Cinemazlowski 'Tomorrowland' carefully crafted and highly entertaining

May 22, 2015

There has never been a movie studio that has utterly dominated the family marketplace more strongly than Disney right now. Bearing control over not only its own illustrious lineage of famous characters and films, but also of other mega-popular entertainment brands including Pixar, Marvel, “Star Wars” and the Muppets, it seems there is no way the famed conglomerate can do wrong.

That theory is put to the test this weekend with the new movie “Tomorrowland,” produced by Disney and based on the idea of the Tomorrowland section of the Disney theme parks. When this project was announced a couple years back, it seemed like the height of product-placement cynicism – but unlike the morons responsible for utter dreck like 2012’s film “Battleship,” the execs at Disney were smart enough to know the stakes were high and that maintaining their credibility mattered.

As a result, some of the most creative minds in the business were assigned the task of creating an actual story that was entertaining and had something to say, rather than 90 minutes of rides coming to life. Brad Bird, the visionary director behind “The Iron Giant,” “The Incredibles” and the last “Mission: Impossible” movie, was put in the director’s chair, while Damon Lindelof of the beloved TV series “Lost” was hired to write the screenplay with him.

Add in George Clooney in a rare turn starring in a blockbuster and a family film (as opposed to prestige pictures for adults), and you’ve got one impressive pedigree. And the results are impressive as well, with the creative team’s efforts resulting in a movie that plays nearly at the same level as the first “Back to the Future.”

Much like the plot of that timeless classic from 1985, “Tomorrowland” is rooted in the adventurous and often funny friendship between a teenager and an eccentric inventor,  with the 21st century twist being that the main hero is a girl named Casey (winningly played by Britt Robertson) this time. But the action starts back at the 1964 World’s Fair, where a young boy inventor named Frank (Thomas Robinson) presents his jet-pack invention to the head of a young inventor’s contest  (Hugh Laurie), only to be rejected when he admits its flying capabilities aren’t fully functional.

Dejected, Frank is ready to abandon his dreams when a mysterious girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) – who was lurking near the contest head – discreetly hands him a pin with the letter T on it and tells him to follow her ride-car into the Fair’s version of the “It’s a Small World” ride. Busting through the crowded line, Frank leaps into a car and sees a laser hit his new pin – causing the “Small World” ride to stop and drop him down a mysterious chute into the futuristic world of Tomorrowland.

Frank is elated to spend years there inventing things while developing unrequited feelings for Athena, and it is from that point that the story leaps into the present day and follows the adventures of the aforementioned girl Casey. She’s the daughter of a NASA engineer (Tim McGraw) who’s about to lose his job when three rocket launch platforms at Cape Canaveral are permanently taken down, and she gets arrested when she tries to disable the equipment involved in the dismantling.

As she’s bailed out from jail, Casey is handed a pin with the letter “T” on it, and finds that when she touches it, she can see quick glimpses of a brighter, flashier, seemingly futuristic world. Her dad thinks she’s crazy or on drugs, but she soon sneaks away in the dead of night to track down a Houston kitsch store whose Internet ad features the only image of the pin to be found anywhere on the Web.

Casey’s quest for the truth behind the pin surprisingly leads her into contact with Athena as well, despite the fact that Athena is still a girl who hasn’t seemed to age a bit in the past 50 years.  And while those two find themselves chased by and battling all manner of androids and robots, the key to their understanding everything comes from finding the now-reclusive adult Frank (Clooney) and roping him into their quest against his will.

What’s at stake is the entire fate of Earth and mankind as we know it, and that fact is not just a fun way of raising the stakes to the ultimate level. It’s also a smart means for Lindelof and Bird to gently educate kids about the myriad problems faced by the world today from nuclear proliferation to climate change, and encourage them through the heroic and unflappably optimistic Casey to believe that it’s never too late to set the world back on the right course.

Yes, this plot sounds convoluted, but the zippy pace and zesty performances keep it lively and memorable throughout. Besides, it’ refreshing to find a summer blockbuster whose plot keeps viewers constantly surprised and on their toes, and which finds a way to respect the intelligence of audience members of all ages.

There is no foul language other than a few “Hells” and one “Oh my God!”, and no sex or nudity of course. While the movie is rated PG, it is packed with a surprising amount of action that Bird manages to tone and pace just right to avoid being too gruesome for little ones – but parents of younger kids age 8 and under should be aware there are a few scary moments and that realistic-looking androids have their fake heads shot off or torn off at a few points in the movie.

While some might argue that any mention of environmental problems and climate change is politically correct messaging, I am a conservative and felt that it steered clear of heavy-handed politicizing. Casey is held up as an example of a girl who cares about the world around her and has the optimism to try, and Pope Francis himself has recently said not caring about the world in the form of our carbon footprint is a sin.

Carefully crafted yet wildly entertaining, “Tomorrowland” is one movie that will make viewers of all ages happy to be watching it right now.