Orion and the Dark

Orion is a boy who is afraid of everything including bully Richi Panichi and girl crush Sally. He puts it all down in his notebook. One night, he is visited by one of his worst fears, the Dark. The Dark is an actual supernatural being and it takes him on a journey through the world of night-time beings.

This is based on a children's book. Charlie Kaufman is one of the writers and seemed to have injected his brand of existential dread. I love some of the ideas, but this may not be for the littlest ones in the audience. It's interesting that the Dark is such a friendly character. I would have thought that it should be a scary character at the start and Orion learns to see its beauty later.

Orion and the Dark is a surprisingly heavy and layered animated film until you see who has a screenplay credit and then it all makes sense. What starts off as a film about how every aspect of life can be scary quickly morphs into something that celebrates the unpredictability of it whilst exploring how balance is essential.

Jacob Tremblay is almost too good at portraying Orion's fear of everything early on but that actually makes his newfound love of adventure all the more enjoyable. Paul Walter Hauser makes Dark so loveable, turning a concept that's scary to so many into a gentle giant with his own fears and doubts.

Sean Charmatz's direction keeps things moving and manages to find an animation style that feels fairly original and more importantly, really nice to look at. In a perfectly fitting fashion, its greatest moments of visual beauty come from the scenes at night, which is essentially the majority of the film.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect with this movie since it is made by Dreamworks but also written by Charlie Kaufman who has made some of my favorite films of all time. With an interesting concept, the movie surprisingly was pretty ambitious and interesting then the typical Dreamworks Animation movie.

I do appreciate the writing where it creates interesting themes and ideas together which worked pretty well. I found the narrative, while having some faults with certain aspects, remaining strong with some good dialogue, themes, and tone. The voice performances were pretty solid with some good deliveries and style. The animation is pretty solid with some good colors and models. Although it does feel a bit cheap then the usual Dreamworks Animation movie which is understandable due to the low budget.

The characters are interesting but I felt as the side characters were a little messy on certain aspects of development. Including the third act to be a little rushed. Here, Kaufman's writing isn't his best work but he still provides some interesting ideas and I do applaud him and Dreamworks on taking some unusual directions and shifts here. But I won't be surprised if Dreamworks had done studio interfere with his script.

Overall, not the best but nice to see Kaufman doing more stories.

DreamWorks Animation's most recent release follows Orion, a boy with an active imagination who faces his fears on a journey through the night with some new friends. Written by Charlie Kaufman, the mind behind "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Being John Malkovich" I was intrigued to view his first animated film. Sadly, I will admit that this was kind of a letdown in the aspect of it not feeling original whatsoever. It did however illustrate kids struggling with fear and anxiety, and ways to face such fears. An ensemble of talented actors such as Jacob Tremblay, Angela Bassett, and Paul Walter Hauser would bring much attention to any film, however they couldn't do much to save this from just being an average film. Overall, this was nowhere near DreamWorks Animation's best work but was not there worst either.

We all have fears that we struggle with throughout our lives. Perhaps the biggest contribution to overcoming these fears was the support of our parents. The things that scared Orion and his narrative were very attractive and made us feel close to him.

But darkness has been the common point of most people at a young age. What we always had in mind from darkness was a scary and emotionless creature with a strange voice. But the story we had here was exactly the opposite of our childhood imagination. Darkness is a reliable, kind and helpful friend.

The border of creativity in the screenplay was not limited to darkness, and the night team of Darkness was really pleasant. This team included everything that happened to us at night and with extremely creative methods, they can make the night painful or relaxing for us. I had a lot of trouble with insomnia :)

This is a movie that appeals to everyone, regardless of age. From the beginning of the story to the end, the audience was accompanied by the story moment by moment, and both adults and children could communicate with it. Thanks for creating a safe space for families to enjoy a movie together.