Tomorrowland
Back when my kids were young, we took a couple trips to Disneyworld. Prior to the first trip, I was rolling my eyes at the thought of doing it, but once we got there, I was won over. One of the things that is hard to avoid in the Disney universe is getting a Message. Aside from silly fantasies, almost everything there has a simple, kid-friendly message about saving nature, diversity, learning from science, etc. Recalling that Tomorrowland was the original theme park with a message (It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow) back in the 50’s, I wasn’t surprised that a movie named after the theme park would have a message too. I don’t know how they could have avoided it.
In this story, Frank Walker (George Clooney), a former kid inventor was to demonstrate his jetpack invention and comes to the attention of a contest judge David Nix (Hugh Laurie) and a enigmatic girl Athena (Raffey Cassidy). A token, given to him by Athena, whisks Frank off to another Dimension, Tomorrowland. Years later (somewhere around now), Casey Newton, an idealistic teen girl, is arrested trying to sabotage the demolition of a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, where her father is an about-to-be unemployed engineer. After being bailed out, she meets none other than Athena, who has not aged at all during these years, gets a token and SHE temporarily goes to Tomorrowland.
It’s here that things get really complicated. Casey sets out to find out the truth about the tokens, and that leads her down a rabbit hole (not a literal one) in which there are humanoid robots pursuing her and in which she meets up with a much older Frank, now living as a reclusive cynic, in a ramshackle house full of techie gadgets. The Eiffel Tower is actually a huge device that launches a missile that sends her to a ruined Tomorrowland, along with Frank and Athena. From there on there’s a lot of sci-fi babble that includes luminaries like Jules Verne, Nicola Tesla, Edison, tachyons, time travel and the end of the world, which is very close. It seems that Nix is bringing this on in order to plant knowledge of the end in earth’s people, in the hope that they will change that they are doing to bring it on the end, but instead, it’s causing them to feel hopeless, therefore, bringing on the end. None of us have enough patience for me to explain the twists and tuns that bring this to a Disney ending, but, suffice to say…it does.
First, the good news, aside from the fact that the world didn’t end. Tomorrowland is a visual spectacular, the result of a lot of work by the Imagineers and an army of digital animators. It’s bright, colorful, has great sound and is full of hyperkinetic energy, robot chases and big sci-fi sets. The acting is decent, nothing outstanding, but in line with Disney movie acting. It’s full of mainly unknown actors who could have walked in from Epcot. The director, Brad Bird, a veteran of Disney and Pixar, did a decent job keeping this all movie. The not-so-good news - the plot is a confusing muddle of high-concept sci-fi, with pieces from lots of authors, pasted into a story that is quite befuddling. I came out confused, read a synopsis in Wikipedia and still don’t really understand all that happened in the space of 2 hours. I think I just decided to take it on faith…the world goes on for the moment, at least if we don’t mess it up too badly.
Some commenters have found this move to be too preachy, but I don’t think it’s any more so than anything Disney does. They’ve always been telling us to be good kids, take our vitamins, save the walruses, etc. One can interpret this as a corporate value or as a ploy to keep Disney, Inc running in the future, but whatever their motive is, a non-specific warning to “Don’t Mess Up The World!!!!!!” can’t be all bad. The movie is kid-friendly and the parents won’t mind it either. I enjoyed it, in spite of not having a kid along, but an 11 year old probably could have explained all the plot contortions to me better than I can. I recommend snapping on your mouse-ears, getting ready for a ride on the monorail and enjoying it.
