub to Sato’s lone wolf is just a cute but needy water dragon at heart. Ultraman must now put his ego aside to tackle the trials and tribulations of parenthood as he protects the kaiju cub from a government looking to exterminate all giant monsters in Tokyo. Co-writers Marc Haimes (Nimona, Lost Ollie) and Shannon Tindle build a classic superhero setup — four different burdens of responsibility crashing on the head of a single guy like an avalanche of anvils dropping on the roadrunner.
Ken Sato’s responsibilities as a star athlete, a giant superhero, a new father to Emi, and a son to his father, Professor Sato (Gedde Watanabe), set a challenge for Ultraman: Rising to operate on the largest and smallest scales. Crafting an art style that allows for both tones to shine is difficult, and the movie does admittedly feel like it’s working through that challenge as the plot progresses. On the brighter side, ILM’s hyper-stylized CG animation, which incorporates flashes of 2D effects, is perfectly designed for large-scale setpieces. This is where Ultraman: Rising truly shines.
To represent Ultraman’s powers, director Shannon Tindle and co-director John Aoshima (Gravity Falls, DuckTales) shift the entire environment to communicate how every punch feels. Being momentarily whisked away from Tokyo and dropped into a world of colorful speed lines allows for Ultraman’s powers to be established through their tactility rather than falling back on burdensome dialogue to explain them. This sees Ultraman: Rising achieve a core pillar of any superhero movie, to make them look not just simply cool but totally spectacular. When the film depicts a biblical battle between Ultraman and a giant robot above the Tokyo skyline, every jab, fall, and breath of fire viscerally flashes before the viewer’s eyes through beautiful, sleek animation — it’s hard for anyone watching to keep their adrenaline levels down.
Also expertly designed is the movement and performance of the baby kaiju. ILM’s replication of the way a human baby expresses joy, anger, and angst is mapped onto the kaiju in a way that’s inherently charming and funny. They put genuine effort into highlighting the physical comedy of the character, rather than aiming for the low-hanging fruit. But as much as the animation sings on the largest scales, the specificity of Ultraman: Rising’s art style suffers in quieter moments. Conversations between the human characters have something off about them, where people overexaggerate their movements a little too much for them to feel natural. These are scenes where subtlety is crucial, where the filmmakers should leave a slight glimmer of ambiguity for the audience to fill in. However, the characters instead tend to telegraph their emotions physically in a way not many humans do.
Likewise, the voice acting performances are extra hammed up due to some of the dialogue traps Ultraman: Rising’s script falls into. In Western animation, there is a tendency to over-explain the action so studio execs feel as if the movie is understandable for kids. Therefore, in films like Ultraman: Rising, there will always be a character on hand to say something like, “Wait, so you’re telling me…” and promptly sum the situation up in a compact yet witty two lines.
Ultimately, these quirks in the screenplay only serve to make the characters feel a little less human, which is a shame because of the gargantuan effort Ultraman: Rising puts in order to give Ken Sato a satisfying arc. He experiences so much pain and frustration, the plot doling out little wins and big losses to emotionally supercharge its climactic third act. One of the joys of Ultraman: Rising is watching Ken build a relationship with his massive adopted child, and the weight of his responsibility is communicated beautifully here. There are certain beats the audience expects with a narrative like this, but because of the hard work put in to show Sato’s growth from being alienated from everyone in his life to building genuine connections, those moments don’t come off as hollow — a massive achievement for the film.
Applying so many resources to the emotional side of the story does create some delayed gratification for the action sequences. When the action or fight scenes do come around, they’re wonderful! It’s obvious that this is where Shannon Tindle and ILM’s passions are most concentrated. Those looking for an action thrill ride, though, might be disappointed with how infrequently Ultraman gets busy.
Ultraman has definitely gotten the Hollywood treatment. Ultraman: Rising is a solid, stable introduction of the character that can’t quite escape from the tropes of Western animation. It’s easy to get along with, charming, and funny with some great action. While young viewers will definitely find lots to love here, Shannon Tindle’s version of the titular character deserves some time and room to grow, to shoot for something more than a safe crowd-pleaser.
Western animation is currently in a great place because of those creatives taking high-level risks, and this new Ultraman franchise for Netflix can surely be another face of that. There are fresh ideas present in Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising, and its unique blend of CG and 2D animation is visually captivating. Ken Sato has an interesting relationship with kaiju, creatures he looks not only to defeat but also to preserve. And while the film does flirt with some darker themes of loss, none of these ideas are truly maximized in the final product. There’s a clear next level for this franchise to reach, one can only hope Netflix gives filmmaker Shannon Tindle the opportunity to find it with another animated feature.
Ultraman: Rising hits Netflix on June 14!
Directed by Shannon Tindle.
Written by Shannon Tindle & Marc Haimes.
Based on Ultraman by Tsuburaya Productions.
Produced by Tom Knott & Lisa M. Poole.
English Voice Cast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, & Julia Harriman.
Japanese Voice Cast: Yuki Yamada, Fumiyo Kohinata, Ayumi Tsunematsu, Fumihiko Tachiki, Akari Hayami, Hiroko Sakurai, & Takaya Aoyagi.
Composer: Scot Stafford.
Production Companies: Netflix Animation & Tsuburaya Productions.
Runtime: 117 minutes.
Rated PG.
