Brian Duffield’s Skull Island‘s protagonist is Charlie (Nicolas Cantu), a seventeen year old working in his dad Cap’s (Benjamin Bratt). Charlie resents being on this ship, telling. He tells Cap that he wishes to be a normal young man and go to college. He’s the exact opposite of his best friend Mike (Darren Barnet), who works with him and likes the ship life. Charlie may have to wait longer for college, unfortunately. Because after that argument about college with Cap, he notices a girl overboard. That young woman is Annie (Mae Whitman), who is quasi-feral.

When Annie discovers that the ship detonates small bombs to attract crytipds, she warns them that it’s obviouosly a bad idea. They find out how much of a bad idea it is, as a giant swuid sinks the ship. She and the ship’s surviving crew end up on the titular island, the home to many cryptids, including the notorious King Kong. Skull Island‘s target demographic are probably viewers who are slightly younger than Annie and Charlie. they’re the kind of viewers who are into the animation show’s thirlling aspect. The show delivers on that aspect, but I’ll write about that later. What carries the show for the most part is how it develops its relationships.

The key relationship, of course, is the one between Charlie and Annie who are stuck on the same part of the island. Now we’re probably wondering when Kong shows up. Pardon the light spoilers, but the human characters take up most of the screen time. Kong doesn’t show up until the third episode. He spends most of the show being the object of the character’s wondrouz gazes until later on in the show where they explain his worthwhile backstory. The show, for the most part, manages to flesh out its characters while adding thrilling fight scenes, although there are aspects here where viewers have to weight its pros and cons.

It doesn’t do a lot with the anime aesthetic nor does it innovate on Kong’s character design. However, it at least does a few great things with desgining the other cryptids. It envisions a world where these creatures take on inanimate properties. There are also soem sequences that deal with light that feel competent. Outside of it’s aesthetic, Cap brings up a conspiracy theory so bad that it may turn off viewers. And it’s stange that I didn’t have a stronger reaction to what he says. Also, the show makes its humans find ways to make the cryptids fight each other. But then again what are we here for if not for that?

Watch Skull Island on Netflix.