Orion and the Dark — Review: A Profound Story for Kids
by KJ Proulx
I’m not going to lie, seeing big companies like Dreamworks Animation making feature films that go straight to streaming services is becoming upsetting. I believe great stories deserve to be seen on the big screen, and even though this was clearly done on a smaller budget, this is a story that families need to show their kids. There were moments of this film that I found to be so good that it almost rivalled the great Pixar films. No, I don’t put Orion and the Dark on that level of greatness, but overall it’s a very, very good film. For a film aimed at a young audience, it can be pretty profound.
Orion (Jacob Tremblay) is a scared-of-everything middle schooler who wishes to grow up and not be this way, but when his biggest fear of all, the dark (Paul Walter Hauser), becomes a real, speaking entity, his fears must be faced. Along with appearances from entities Light (Ike Barinholtz), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), and Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), everything we experience on a nightly basis, especially as children, are all personified here. At first, I figured this would feel too similar to Inside Out or Elemental, but found it to be its own original idea that fits right in with those films. This is a story about a young boy uniquely…
