The Legend of Ochi (2025) is a fantasy adventure film helmed by first-time director Isaiah Saxon. The film released by A24, stars Finn Wolfhard, Willem Dafoe, and Emily Watson. It details the events of Yuri (Emily Watson) discovering a baby Ochi left by itself. Yuri then begins the journey to bring the baby Ochi back to its family.
One impressive thing that stands out to us about The Legend of Ochi is that in a world dominated by CGI, even within A24, Ochi had the bravery to be different. The fantasy film doesn't just create magic through the story, but also by the way it brings the story to life. Through puppetry, paintings, and practical effects, The Legend of Ochi flips the idea of a typical fantasy film on its head with how it is created.
What Are Ochi
One of the films most notable aspects is that it uses puppetry in place of CGI for the Ochi creatures. The Ochi are a group of forest dewlers who resemble a mix between an ape and Yoda. They are fully brought to life in this film. The Ochi blink, emote, yell, and move. These actions are all done through a combination of puppetry and animatronics.
Another piece of the film that brings magic to it is the sound design. Saxon decided that he did not want to rely on sound libraries to create the sound on screen, instead he enlisted throat-whistling artist Paul "the bird man" Manalots to carefully craft the Ochi's sounds. This ended up becoming a language of chirps, whistles, and screeches, all carefully made by Manalots.
One very impressive detail that is evident throughout the film are the landscapes and settings the characters walk through. The film was shot in the cliffs of Romania and while it is already a beautiful place, Saxon elevates this. Saxon created over 200 digital matte backdrops to help build out the nature and beauty of the settings. Using the digital paintings Saxon's team was able to blend and overlay them into the shots filmed in the mountains. This helped to create a beautifully artistic scene in almost every shot without ever using any CGI assets of grass or mountains.
This coupled with the shots being beautifully perfected on set led to a styled look that felt glossy and textured. Immediately when viewing the film audience members can tell the film is like no other when it comes to camera work, lighting, and color space. It truly is a piece of art in more ways than one.
The Legend of Ochi does more than simply tell a story of adventure, it crafts an entire world the audience can feel. Using puppets over CGI creatures and paintings over assets, Sax has crafted a film that will be looked at as intricate and rare. A rare occasion of a fantasy film where every frame was crafted by human hands.
The Legend of Ochi is currently in theaters everywhere.