Though the design and color utilized in Deep Sea is enough to keep viewers fascinated, there’s way more than meets the eye to this feature. The themes of loss and loneliness play a major role in the story, with the sea, the restaurant, and all the various characters Shenxiu encounters all symbolic stand-ins for elements in her real life. It’s Alice in Wonderland underwater, if Alice was having a lucid dream, and desperately trying to turn a nightmare into something more palatable.

Deep Sea is decidedly not for those inclined towards depression. To say that the film doesn’t have a Disney ending would be a vast understatement, and parents should consider seeing the film before they show it to younger children. The plot is fairly loose and very non-linear, and as a result, that makes the experience of watching the movie feel all the more like a dream. I’m not sure the tonal shifts work as well as they could, and the shifts often feel disjointed, though to be fair, this layered, complicated story is a challenging concept for an animated feature.

It’s best to see Deep Sea on the big screen, where audiences can let it wash over them (as it were), and let it take them wherever it may, which will depend on individual perspective. It should be seen however, regardless of its faults, for the spectacular colors and dreamy undersea visuals painstakingly created by the director and his crew.