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No matter who you are or what your situation may be, becoming a parent changes everything. It’s true if you’re old or young, if you’re adopting, fostering, or giving birth. It’s even true if, like the main character in the Netflix animated adventure Ultraman: Rising, you’re a sports legend turned superhero who’s trying to parent a baby monster.
Ultraman: Rising begins as baseball star Ken Sato (voiced by Christopher Sean) returns home to Tokyo, to take over as the city’s beloved superhero, Ultraman, after his estranged father (Gedde Watanabe) is injured. Ken isn’t thrilled about taking on the role. He’d much rather be basking in the glow of his fans’ adoration than battling the city’s monsters. But when the government’s shadowy Kaiju Defense Force shoots down a monster that’s fleeing the city, Ken finds himself caring for a newly hatched baby monster, who makes him change his attitude and rethink his priorities.
As it turns out, it’s not easy to juggle a career in professional sports with a side gig keeping Tokyo monster-free—while also trying to figure out how to raise a 20-foot-tall newborn monster (with some help from a robot assistant turned nanny). Ken finds the combination of monster-fighting injuries and sleepless nights to be incredibly humbling—which, it turns out, is actually a good thing for this character, whose initial arrogance makes him almost entirely unlikable. His career takes a hit while he tries to do it all on his own, and it teaches him a valuable lesson about working as a team—not just with this baseball teammates but with his estranged dad, too.
While the characters here are quite layered and complex for characters in an animated superhero movie—and the hero goes through an important growth process—viewers might fail to notice the depth and drama of the story because the baby monster is just too cute. Every scene with this gigantic infant is sweet and funny and sometimes gross—and the moments that feature this adorable monster and her reluctant human parent are easily some of the film’s best. This is definitely a striking film—with eye-catching animation in a blend of styles—but it’s also just a lot of fun to watch.
Ultraman: Rising blends all of the action and adventure of a superhero movie with the creatures of a Japanese monster movie and the playfulness of an animated movie for kids. It’s an entertaining combination that makes it a crowd-pleasing pick for your next family movie night.
Join in the action, adventure, and parenting with Ken when Ultraman: Rising premieres on Netflix on June 14, 2024.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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