As he introduces himself, at the beginning of this delightful animated film, Orion claims to be “a kid just like you.”
But that isn’t quite true.
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| Orion is understandably apprehensive when his late-night bedroom is invaded by a partially shapeless, ink-black apparition that introduces himself as Dark. |
As Orion soon confesses, he worries about...
• Murderous gutter clowns;
• Cancer-causing cell phone waves;
• Mosquito bites getting infected, causing a limb to wither and drop off;
• Falling off a skyscraper;
• Being responsible for his team losing;
• Being rejected by Sally, the girl he worships from afar;
• School locker rooms, particularly when local bully Richie Panici is present; and
• Bees, dogs, the ocean, haircuts and monsters.
All of this is depicted in a colorful, crayon-style animated rush lifted from the artwork in Orion’s personal journal: a style distinct from the more traditional animation work in this DreamWorks charmer from director Sean Charmatz, making an impressive big-screen feature debut.
Most of all, though, Orion is afraid of the dark. He insists on sleeping with night lights, and his bedroom door open. His tolerant parents haven’t quite given up on him, but they’re running out of ideas; he blatantly rejects their insistence that much of what he professes to fear would be fun, if he simply yielded to the moment.
“Fun?” he retorts. “Fun is just a word people made up, to make danger sound more appealing!”
Orion and The Dark is adapted from British author Emma Yarlett’s captivating 2014 children’s picture book ... although “adapted” isn’t quite the right word. Her book actually is a jumping-off point for a pleasantly mind-boggling script by Charlie Kaufman, who previously perplexed our brains with Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (the latter earning him a well-deserved Academy Award).
Trust Kaufman to weave a singularly unique, existentialist storytelling style into a children’s fantasy, while smoothly blending this with Yarlett’s gentle wisdoms.
On this particularly night, Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is visited by an ink-black apparition dubbed Dark (Paul Walter Hauser, doing a spot-on imitation of Seth Rogen), who is determined to defend his role in The Nature Of Things. Night must follow day, he insists, and darkness is as essential as his counterpart, Light (a sun-worshiping surfer dude given mild, beach-bro pomposity by Ike Barinholtz).
Orion doesn’t buy it.
Fine, Dark responds, and challenges Orion to accompany him on a typical night’s journey. The boy really isn’t given a choice, and quickly finds himself astride this shadowy, mostly shapeless companion.
They’re quickly joined by Dark’s equally indispensable companions, who help — or hinder — our ability to enjoy a restful night: Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), whose role is obvious; Insomnia (Nat Faxon), who whispers festering apprehensions in our ears; Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), who alarms us by — for example — banging trash cans together; the gentle Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), who absorbs and eliminates unwanted nighttime sounds; and, most crucially, Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett).
They’re all appalled by Dark’s having brought along a human interloper, a viewpoint made clear during their hourly café breaks when crossing each time zone.
Orion’s subsequent adventures, during the course of this wild ’n’ crazy night, prove enlightening on numerous levels ... and not just for him. Dark confronts some of his own insecurities, most notably the feeling that he runs a distant second to Light, who — every day — brings radiant smiles to people throughout the world.
And, just as Dark’s five companions feared, events build to a crisis...
...which prompts an unexpected, eyebrow-lifting narrative twist by Kaufman that you’ll never anticipate.
The film’s lush visual style — a blend of cartoonish, playfully exaggerated character design and more realistic backgrounds, —comes from the talented crew at France’s Mikros Animation; they previously teamed with DreamWorks on 2017’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. We get an immediate sense of what’s to come, in this new film, from their whimsical handling of the iconic DreamWorks logo.
Dark’s five companions are designed according to their function. Sleep, resembling a cuddly plush toy, is in constant danger of nodding off himself. Insomnia, a garish green insectoid with an oversized head, is an obvious pest. Unexplained Noises looks like a robot built from spare parts from a dozen different kits; the mouse-like Quiet speaks so softly that she can be “heard” only via closed captions.
As for Sweet Dreams ... well, she’s regal and luminescent, like Bassett herself.
Gentle epiphanies emerge throughout this adventure, all of which help make Orion more self-assured: among them, “The only stories that really help are the true ones” and “So much of how you see yourself, is through the eyes of others.”
Along with Orion’s climactic insight — not to be revealed here — which is on par with Dorothy Gale’s realization that “There’s no place like home.”
Many animated films arrive bearing messages, but few have done so with such wily creativity. Yarlett must be pleased, and you’re certain to feel the same.
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