Orion and the Dark [Review]
Charlie Kaufman teaches us that we should shed our fears of murderous gutter clowns and embrace life
Image credit: Netflix / Dreamworks Animation
When I heard Charlie Kaufman was writing an animated film targeted at kids, I was immediately interested. Would he inject what I know about Kaufman’s style and themes into a child-friendly framework, and would he succeed? It turns out the answer is “yes,” on both counts.
Kaufman adapted an illustrated book for young children, Orion and the Dark by Emma Yarlett. He turned it into a metafictional exploration of storytelling, led by Orion (Jacob Tremblay), a hyper-neurotic, timid, young boy paralyzed by fear—who I’d argue is a self-insert for Kaufman himself.
Orion needs to overcome his fears and not let them define who he is. He transforms through a surreal journey guided by the personification of his greatest fear, Dark (Paul Walter Hauser), who is intent on proving he’s not so scary. Dark is joined by his crew of night entity co-workers, Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), Dream (Angela Bassett), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), and Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), I assume intentionally reminiscent of the emotions made corporeal characters from Pixar’s Inside Out. Kaufman turned this children’s book about overcoming a fear of the dark into a film about overcoming or learning to live with existential dread, but with a candy coating. You know, for kids!
Image credit: Netflix / Dreamworks Animation
Director Sean Charmatz (in his feature film debut) and his team at Dreamworks Animation animate the film gorgeously in stylized and textured 3D. Backgrounds and props have fuzzy edges, are sometimes softly outlined, have a slight cartoonish roughness to them. The 3D characters are sometimes joined with childish and hilarious two-dimensional drawings from Orion’s sketchbook of anxieties. The style is appropriate to the tone of the film but I do wonder what it would have looked like rendered in the watercolors of Yarlett’s original work.
The cast, led by Jacob Tremblay and Paul Walter Hauser, do an admirable job bringing their characters to life. When Dark first came onscreen, I thought he was voiced by Seth Rogen; I wonder if this was a conscious choice on Houser’s part. Angela Bassett and Natasia Demetriou are highlights, but the entire crew of night entities is endearing and charming.
Image credit: Netflix / Dreamworks Animation
What shines most brightly, however, is Kaufman’s script. This is very much his movie, through and through. The writing is funny, and the narrative is clever. Kaufman’s themes and his voice are ever-present. I can imagine a far worse version of this movie without his involvement.
I saw this film in with my older sister, who asked me, “will kids understand this movie?” This is pretty weighty stuff, and includes references that will obviously go over childrens’ heads: jokes about Infinite Jest and Sundance, an inspired vocal cameo by Werner Herzog, and more. My response was that we shouldn’t underestimate kids; they catch on to more than we give them credit for. I think Kaufman agrees with me.
Orion and the Dark premiers exclusively on Netflix on February 2.
