Re:tro Re:view - Tomorrowland!

Tomorrowland is the best film of 2015! It is the one film that I’m eager to see again and again. The movie from director Brad Bird poses a question that has never been brought up by films from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to Star Wars (1977) or from novels by H.G. Wells to Ray Bradbury and anything around and between; the choice of utopia or dystopia? An utopian Star Trek future or a dystopian wasteland like Mad Max: Fury Road. Tomorrowland is daring to challenge the audience and opens to door to changing the world. Bird is daring as a creative person his following in the footsteps of his fellow colleague, Andrew Stanton, with the fantastic John Carter (2012). 

The screenplay and story is by Damon Lindelof, he adapted World War Z (2013), and Bird. Jeff Jensen shares story credit, his first film, and also co-writer of the novel, Before Tomorrowland (2015), recommended! Britt Robertson’s Casey Newton, who stumbles into an incredibly realized sci-fi world, Tomorrowland. The film is loosely based on the lands at Disney parks which was intended to be a vision of the future we should be headed towards; the monorail, transportation that is becoming a reality. It is audience friendly while being challenging, there is humor, action, and a premise beyond anything that has been shown in the misleading trailers or any other material. This is a film that stays with you, keeps you wondering, and makes you eager to join the adventure.  

Tomorrowland begins with the Disney logo showing city beyond the castle rendered as the city of tomorrow.  The castle also has the spires of Tomorrowland.  Walt Disney of course made Tomorrowland as a platform of ideas.  He knew that the concepts his Imagineers created would be surpassed one day so they would always be changed.  Adventure Thru Inner Space became Star Tours.  Still, there is the purpose behind tomorrow and this is answered in the film.  Sure, there has been films based on Disney attractions; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Haunted Mansion (2003), even Country Bears (2002), but this film truly creates a world, not a ride, that I want to wander.  

Back to the film, it starts with George Clooney as inventor Frank Walker, laying down the situation with interruptions by Casey Newton (Britt Robertson).  He plays a brilliant mind who has become jaded, but still has a flicker of hope.  She gets him to start at the beginning which is the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.  This is brilliant in using the “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” song from the Carousel of Progress which is still in the Magic Kingdom.  Ready to enter the inventor competition is young Frank Walker played by Thomas Robinson. Frank presents his invention, a rocket pack, to Hugh Laurie’s judge, Nix. He of course is known for the medical drama, House. 

There is a scene where we get Frank’s disapproving father (Chris Bauer) and his attempt to fly the rocket pack which plows through a field which reminds me of the test flight of The Rocketeer (1991). He is rejected by Nix since the rocket pack doesn’t work. They interrupted by a girl, Athena, played by Raffey Cassidy. She is intrigued at Frank’s spirit and later comes up to him and hands him a pin, the Tomorrowland pin that is featured in the trailer. He sees her taking a seat behind Nix on the It’s a Small World boat. The ride made it’s debut at the World’s Fair and the scene is filmed at the Disneyland version of the ride, the Walt Disney World version is in a warehouse not a castle. 

  

Walt Disney’s presence is not sensed beyond those mentions. Frank is persistent and slips through the crowds with his rocket pack in a duffel bag into an empty boat. On the ride, a laser scans his pin, and this drops the boat down another channel. This is probably the top fantasy for Disney riders of secret passageways somewhere in the attractions. It docks at a section that has a capsule. Frank enters the capsule and is warned about putting on a helmet, but he is too short and can’t reach it. This hits him with a blur as he is taken to Tomorrowland. Frank wanders past a restricted area to see Athena boarding a hovercraft with Nix and they fly away. Robots come to build on the restricted area, one even manages to fix Frank’s rocket pack, which helps when he plunges down and has to skydive for to his jet pack! 

He is able to slip into his jet pack, he moves from the misty top to the strong sun of Tomorrowland and flies over its streets. He lands and shows Nix that it flies. This shifts to Casey taking over the narrative. She is introduced as a dark motorcycle rider driving up to Cape Canaveral. Casey guides a helicopter drone to set on the security guard station and puts the security cameras on a loop. She then goes to sabotage a few electrical outlets on the launching pad. Casey then tries to sneak back into her house, but is caught by her younger brother, Nate (Pierce Gagnon). Britt Robertson has Casey as a rebellious teen, but she "knows how things work", Casey finds Tomorrowland a wonder, and it inspires her.  

The next morning, Casey’s father, Eddie (Tim McGraw) is concerned about Casey since she wants to stop the closure of the launching pad and her father will lose his job. She brings up his story about two wolves, one of hope and one of despair, and her father answers it depends on which one is fed, this is the theme of the film. At school, Casey is impatient at her teachers going on and on about the disasters of the world, she wants to ask, “Can we fix it?” Her optimism draws the attention of Athena who uses Casey’s DNA from a stray hair to register it in a device and drops a pin in her helmet. Athena is enigmatic, her purposes are in her programming, but she is more, almost human.  Casey goes through her clandestine routine, but her helicopter is caught by the guard and she is surrounded by police cars.

The next day, she is released on bail, this is the scene where she finds the pin and is startled touching it transports her instantly to Tomorrowland. Her father arrives and takes her away in her truck. This is the other scene in the trailer where Casey is transported while in the truck. Her father can’t use the pin and takes it away. At night, Casey sneaks her hand into her father’s desk and takes the pin, but tumbles down the stairs. Casey experiments using the pin, learning about Tomorrowland, and drawing the threat of Audio-Animatronic robots led by Dave Clark, ha!, played by Matthew MacCaull. She has find Frank and get him to take her to Tomorrowland, a place that had the brightest minds. Frank is a character that has the potential of youth, but becomes jaded with age. There may be confusion from the critics that the point of the film is to find Tomorrowland or a pro-environment message, but it is really leaves it up to you to build that world.  Tomorrowland is an inspiration to all people to make that utopia possible.  

Five Tomorrowland Pins out of Five! 

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