Orion, an anxious boy who is scared of everything, meets Dark one evening, who brings the night onto the land and is the embodiment of his biggest fear. Sick of his complaining, Dark takes Orion on a journey throughout the world to show him there’s more to life than being afraid.
One of the best things about Orion and the Dark is that children can understand more complex stories that don’t have the clear-cut Hero’s journey structure. The movie understands that progress is not a straight line and there are moments where the protagonist will fail in their journey. The art style of the backgrounds is good and the outlines being sketches make it seem like the story is taking place in a child’s notebook. The art style also contains 3D models with 2D artwork like the Spider-Verse movies, which is always nice to see.
A minor problem though, is that halfway through the movie, it is revealed that the film is a bedtime story being told by Orion to his daughter. The story element of the movie is a bedtime story that could have been incorporated into the movie earlier. Overall, it was not the biggest issue, though it was one that could have been fixed.
The best thing about Orion and the Dark is its ambitious story – one that is willing to reach out to anxious kids who are looking to be less afraid and live a more exciting life while also acknowledging that the journey is as straight-cut as some stories may make it out to be.