Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for The Legend of Ochi!
A24’s new fantasy adventure film, The Legend of Ochi, might have an 80% RT score, but it ended up being one of the most frustrating movies I’ve seen in years. When the opportunity came up to cover The Legend of Ochi for Screen Rant, I jumped at the chance. Even after A24 delayed the release date by a few months, I couldn’t wait to watch the family fantasy adventure movie. The story is about a young girl who is taught to fear creatures called Ochi but develops a relationship with an injured baby Ochi, setting out to take it home.
I’m a sucker for a good story where two characters from different species develop an unlikely friendship, so I was primed to enjoy The Legend of Ochi – which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. I love a good arthouse movie. Plus, puppetry is one of the most beautiful forms of animation, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the movie not only disappointed me by not living up to my expectations but also left me completely frustrated due to the storytelling and characters.
The Legend Of Ochi Surprisingly Lacks Originality & That’s Frustrating
The Story & Characters In The Legend Of Ochi Are Flat & Unoriginal
Although it clearly wants to be a sort of Dark Crystal for the modern audience, The Legend of Ochi falls very short of being a good movie. The fantasy adventure relies on jaw-dropping visuals to hide the fact that the characters are severely underdeveloped and the story is entirely unoriginal.
When a film features only four major human characters and one non-human character, I expect them to feel complex and nuanced, which isn’t the case with The Legend of Ochi.
While the baby Ochi is cute, the creatures aren’t fleshed out or unique enough to feel compelling. All the characters act terrified of them, but they don’t ever do anything worth fearing. The closest thing the audience gets to see is a bloody sheep carcass and a baby Ochi biting in self-defense. Similarly, the human characters in The Legend of Ochi feel two-dimensional, being reduced to one or maybe two driving characteristics. When a film features only four major human characters and one non-human character, I expect them to feel complex and nuanced, which isn’t the case with The Legend of Ochi.
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On top of that, The Legend of Ochi’s story doesn’t do enough to differentiate it from familiar movies. It’s okay for the A24 film to draw from its predecessors, but it needs to offer something new. Unfortunately, the 2025 fantasy adventure takes a little bit from E.T. and a little bit from How to Train Your Dragon, but it adds almost nothing else. With all the issues, I couldn’t help but think that The Legend of Ochi’s eight years of development wasn’t enough. The movie would have benefited from an extra writer to help flesh out the script.
Numerous viewers mentioned that they struggled to understand most of the dialogue because the music was too loud, and the dialogue was too soft. As such, viewers who are hard of hearing or have auditory processing issues may want to wait to watch The Legend of Ochi until it becomes available on VOD or streaming, so they can turn on subtitles.
Critics & Audiences Have Had Very Different Experiences With The Legend Of Ochi
Critics & Audiences Have Similar Opinions But Very Different Takeaways
Although the audience and critics have very different Rotten Tomatoes percentages and average scores, they mainly praise and criticize the same things in The Legend of Ochi, with some outliers on both sides. Almost everyone appreciates the attention to detail and quality that went into the film’s visuals. They combine puppetry, animatronics, matte paintings, and VFX in a beautiful way. As with other A24 Willem Dafoe movies, the actor also gives his all to the role. Still, both groups mostly dislike the storytelling and pacing.
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The Legend of Ochi Rotten Tomatoes Scores |
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Tomatometer: 80% |
Popcornmeter: 65% |
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Average critic rating: 6.9 |
Average audience rating: 3.7 |
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Scores as of 5/2/2024 |
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The only significant divergence between the audience and critics’ perspectives on The Legend of Ochi is that critics think the movie possesses an oddball, magical ambiance. However, very few of the viewers described the fantasy adventure film as magical.
Despite the overall similar opinions, critics and the audience weigh the individual factors differently, leading to contrasting viewing experiences. The critics’ reviews of The Legend of Ochi give more value to the visual effects, puppetry, and acting. They seem focused on the small details while forgiving the messy execution of the bigger picture.
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The Legend of Ochi tells the story of a girl named Yuri and an Ochi she befriends, and their journey leads up to an emotional ending.
Meanwhile, the audience gives more weight to the slow pacing, the unoriginal story, and the poor audio mixing. They can appreciate the details, but they’re focused on the things that generally factor into audience engagement and entertainment value. Ultimately, The Legend of Ochi exemplifies the fact that movies will be perceived very differently depending on hopes and expectations.
The Legend of Ochi
8/10
- Release Date
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April 25, 2025
- Runtime
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96 minutes
- Director
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Isaiah Saxon
