I won’t kid you. The wind of change is strong and incredible. It instills nostalgia, irritation, and pity, seeing such large companies as DreamWorks Animation releasing feature-length films only for streaming platforms. How can we watch animated films in a cinema, right? Unfortunately, this could do with a more prudent approach. Even though it is obvious that this was a lower budget project, it is a story that families should make an effort to show their children. There were some scenes of this film that I considered so well done that they might have been up there with the greats of Pixar. No, Orion and the dark definitely do not belong in greatness, at least not in this lifetime, but all in all, it is very, very good film. For a young audience, the film is relatively deep.
Orion (Jacob Tremblay) is a middle schooler who’s scared of everything and wishes to grow up without this fear. However, his favorite, the dark (Paul Walter Hauser), now has a voice, and he has to confront his fears. Not only does the terrifying power have a voice, but so do Light (Ike Bari Holtz), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), Unexplained Noises (Golda Ros Heuvel), and Sleep (Natashia Demetriou), who claim to be everything we face on a daily basis, especially as kids. At first, I assumed this will be ‘too’ much like Inside Out or Elemental, but this turned out to be an original concept that deserves to be alongside those movies. It’s about a boy who has to cope with odd circumstances and in the process, some quite strong, (for a kids movie) interesting dialogue happens. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about the great dialogue, it is written by Charlie Kaufman after all.
My fascination with Kaufman’s films goes back to Being John Malkovich, through Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and all the way to the present with I’m Thinking of Ending Things, he is a director that deserves my respect. I wish to witness more of his productions on the silver screen but so far, I’ve never come across a feature script of his that I saw as anything less than great. True, his perspective and ability to tackle sensitive and complex subjects are slightly diminished here because his live action work is quite not child friendly. It’s as if he took one of his brilliant concepts aimed at adult audiences and created a story for children. That being said, I thought Orion and the Dark was really successful in that instance. At times, it can be quite juvenile, but its themes are excellent. However, where this motion picture experienced a little decline for me was towards the conclusion.
The movie moves between the present and the past, as Orion witnesses these bizarre events and shares them with his daughter in the present. When this element of the film focused less on “why” it was being told and more focused on ‘how’ it was going to be perceived, I felt that the film was somewhat overall consistently disorientated over the last 20 30 minutes. The last two or three scenes are great, the plot building up to this for the final half an hour feels very sloppy. I will tell one thing: Orion and the Dark is for me one of the better films from recent Netflix originals I have seen, so if you are an animation fan or looking for a new movie to show your kids this one is for you. This is a film that I loved watching but also have some problems with. Check it out.
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