After movies based on Disneyland attractions including “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Haunted Mansion,” “The Country Bears,” and “Tower of Terror,” it’s surprising that “Tomorrowland” feels like it owes more to Disney movies such as “Escape to Witch Mountain” and “The Cat From Outer Space” than the once-futuristic area of the theme parks after which it is named.
And George Clooney’s character resembles a blend between the crotchety Carl Fredricksen of Pixar’s animated “Up” and the slightly eccentric inventor Dr. Emmett Brown in “Back to the Future.”
Creating these mash-ups are the writer and co-creator of the imaginative TV series “Lost” (Damon Lindelof) and the director (Brad Bird) of “Iron Giant,” “The Incredibles,” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.”
All of this results in a film that will hold your attention, tantalize, and slightly amuse you. And these results, including the fun and impressive visual effects of futuristic worlds, explosive and exploding aliens, and a rocket launched from one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions that is not related to a Disney theme park are best enjoyed in giant screen IMAX theaters or even the mini-Max version of IMAX for multi-screen theaters. (See photo comparisons below to understand the difference in how much more you get in the IMAX experience versus ordinary cinema.)
<Review continues below the following video featurette with director Brad Bird discussing his preference for the IMAX version of “Tomorrowland”…>
One might have expected more and different things given the credentials of the creators of the film, including a less overly-earnest ending about the importance of saving the planet and a final moment that is reminiscent of the old Coke commercial where people of all cultures and continents come together for the feel-good song, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.
And one might have expected much more relating to the theme park than vague and passing glimpses of the Space Mountain building and monorail and people mover-like trains without any concrete rails or trestles. The brief images of the train and Space Mountain in the modified opening Disney logo offer more of an homage to Tomorrowland than the film itself.
There is a shot or two of a collectible “Iron Giant” piece and a passing image of some sort of game based on Disney’s “The Black Hole.”
But one should not go to see “Tomorrowland” expecting any nostalgic images or a story based on anything to do with the theme park.
Rather, this is a story of a boy genius who arrives at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York (from where Walt Disney moved It’s A Small World, which is shown here) full of wonder about the future and with a not-quite-ready-for-primetime jet pack. Fifty years later that same man is disillusioned and jaded by life’s harsh realities when approached by a new young optimistic teen girl (Britt Robertson), who convinces him to embark on a quest to rediscover the promise and hope of the Tomorrowland of his youth. In order to do so, they must travel through space and time to battle an evil-doer (Hugh Laurie) and his army of robots who has accelerated the seemingly inevitable demise of the planet because he feels that humanity is not willing to take the steps necessary to save their own world.
Young Raffey Cassidy deserves a call-out for her somewhat charismatic performance as the otherwise familiar character of a robot that turns out to have a very human “heart” and such a soft spot for the young version of Clooney she meets in 1964 that she spends the next half-century trying to restore his faith in her motives (which gets a little creepy when she is still appealing to their pre-teen relationship when he is now in his 60s and she still looks like a pre-teen).
— By Scott Hettrick