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Orion and the Dark Movie Review

Orion and the Dark is a 2024 animated fantasy adventure film written by Charlie Kaufman and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It is a flawed, but mostly effective flick.

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“We always want to know the ending because

it makes things less scary in the middle parts.

But maybe being scared is just a part of life.

I think you just need to feel the fear“

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A boy with an active imagination faces his fears on an unforgettable journey through the night with his new friend: a giant, smiling creature named Dark. This is the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Netflix. I appreciated this collaboration quite a bit, though it’s a shame that it wasn’t released to theaters as it was worth it. It’s a charming, wonderful family flick that teaches children how to be brave, but also that fear is important and you shouldn’t be ostracized for feeling it. It’s a very modern take on the subject of fear.

Jacob Tremblay is very good as Orion, a boy who is scared of everything. Yes, the kid was downright insufferable due to his fears of literally every minute thing in the world, but he was still an interesting Woody Allen-inspired personality in his numerous neuroses. But the highlight is Dark himself, so wonderfully voiced by Paul Walter Hauser. I initially thought that it was Seth Rogen as he sounded eerily similar to that actor. Hauser infused this character with so much warmth and kindness while not forgetting to make him cool and funny as well.

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Other characters are much less memorable and are definitely just there to be plot devices. The movie has that unfortunate overreliance on exposition and world building that plagues many of these types of flicks. There is so much similarity in this world where the dark and light get personified to the world of ‘Inside Out’. The two share that element of these elements living within their own world that is governed heavily by strict organization and policies. It was interesting to see DreamWorks make their most Pixar-like film to date.

While I definitely appreciated that world building, I still found it overwhelming and not as original as it would have been a decade ago. The biggest issue is that deeply problematic third act as this is where the movie suddenly shifted gears and became a fantasy story with time travel and other tired tropes that we’ve seen in so many blockbusters these days.

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It was unfortunate to witness the movie becoming worse and worse as it went along. The first act is genuinely excellent and endearing. It was also enchanting and so well written. The second act was overwhelmed with exposition and the third act had too much action. The animation is standard in CGI character models, but quite colorful and pleasing in backgrounds and lighting. The score is terrific, especially in its electronic beats. The dialogue is excellent and you can see that it was written and adapted by Charlie Kaufman himself as it was sometimes funny and often quite sophisticated in its messaging. I just wished for a stronger ending.