Orion and the Dark

This Netflix production, scripted by Kaufman is formulaic but manages to work. If the animation is nothing special, the script is better than what drives most animated movies aimed at a young audience. It is a sweet-natured little tale, indebted to Monsters Inc and the whole Pixar canon but saved from being predictable through different borrowings, as well as its various metafictional levels of storytelling. It's nicely personal as his spin on a Pixar film, but the downside is that he can't help imitating too many of them at once - which makes it equal parts sweet and hectic, and not a little overambitious.

My Rating : 6.3/10.

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.

Orion and the Dark is a sweet and charming film, dealing with anxiety in a unique cross generational way. There are moments where it almost captures peak Pixar (think Up), which is a first for Dreamworks. A very good family film, that will age wonderfully as your family grows up. Especially good for families with ND children / parents or families with children / parents who suffer from anxiety.

The sudden non-linear nature of it might seem jarring, but trust me - stick with it - it makes beautiful sense at the end. Voice acting was on point too... not celebrity ridden like Dreamworks films tend to be.

Loved it (and my kids did too).

I tried my best to like and enjoy this movie really i watched it from start to end.

But it will fail to deliver in so many aspects, you will find yourself struggling to connect with the story.

There is nothing much to describe except i liked the idea this movie was tryna explain childhood fears, anxieties etc etc.

First 20 mins was somewhat enjoyable then it just went down so bad after.

This movie should have stayed fantasy with all the entities as they are should have a better story, better ending that way.

Rather they made it like it's all imagination of a man telling story to her daughter, and they just making stuff up anything ridiculous goes on.

It's a 5/10 for me only because of the idea this movie could have been so much better.

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.