Orion and the Dark
Orion and the Dark
“Orion and the Dark”, a Netflix adaptation and Dreamworks co-production, excels in storytelling and heart better than most of Pixar’s recent outings. The so boldly lifts classic Pixar’s playbook of how to make human characters out of the impossible objects, in “Inside Out”, “Toy Story” and for that there is even a straightforward quote from the first one in the movie’s prologue. The encouraging news is that it advances rather than merely copying the template, as is the case with many other Pixar imitators. The film presses familiar buttons and it indeed works because it combines Charlie Kaufman’s distinct style of storytelling and a simple and intelligible story about a little boy who is in search of security in the vastness of the world. Well, “Orion and the Dark” a Netflix original film is a good surprise early this year with excellent character designs, clever dialogues and a positive central theme.
One does not have to be told that Orion and the Dark was authored by the mind behind Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, to appreciate that that family script is a bit off. How many times do the likes of David Foster Wallace and Saul Bass go un-acknowledged in a cartoon? And that’s just in the prologue. In that wonderful beginning to the film, which can be described as a mini movie, Kaufman along with direction debutant Sean Charmatz brings the audience closer to Orion (Jacob Tremblay) their main character who happens to be an elementary school student and rather timid one. Orion is terrified of bullies, bees, a fall from a skyscraper; basically, everything that can potentially be scary. And the greatest fright to him is the dark or to be specific, the common developmental thing also known as the dark.
“We thought you were ‘The Dark’,” Orion says, with hardly a hint of irony. When he met ‘The Dark,’ he was reassured by his parents, Matt Dellapina and Carla Gugino, but Orion was relayed voice by Paul Walter Hauser, whose talent shone through with confidence as he transitioned from an animated personality to an apprehensive character. Orion was portrayed as struggling with mental health, and certain depths of that perception should never feel easy to rise from, and genuinely, I would never wish that on anyone. And ‘The Dark’ never used to know it better; even Orion is terrified of feeling unimportant and unvalued. Indeed, everyone is fond of the light. Ike Barinholtz is more man than Superman just as he is less mysterious than batman.
The Dark fathoms that in order for Orion to stop being terrified of him, he will be required to bring him on a workplace-type excursion, which involves whisking the protagonist around the various nooks and crannies of the world, introducing him to the concept of night, and several personalities including Sweet Dreams: Angela Bassett, Sleep: Natasia Demetriou from ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ Unexplained Noises played by Golda Rosheuvel, Insomnia by Nat Faxon, as well as Quiet used a voiceover by Aparna Nancherla. This is where the production of Charmetz starts to give off the feeling of having watched “Inside Out”. The above elements however do not appear or get developed as the emotions in the film rather work behind the scenes, just like the emotions in that pixar darling. However, “Orion and the Dark” is never at any point overpowered by the feeling of being an echo. Instead of following the same route, it paves a parallel lane for itself.
One of the ways it does that is so Kaufman in that he decides to tell the story of his life but in such a way that the story of his life is inside the story that he is telling in the present. After a bit, thus, “Orion and the Dark” zooms out to a scene showing the grown up version of the character who is played by Colin Hanks mythologizing his dreadful encounter with Dark to his child. It is because he wants to reassure her that darkness is not something she should be afraid of? Did it take place? And in what way would the daughter of the narrator be able to live and make the story distinct in her own sense? This is where they might get a little confused the little ones but Kaufman and Charmatz again tread the line, letting their film become somewhat distorted and dreamlike but never the emotional strands of the story.
It seems that there are several shots of Orion and Dark moving from left to right which in my perspective, is a bit excessive along with some soundtracks that I did not approve of either. Believe it or not, there is also what may be termed as a plethora of ideas when Dark receives his very own emotional storyline, as does his future daughter, and Orion. It looks like the writers tried to compile all of the ideas they had written down during the last few years and couldn’t decide which one to use creating a rather annoying spectacle. But that was not the last. When did any of you watched an animated movie, which so much happening in it that you found it difficult to understand, last? Maybe you need to go and watch platinum pixar.
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