Orion and the Dark

I was enjoying the beginning so much that I paused the movie and made some popcorn. Everything was perfect; the story, the animation, nice heavy shadows in the animation, the drawings and separate little cutscenes which by the way reminded me of "Better off Dead" with John Cusack and a little of "Love and Monsters" with Ariana Greenblatt, in THAT movie the main character made a book with all the monsters in it that he came across, in This movie the main character made a book of all his fears. The beginning was so perfect, I was happy. But then the movie changed, I remember Buzz talking to all the alien dolls while Woody is watching and saying "This is Ludicrous". That's how I felt with the rest of the movie.

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.

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.

This was a nice movie and it started of great but about 20 minutes into the movie it changed with the appearance of a new character that from that point kept jumping in.

Every part where she appeared the story came to a grinding halt in my opinion and it started jumping everywhere.

The end tied it together quite nicely but it didn't make up for the jumping up until then. And the appearance of the new character spoiled the rest of the movie. If that character and setting had been introduced from the beginning I would have felt differently about it.

So all in all. It is a nice movie with a great story and great potential about facing your fears but it could have been soooo much better.

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.