From the trailers, I expected something vastly different from the end product. I envisioned something with a teenager with bright ideas and a disillusioned boy-genius/inventor traveling to this inter-dimensional utopia for the creative dreamers of the world to somehow save the human race. Instead, Disney has ceated a fable.
I'm fine with a fable when said fable is crafted in a manner that I believe lives up to the Disney standard. The end product of Tomorrowland does not do that. The story is too spastic.
Tomorrowland opens at the close then backtracks and hops around and"¦hold on to your hats. Linear storytelling is definitely not part of this film at all. There are definitely some questions that are never answered (how was Tomorrowland initially discovered?), but most of the plot is tied up in a neat little bow. While the film is rated PG, it's definitely not a story that will keep the attention of younger children, nor will they be able to follow the unspoken story cues that permeate the film. The characters are riddled with nuance and aren't ideal for younger audiences.
Frank (Clooney) is such an angry pessimist that he's hard to identify with. As a child, he had such an irrepressible inventor's spirit that became disillusioned by humanity (adulthood sucks). Conversely, Casey (Robertson) has such hope and life to her, despite living in the shadow of Cape Canaveral shutting down and watching her father, a NASA engineer, struggle to redefine his identity. The two main characters are clearly strongly opposing forces and create great amounts of conflict. The addition of Athena (Cassidy) adds a bit of the comedic lightness that is necessary to keep the film from getting too bogged down in the otherwise heavy theme of the film. That all makes up for Hugh Laurie's inability to decide on an accent.
In Tomorrowland, Brad Bird has kept the theme primarily focused on how humanity as a whole can prevent the self-fulfilling prophecy of a global disaster. We can be so focused on prevention and the impending doom that we make it happen anyway. In the end, it isn't the actions of just one person that prevents the disaster, it takes the entire team. This not so subtle hint from Disney seems to be the nudge that we should all be working to preserve our planet.
The visuals in this film are truly the best part. The story annoys me. The characters are generally"¦meh. But it's a pretty film. Will I remember it six months from now? Probably not. Sorry, Disney. This just isn't your best work.
