I don’t understand why people didn’t like this film. There’s a good adventure here, a moral, optimism, and essentially it just feels like the classic Disney live action films the type of which are not made much any more but we always complain about them not being made any more. Are we as a society really that jaded to not actually want what we are asking for?
Tomorrowland concerns Frank (George Clooney) telling a story in flashback. Here we visit the 1964 World’s Fair where the young Frank has designed a jet pack. Only thing is it doesn’t quite work, so it is rejected for entry in the fair. It does, however, gain the attention of somebody else. Flash forward to today, and Casey (Britt Robertson) is trespassing on NASA territory. The teen is sabotaging plans to have a launch pad destroyed upon being decommissioned. This garners her some attention, both from the police and then from the same group that young Frank fell in with.
What follows is a story about optimism, fate, destiny, time, hope and the future of civilization. Frank lost hope. Why? Why is Casey’s optimism so important? What does any of this have to do with the future? Why is the 1964 World’s Fair part of the story?
Yes, there is a bit of a time travel element, and it is key to the central theme of Tomorrowland, it isn’t just another plot device. I don’t want to say too much more to spoil things. I will say that it was disappointing Hugh Laurie was so obviously going to be the villain. It was nice at least to see his character being portrayed as thinking he was being the good guy.
At times Tomorrowland is a bit too clever for its own sake. Maybe a bit too self-aware. There are a number of inspirations that are obvious and can detract if you want them to, but overall the optimism and story of the film carried more weight than anything else.
Special features are decent, but the lack of a picture in picture audio commentary is disappointing. We do get a less than 10 minute featurette that seems to be the centerpiece which has director Brad Bird discussing the themes of the film, and how yes, it was inspired in part by the area of Disneyland. Two other featurettes look at casting and the score of the film. Then there are some deleted scenes and production diaries which aren’t quite as compelling as I had hoped (partly because they don’t amount to much time-wise). There are a couple of items tied to the fictional world of the film, the better of which is an animated short.
Tomrrowland might be too optimistic for its own good.