Poster © A24. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreFeature film
RatedPG
Runtime1 hr 35 mins
ReleasedApril 18, 2025
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorIsaiah Saxon
StarringHelena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson
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The Legend of Ochi (2025)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
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| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| The Legend of Ochi's Details | |
| Genre | Feature film |
| Rated | PG |
| Released | 01/26/2025 (Sundance); 04/18/2025 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Budget | $10M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| The Legend of Ochi's Interests | |
| General | Black Sea islands, misty mountains, hunting traps, pet caterpillars, maps, creatures that sing. |
| Music | David Longstreth |
| Movies | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Hide the creature, help it get home. |
| Television | The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. More proof puppets can break your heart. |
| Heroes | The baby Ochi. One puppet, seven performers, total scene-stealer. |
| The Legend of Ochi's Crew | |
| Director | Isaiah Saxon |
| Writers | Isaiah Saxon |
| Producers | Richard Peete, Traci Carlson, Isaiah Saxon, Jonathan Wang |
| Cinematography | Evan Prosofsky |
| Music | David Longstreth |
| Edited By | Paul Rogers |
| Production | AGBO, Neighborhood Watch, Encyclopedia Pictura, Year of the Rat |
| Distributed By | A24 |
Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson get out-acted by a puppet in The Legend of Ochi, and that says more about the script than the puppet. Helena Zengel plays Yuri, a farm girl on the fictional Black Sea island of Carpathia, where her father Maxim (Dafoe, in ceremonial armor) leads a squad of village boys hunting the Ochi. She finds a hurt baby Ochi in a trap, nurses it at home, then runs off to return it to its family, with her adopted brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard) and the hunters trailing her. The baby Ochi is a gorgeous practical creation, all huge eyes and song-like language, and every frame looks handmade. The story, though, feels pulled off the shelf of older family adventures, and the second act sags whenever it stops for exposition. Critics went 75%; regular viewers were much cooler. A 5.9 because the craft is stunning and the characters are sketches. $939 says you pause on the baby Ochi at least once just to figure out how they built it.
What works: The baby Ochi is a marvel of practical puppetry, and the whole film has a tactile, old-school look.
What doesn’t: Yuri, Petro and Maxim stay sketches, and the story is borrowed from older family adventures, so the emotion never matches the craft.
Who it’s for: Families with kids ready for something a little strange, and anyone who misses puppet creatures from the eighties.
Spoilers
Yuri learns her estranged mother Dasha taught her the Ochi language as a baby, and Maxim admits the heirloom knife he gave her actually came from a gas station. At the Ochi’s mountain home, Dasha calms the angry creatures with flute music, and Yuri hands the baby back to its mother.
On the remote island of Carpathia, villagers have spent generations hunting the Ochi, primate-like creatures they insist are monsters. Yuri (Helena Zengel) is a farm girl whose father Maxim (Willem Dafoe) leads a squad of boys on hunts and drags along Yuri and her adopted brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard). On one outing, Yuri finds a baby Ochi caught in a trap, separated from its mom. She sneaks it home, patches up its leg, and realizes it is way smarter than anyone admits. So she runs away to get it back to its family. Isaiah Saxon writes and directs his first feature. Ninety-five minutes, puppets with feelings.
Anyone who ever brought home a stray. Mom said no, you did it anyway.
| Helena Zengel | Yuri |
| Willem Dafoe | Maxim |
| Emily Watson | Dasha |
| Finn Wolfhard | Petro |
| Răzvan Stoica | Ivan |
| Carol Bors | Oleg |
| Andrei Antoniu Anghel | Vlad |
| David Andrei Baltatu | Gleb |
| Eduard Mihail Oancea | Pavel |
| Tomas Otto Ghela | Tudor |
| Paul Manalatos | the Ochi vocal effects |
| Robert Tygner | Lead Ochi Puppeteer |
| Caroline Bowman, Lynn Robertson Bruce, Iestyn Evans, | Ochi Puppeteers |
| Susan Beattie | Ochi Puppeteers |
| Zoe Midgley | Mother Ochi |
| Alexandra Dușa, Ana Maria Cucută, Alexandru Condurat, | the vocal effects of the Adult Ochis |
| Anna L. Coats | the vocal effects of the Adult Ochis |
| Ștefan Burlacu | Victor |
| Emanuel Stoicescu | Richard |
| Ioana Ștefan | Mommy Shopper #1 |
| Meara O'Reilly | Mommy Shopper #2 |
| Andreea Mustață | Lady Cop |
| Gabriel Spahiu | Dude Cop |
| Puiu-Mircea Lăscuș | Drunk Man |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 19 October 2026 DataBot +440 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $4.9M; Domestic box office $2.5M; Opening weekend $53K; Profit / loss (est.) -$12.6M; Rotten Tomatoes 75%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 75% (138 reviews); Metacritic 67 / 100; Rotten Tomatoes audience 64% (100+ verified ratings); IMDb users 5.8 / 10 (10,429 votes); movie.guru score 4.6.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 19 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.