Though narratively Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland is as future-focused as can be, there’s ironically a resilient old-school charm to his latest picture. Endearingly whimsical and squeakily optimistic in ways these big-budgeted blockbusters haven’t in the past couple years, it’s the kind of family-friendly adventure that’s never afraid to show off its heart and soul, even as its ideas exceed its grasp.
In pure Disney fashion, there’s a boyish, bright-eyed eagerness to this whole endeavor. It’s the kind of fantasy adventure penciled inside the notebook of an advantageous young sport daydreaming the world of tomorrow during his social studies class. And in that regard, Tomorrowland is a rousing success. Bird and Damon Lindelof write a film with more pure goodhearted intentions than anything even Disney has produced in a good while. In a time where doom-and-gloom firm-handedly takes over even Marvel features — looking at you, Avengers: Age of Ultron — how fun and lively it is to be enraptured by wondrously idealistic, family-friendly bliss.
This begins as we watch boy genius Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) unveil his first grand invention at the World Fair: a jet pack, to a less-than-impressed tech expert David Nix (Hugh Laurie). The man’s not impressed because he learns the project’s one flaw: it doesn’t quite, well, fly. Although sent away, young Athena (Raffey Cassidy) is quite taken by Frank’s inventive suave and gives him the opportunity of the lifetime in the form of a mysterious button, which — when Frank enters a nearby amusement ride — transports him to the magical world of Tomorrowland. It’s there he finally finds himself at home, with his jet pack soon operating and making inventions for the new world with Athena by his side.
Cut many decades later to Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), an equally high-spirited and imaginative youth who constantly uses her tech smarts to take down the power plant soon to put her single dad (Tim McGraw) out of work. After her latest efforts stick her in jail, it’s when she’s quickly bailed out that she also finds one of these magical, blue-and-orange buttons transports her to this mysteriously fantastical world. When her device unexpectedly times out, she and later an adult Frank (George Clooney) go on a worldwide adventure to find answers and also discover, or rediscover, their purpose.
Like other Lindelof-penned features, Tomorrowland is more idea-orientated than story-focused. The story execution is fairly straightforward and sometimes pretty formulaic, but what makes it pop is how inspired it becomes with its concepts and technology. As typical of Bird, the film’s heart blooms from its lively characters. Each lead is smart, funny and spirited in their own little ways, and how they interact together among all this rousing action helps elevate the adrenaline yet keeps everything in good spirits. Because the set pieces and art direction are equally as invested, the story produces some high-rising fun, with Bird’s typical competence with scope and world building gives his new movie his keenly fluid visual sense.
But this also comes to hurt the movie as it goes along. Tomorrowland bounces between locations, obstacles and threats so often that its overarching challenge is rushed over in haste. It’s a shame mainly because the villain’s expository humanitarian ideas are interesting, but they aren’t fruitfully drawn upon. The ultimate message here becomes little more than, “To be optimistic is to win,” which is fine enough takeaway on its own, but one not necessarily earned by the time the feature concludes.
Still, Tomorrowland is an achievement both technologically and with well choreographed, spectacle action. The pacing is well concentrated and firmly driven, and having editors as prestige or well trained as Walter Murch and Craig Wood do this trick nicely. Additionally, Michael Giacchino gives another boisterously fun score, with the right mix of peril and thrill. And renowned cinematographer Claudio Miranda finds beautiful and constantly surprising ways to heighten the environments around him, with a seven-to-nine minute tracking shot sure to become one of this summer’s — and this year’s — best.
The performances all around are nice too, though it’s Cassidy’s Athena who takes the film at will with stride and maturity beyond her years. To see a performer as confident and game as her with only nine credits to her name is astounding, and it’ll be fantastic to see where her career takes her after Bird’s fifth feature. But Robertson too carries Tomorrowland gracefully, even though she seems a little too old for the part. And Clooney makes himself likably charming but more naturally humble than he typically does with studio productions. Laurie is fine for what little he’s given to do, same with McGraw. Also Robinson is okay enough, but some line deliveries don’t quite as the energy and spirit they should, and he doesn’t quite have enough wide-eyed enthusiasm to make his character really click.
It’s evident Bird made a movie with lots of thoughts in mind, and in the spirit of making an engaging crowd-pleaser decided to forgo some of these in favor of energetic filmmaking. These subtractions hurt —and the sum of this Disney latest’s parts is better than the whole — but the grievances still don’t take away from what does work. It’s an enthusiastic, buoyant movie of yesteryear, and it’s a movie 10-year-olds everywhere dream to see on the screen, but still agreeable enough to work for other audience members. Though not the full-out blastoff it wants to be, Tomorrowland still sours, often quite literally.