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A phobia-ridden young boy must face the primal power of darkness in the absorbing new DreamWorks Animation’s fantasy-adventure Orion and the Dark. This entertaining jewel, which premieres on Netflix this month, is imbued with a rare purity, showcasing organic storytelling unburdened by the modern conventions of 21st century politics, social agendas, cellphones and the white noise of social media. It simply hunkers down confidently to present an urban fairy tale centered around Orion and his fear of the dark and how he and the personification of that lightlessness bond over a wondrous night of discovery.
Helmed by Sean Charmatz in his directorial debut and overseen by producer Peter McCown, this old-fashioned CG feature crafted by Mikros Animation (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie) replicates the handcrafted charm of old-school claymation with textured backgrounds carrying an illustrative touch.
A Sublime Screenplay
The material, which is based on Emma Yarlett’s 2014 children’s picture book of the same name, is elevated by the quirky humor of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich). In Kaufman’s hands, the fable blossoms with surprising scenes that convey a panoply of emotions that should greatly enrich both youngsters and adults. Anyone who’s followed his inventive genius down any number of cinematic rabbit holes understands Kaufman’s trademark brand of storytelling magic.
Accented with memorable music by Kevin Lax and Robert Lydecker and a vocal cast that includes Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser and, yes, even the stentorian delivery of the great Werner Herzog, Orion and the Dark was definitely a dream gig for Charmatz and McCown.
‘I think it’s the tone of the Orion script and the uniqueness and the fact we create a character called Unexplained Noises that speaks to my wanting this as an artist, to make things we’ve never seen before.’
— Director Sean Charmatz
“I’m a huge Charlie Kaufman fan,” Charmatz tells Animation Magazine. “If I could pick who I could direct a movie of their writing, it would be Charlie Kaufman. I remember seeing Eternal Sunshine and just loving that movie. I think it’s the tone of the Orion script and the uniqueness and the fact we create a character called Unexplained Noises that speaks to my wanting this as an artist, to make things we’ve never seen before. And the theme is something that’s very important to me as I continue to work on being an adult, being in the moment and knowing that fear is a part of life but not letting it ruin everything.”
McCown (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants) had a similar reaction when first told by DreamWorks about this Kaufman-written animation project, and it took zero effort to convince him to climb aboard.
“I went to film school and Kaufman is our darling,” says McCown. “We literally spent one of my screenwriting classes studying his writing and, specifically, Eternal Sunshine. That’s the Mount Olympus of screenwriters right there. We got to make Orion in a way that was bucking a four-quadrant movie. We didn’t have to make a global family consumer products film; we were with Netflix. We got to take a little bit of chances, and I think that’s a perfect marriage for something like a Kaufman script. He took a beautiful and very charming book by Emma and kept the spirit there of this kid who’s dealing with something that we all can relate to, whether it’s fear or whatever. I think Kaufman is great for this type of animated space because of how whimsical he can get. The script itself was just so much to play with.”
Orion and the Dark is Charmatz’s first feature film directorial effort after working in various capacities on a variety of movie and TV projects (SpongeBob SquarePants, Trolls World Tour, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, The Angry Birds Movie 2). Besides nominations for a Daytime Emmy and an Annie Award for writing and directing episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, he is also famous for his viral hit series Secret World of Stuff.
“I love movies where I’m surprised as a viewer, and this movie genuinely surprises the audience,” he notes. “I don’t think anyone is going to know where the storytelling is going. And at the same time make it funny and emotional, but surprise is really important to me.”
To conjure up the specific alchemy for this film, Kaufman took the raw source material of Yarlett’s award-winning 40-page book and injected his own wild sensibilities and peripheral perspectives.
“That’s the adaptation he brings so brilliantly, because he’s a parent himself, and I think he wanted to insert some of that into this,” adds McCown. “The book is basically about a boy who’s scared of the dark who meets the character of Dark, who takes him around the night to show him not to be scared. That’s what Charlie had to work with. Everything else he layered, and we were able to add to it and bring it to a whole different dynamic. I just saw one of the big studios’ new animated releases and I knew exactly what was coming and knew exactly what to expect. Sean protected [the film] timeless-wise so well, and we didn’t want to add in any irreverent gags.”
Great care and love were also put into molding Orion and the Dark’s sublime soundscape and sentimental score, something that’s guaranteed to prompt audiophiles to wish for a vinyl release sometime in the foreseeable future.
“They did it so well,” Charmatz recalls. “I was so proud of it. One thing that helped this movie for me is that we all had a really clear vision of what we were doing, and that helps everyone along the way. The editors, who were building the movie before we even worked with the sound people, they jumped on that vision starting from the first storyboard screening, and they were feeling the score even though it was just ‘scratch.’ When we got to the music guys, it wasn’t like, ‘Let’s all figure out what the music is now.’ We got what we were doing and added to it. Oftentimes in animation, they say, ‘We’re laying the tracks as the train is going.’ In this movie the tracks were laid, and everyone was given the space to focus on making great art.”
‘I’ve also never seen fewer notes come from a director to a design department than I have on this film, and that speaks volumes to [designer] Tim Lamb and [art director] Christine Bian.’
— Producer Peter McCown
Giving their movie an evocative soundtrack was a component that McCown felt was essential to bolster the inherent emotions in Kaufman’s heartfelt script.
“We had such a great editor who was very musical himself, and he helped us build ideas,” he explains. “We pulled from Elfman and Williams and Desplat to build this rough track in temp, and it translated so well with the composers that did such a phenomenal job in the time they had. It was just really cool to see it come together.”
DreamWorks outsourced Orion’s actual production work to the acclaimed Paris-based studio Mikros Animation, whose lively claymation-style CG was interspersed with playful, sketchbook-like fantasy sequences.
“A lot of these designs were from Joe Pitt and Tim Lamb creating those characters off of our direction,” says Charmatz. “They’re both brilliant, smart, thoughtful artists who are some of the best, and they did a lot of the heavy lifting in creating those characters. The animation leads on the movie just did incredible work. I loved it. They just brought the gold.”
A Terrific Team
McCown claims that he’s never seen a higher functioning and creatively adept crew as the design team for Orion and the Dark. He says, “I’ve also never seen fewer notes come from a director to a design department than I have on this film, and that speaks volumes to Tim Lamb and Christine Bian, our art director, as well. Sean would sometimes put up the guardrails and bring them back to where he needed it. The proof is creating something from your gut and going with that, as opposed to seeing five different versions of it only to get back months later to what your gut tells you initially.”
He adds, “Hans Dastrup, our head of character animation, has been doing this for 20-odd years at Blue Sky and DreamWorks, and he knew what to go for. There were constraints we had to work under, but he embraced those where he could and still elevated an entire studio’s animation team and brought it to a level we otherwise wouldn’t have got. Everyone went above and beyond to make something that looks like we made it for four times what we actually did.”
For Charmatz, getting to make a film penned by Charlie Kaufman was only one of the many gratifying elements about being attached to this special project.
“We made a movie that was pure and feels like it has a really strong message,” he notes. “What an honor to make a movie that’s like that. Having Flaming Lips music in this film is amazing too. And working with Angela Bassett and Paul Walter Hauser, who I think is one of the most talented actors on this planet. Everyone was strong and resilient in the process and that was so rewarding to go through that collaboration with everyone and make something so great. Mikros Animation gave an extra effort and energy for every single shot that was animated.”
DreamWorks Animation’s Orion and the Dark premieres on Netflix on Friday, February 2.
