The 407th film I have seen in theaters…
“There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shinin’ at the end of ev’ry day
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
And tomorrow’s just a dream away
A young girl discovers a button, the type you pin on your lapel. When she touches it, it transports her to another Dimension, a place where the Geniuses of the Early 20th Century have created a scientific utopia. Tomorrowland. With the world in danger of apocalypse, she teams up with a little girl and a man named Frank to find Tomorrowland and save the future.
Britt Robertson leads this film as Casey, the dreamer who hold the key to saving the world. She does a good job with some cheese-ball dialogue. She manages to pull off the optimism quite well. Kind of a Jennifer Lawrence clone though.
George Clooney is Frank Walker, who found his way to Tomorrowland in the 1964 World’s Fair. He spent his youth there, but was kicked out and grew disillusioned with the dream it represents. Casey helps reawaken that 1960’s Progressive spirit in him. The character is essentially Clooney. The man’s optimism, and desire to save the world, is apparent in his many charitable endeavors.
Raffey Cassidy (born 2002. sheesh) plays Athena, an audio-animatronic droid who is tasked with recruiting exceptional people for Tomorrowland. A decent performance by this kid.
Hugh Laurie plays Michael Eisner…Oops, I mean Governor Nix, He has lost faith in humanity and has allowed Tomorrowland to devolve into a dystopia. In his one large bit of dialogue, you kind of understand where he is coming from though. 21st century American culture has become the anti-thesis of what Walt Disney envisioned for the future.
A good, but flawed film. it lost its way in the 3rd act, and allowed itself to become preachy. Fortunately, for me, I agreed with what it was preaching. I am all about the “Science! Progress! Future!” legacy of Walt Disney and the early 1960’s. In the film, Nix argues that humanity has not shunned the Apocalypse, but embraced it. We gravitate towards the destruction and willingly walk to the end of our species and planet. An interesting contrast to Mad Max Fury Road, to be sure. This film was not a big success at the Box Office, but I like what it was selling. My father was at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. When I rode the Carousel of Progress in Disney World a few years back, It was fun to think of my dad sitting there, a 25 year old man, seeing the future. I hope we get there.
The Skinny from the Fatty 