Orion and the Dark – Light for Chronic Pessimists
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Fun is just a word people made up to make danger sound more appealing!”
Orion, from the 2024 DreamWorks’ animated movie “Orion and the Dark,” is an anxiety-ridden, pessimistic kid who consistently envisions the worst possible outcomes for any given situation. Chronic overthinkers and procrastinators will immediately identify with the quirky little character who imagines the toilet will clog and flood his entire school each time he uses the restroom. But what’s Orion’s worst fear? The dark. So when Mr Dark himself appears in front of Orion to help overcome his extreme irrational fear of night, the boy goes on an incredible weird adventure to see how Mr Dark works through the world.
Directed by Sean Charmatz, “Orion and the Dark” has been written by Charlie Kaufman, Emma Yarlett, and Lloyd Taylor. Jacob Tremblay, known for his roles in “Wonder” and “Luca,” lends his energetic voice to Orion, the school-going protagonist who is afraid of everything and hilariously doodles about his fears in his diary. So, while Orion might be a scaredy-cat, he is a talented little pessimist. Paul Walter Hauser on the other hand voices Dark, the entity which tries to teach Orion how he is not all that bad.
The primary premise is fascinatingly original, bearing a slight resemblance to Pixar’s “Inside Out,” where human emotions are personified as distinct characters. In “Orion and the Dark,” abstract notions such as light, dreams, nightmares, and insomnia take on tangible character roles. While the animation is amusingly cute, the designs for some of the characters were quite underwhelming. For example, Insomnia is a glitch-y looking green mosquito, with the only fun detail being it’s eyeballs, which look like zeroes. Meanwhile, a character called Sleep looks like a sock-puppet version of Sully from “Monsters Inc.”.
While “Orion and the Dark” spans approximately 90 minutes, the story begins to lose momentum after an hour. The filmmakers resort to using deus ex machina-like plot devices to propel Orion’s adventure with Mr. Dark forward and provide a satisfactory conclusion. Consequently, the narrative becomes somewhat disjointed, although this may be acceptable given that the film is essentially a story within a story, with the primary narrator admitting to improvising along the way. However, these improvisations lack excitement. Nonetheless, the film offers an enjoyable exploration of a young boy grappling with his fear of the unknown, ultimately passing on his story to inspire others to overcome their fears as well.
You can stream “Orion and the Dark” on Netflix.
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