Netflix has released the first Orion and the Dark clip from Charlie Kaufman‘s upcoming animated fantasy movie, starring The Little Mermaid‘s Jacob Tremblay.
The video shows Tremblay’s Orion meeting the other Night Entities, including Angela Bassett‘s Sweet Dreams character. They expressed their disappointment at Dark for irresponsibly bringing the fearful Orion to their break room. The film will start streaming on February 2, 2024.
Check out the Orion and the Dark clip below (watch more trailers):
What is Orion and the Dark about?
“Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid — shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush,” reads the synopsis. “But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter clowns, and even falling off of a cliff. But of all his fears, the thing he’s the most afraid of is what he confronts on a nightly basis: the dark. So when the literal embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of in the night. As the unlikely pair grows closer, Orion must decide if he can learn to accept the unknown — to stop letting fear control his life and finally embrace the joy of living.”
Orion and the Dark is directed by Sean Charmatz from a screenplay written by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind scribe Kaufman. The film also features the voices of Paul Walter Hauser as Dark, Angela Bassett as Sweet Dreams, Colin Hanks as Adult Orion, Natasia Demetriou as Sleep, Golda Rosheuvel as Unexplained Noises, Nat Faxon as Insomnia, Aparna Nancherla as Quiet, and Ike Barinholtz as Light.
The CG film is executive produced by Walt Dohrn and Bonnie Arnold, with Peter McCown serving as a producer. It hails from DreamWorks Animation with Tim Lamb set as the production designer and Christine Bian as art director.