Kaufman, the writer behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, has written an animated film and it's got his fingerprints all over it. For many film nerds that will be a good thing. Not so much for me. I find Orion and the Dark suffers from the sorts of problems many of his films have for me. There is an emphasis on gimmick and a lack of focus on authentically resolving the plot line. It also feels like it loses focus half way through.
Orion and the Dark starts out okay with a noble effort to process through childhood anxiety. In typical Kaufman style it isn't just anxiety, it is anxiety to the max... and beyond. The plot here is rather straightforward, with Orion facing his fears and learning to become comfortable. Okay. Not overly original or anything but okay enough. But the film shifts gears a few times after that becoming about other things and, again in typical Kaufman fashion, he pulls his endings out of thin air. The film is fairly meta in how it even acknowledges in dialogue that it is searching for an ending. It just didn't work for me.
The character designs are very typically Dreamworks which again isn't my preferred style. They are rather flat and uninspired. I enjoyed the film's attempts to work in some of Orion's sketches into the art style but when this wasn't happening it felt like every other CGI animated film in look and feel.
Orion and the Dark borrows heavily from The Princess Bride and A Christmas Carol and never quite lives up to any of it. It's not a terrible watch, but it doesn't feel like the sort of film you'd come back to to enjoy again.
Orion and the Dark
Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Colin Hanks, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett, Ike Barinholtz, Natasia Demetriou, Nat Faxon, Carla Gugino, Werner Herzog
Director: Sean Charmatz
Writer: Charlie Kaufman
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