Ahead of the movie’s premiere on Netflix this Friday, Feb. 2, critics have been cozying up to Orion and the Dark— the latest feature film from DreamWorks Animation (with production assistance from Mikros Animation).
From a script by the inimitable Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Sean Charmatz, the star-studded 3D CG pic brings author Emma Yarlett’s kids’ book to life, illustrating the story of an anxious boy (Jacob Tremblay) who is whisked away on a night of incredible adventure by his greatest fear, the Dark (Paul Walter Hauser), in hopes of curing his phobias. Angela Bassett, Nat Faxon and even Warner Herzog all provide voices.
The comedy-adventure doesn’t have much to fear from film critics: Orion and the Dark has a pre-premiere Rotten Tomatoes rating of 89% Fresh (from 18 reviews) and a MetaScore of 74 on MetaCritic (nine reviews). Kaufman wins praise for his still charming “deconstruction” of the familiar family animated adventure — though at least one reviewer found it “over-complicated” — and the artists of DreamWorks and Mikros win praise for the solid visuals and lovely nightscapes.
Here’s what some of the top critics had to saw about DreamWorks Animation’s latest dream:
“A mainstream children’s movie from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, creator of Being John Malkovich and Synecdoche, New York? It has to be worth a look, if only for the pleasure of wondering how much of his own adult neurosis has crept in … It is a sweet-natured little tale, indebted to Monsters, Inc. and the whole Pixar canon but saved from being predictable with other borrowings (Back to the Future, Inception), as well as its various metafictional levels of storytelling.”
— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Director Sean Charmatz (Trolls: Holiday In Harmony) keeps the visuals kid-friendly, but he also keeps [Charlie] Kaufman’s voice recognizable throughout. And though Orion and the Dark appears to go through the motions of a family flick, it throws some serious curves en route to a loving yet emotionally devastating resolution.”
— Luke Thompson, AV Club
“Charmatz’s direction has to make Kaufman’s concepts come to life in a way that is easily digestible to kids, and the combination of these two filmmakers works beautifully here. The animation style looks deceptively simple at first (from Mikros Animation, who worked with DreamWorks Animation before on Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie), but the way Charmatz plays with dark and light here is simply gorgeous. The look of the film both reminds of Yarlett’s picture book and Netflix’s usual animation style — a mixture you wouldn’t expect from a film with Werner Herzog cameos and a great David Foster Wallace joke.”
— Ross Bonaime, Collider
“Charmatz’s direction keeps things within DreamWorks’ CG house style, but brings a scruffy, scrappy approach, reflecting the mindset of its hero, in a manner similar to The Mitchells vs, The Machines: Orion’s hand-drawn scrapbook sketches, which document his many fears, bleed pleasingly into the frame … But to its bones, this is a Kaufman joint, and while it has an unusual sweetness — there’s a straightforwardly wholesome father-daughter relationship — it is full of existential dread, big ideas, and a strong resistance to anything too neat, too Hollywood.”
— John Nugent, Empire Magazine
“Endlessly clever and funny, Orion and the Dark also beautifully conveys the adolescent angst that plagues most of us and the familial love that can enable us to conquer it. Although it finds plenty of amusement in Orion’s insecurities, the film treats them sympathetically, delivering a heartwarming message that should resonate with younger viewers while proving nostalgic for older ones.”
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
“Kaufman — the inventive, subversive and mind-blowing mind behind “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” — is rather tame here … The animated world is wonderfully realized, from the shaded, uneven grass to the gritty crosswalks of Times Square. There is a welcome use of childhood drawings to give the movie more texture but it’s a far cry from the game-changing animation of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
— Mark Kennedy, The San Diego Union-Tribune
