The baby creature from “The Legend of Ochi” has captured the internet’s heart — just as its creators intended.
Director Isaiah Saxon tells TODAY.com about how his ideas came to life for the ochi, the name of the wild beasts who live in the forests surrounding a remote village on the fictional island of Carpathia, where the family-friendly movie is set.
“The goal with designing the ochi was to create a realistic-feeling undiscovered primate species, so that a kid watching the film could wonder, ‘Have I just not seen the BBC nature special yet on this animal?’ Like, this feels like a real animal,” Saxon says.
“The Legend of Ochi,” out April 25, stars Helena Zengel alongside Finn Wolfhard, best known from his role as Mike Wheeler on “Stranger Things.” When Zengel’s character Yuri discovers a baby ochi who has been left behind, she’s determined to do whatever it takes to get the adorable creature back to its pack.
The pair go on an adventure through woodlands, waters and even a grocery store, where the baby ochi quickly melts the hearts of the characters and viewers alike.
Filmed in the Carpathian mountains of Romania, the film takes fantastical elements from its location — but the magic of the baby ochi is that it is a puppet, Wolfhard tells TODAY.com.
“I didn’t see the ochi actually in action until I was on set, and the puppeteers showed me. Basically, they said, ‘Do you want to meet him?’ And I just looked at the puppet, and it looked up at me and blinked and had head movements,” Wolfhard said. “It was like a truly real creature.”
There are complicated mechanics behind bringing the ochi to life, Wolfhard says, but it all comes together to make the ochi appear like a real-life animal.
“The ochi had a whole team of people, and all the puppeteers are actors because they are all trying to get a very specific performance out of the ochi,” Wolfhard says. “It was six people piloting one creature, as opposed to just one actor, but they were such amazing performers. That’s why I like working with practical effects — it’s so fun because you have that human connection with it.”
Saxon says inspiration for the gremlins came in part from his longtime obsession with Chinese golden snub-nosed monkeys. He also took elements from lemurs, tarsiers and other primates for the look of the ochi, while borrowing from birdsong and the noises dolphins make for the language the animals use in the film.
“It wasn’t looking to movie creatures or mythical creatures. It was looking to nature,” he says. “I really wanted to pull from the wide variety of superpowers that you do find in nature, and real patterns in zoology, and put them into one fictional animal.”
The cuteness factor for the baby ochi was important from the start, Saxon says. After drafting up several drawings of what the ochi would look like for the film, Saxon says he reached out to John Nolan Studios in London to create animatronics for the creatures.
“They made a prototype that was completely furless and had no facial movement, but immediately, the five puppeteers brought it to life, it was just completely convincing that this was a real being,” Saxon recalls. “It was absolutely adorable from the break.”
Saxon says designing the baby ochi as a puppet adds characteristics that play into how lovable the creature becomes throughout the film.
“A lot of the little imperfections that you might see in a baby primate trying to move learn how to move their own body, those are the types of little things that come through in rod puppeteering,” he says. “So it had that vulnerability from the beginning, from the puppetry.”
Once the crew was on set filming in Romania, “there was a tremendous amount of effort in just like, policing his cuteness,” Saxon says of the baby ochi.
He joked about a “last-minute rhinoplasty” to make the baby’s nose cuter after realizing it wasn’t quite right, and other situations on set to ensure the creature had the look he was going for.
The film, which launched in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on April 17, is headed to theaters nationwide on April 25. But the hype for the charm of the baby ochi is only just beginning, as viewers start to react to the gremlin on social media.
“I just watched THE LEGEND OF OCHI and I want everyone to know that I would die for this little guy,” one user posted on X.
“I completely adored THE LEGEND OF OCHI. It pulls inspiration from Amblin movies like E.T., Jim Henson’s classics, and even Ghibli, but still takes tons of *weird* swings that create its own identity full of wonder,” another X user wrote. “They literally don’t make family adventures like this anymore.”
“Just like ‘E.T.’ was for so many of my generation I hope there’s a kid out there whose new favorite movie is THE LEGEND OF OCHI and it inspires them to become a filmmaker,” another X user posted. “Lovely movie.”
Another X user said: “The Legend of Ochi is a wholesome fantasy adventure. It has really beautiful puppetry and practical effects that really make the Ochi come to life. You love every second baby Ochi is on screen. The world feels very beautiful and unique.”
Others, understandably, were just reacting to finding out how adorable the baby ochi is.
“How have I not heard about this darling baby Ochi until today?” a user wrote on X, adding a te-eyed emoji and two heart-eye emoji.
“In love with this little guy,” another X user said with a heart-eyed emoji. “can’t wait to see the movie!”
“Omg he’s perfect,” another replied on X to a photo of the baby ochi puppet wearing a baseball cap.
A24, the film’s distributor, also joined in on the fun, posting a photo of the baby ochi with its arms raised with the caption, “When you find out The Legend of Ochi isn’t nationwide until next Friday but you need that little guy right now.”
“The Legend of Ochi” debuted in theatres on April 25.
