Tomorrowland

Theatrical Release Date: 2015 05 22 (USA - 3D) / 2015 05 22 (USA)

UPC: 786936846546

Studio: Walt Disney

Summary: When a scientifically minded teenager (Britt Robertson) discovers a technologically advanced trinket that provides an astounding glimpse of the future, she enlists the help of a reclusive inventor (George Clooney) to make "Tomorrowland" a reality today. ~ Violet LeVoit, Rovi

Category: Adventure

Tomorrowland

Format: Blu-ray

Item not yet released. Pre-order this item now.

Violet LeVoit

Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) loves science and the promise of the future. She loves them so much that she's willing to sneak onto NASA property at night in order to sabotage the cranes dismantling a shuttle-launch platform. This endeavor eventually lands her in the slammer, and after being released on bail, she finds among her returned possessions a small enamel "T" pin that she swears isn't hers. It doesn't take long before she discovers that touching the pin immerses her in a vision of an ideal future, full of amber waves of grain and a metropolis that's like the Emerald City with monorails. The fervor of this hallucination leads her to the doorstep of Frank Walker (George Clooney), an embittered inventor who nevertheless believes what she saw. Why? Because when he was young, he saw it too -- and he knew what it was trying to tell him.

Since the theme-park-ride-turned-movie-franchise concept worked so lucratively for Pirates of the Caribbean, it's not surprising that Disney is now mining the rest of its amusement parks for inspiration. And considering the recent successes of space-themed properties like Guardians of the Galaxy (created by Marvel, now owned by Disney), Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear (Pixar, now Disney), and Star Wars (Lucasfilm, now Disney), Tomorrowland certainly makes more sense to green-light than, say, It's A Small World After All. Also in the film's favor: Director and co-writer Brad Bird (famous for The Iron Giant and The Incredibles) is a contrarian who prefers space-age optimism to our current love affair with dystopias. Bird excels at moments filled with awe and magical possibility, and the early scenes of a young Frank (Thomas Robinson) testing out his homemade jetpack will trigger the same kind of tingling glee people feel when they're flying in their dreams.

Unfortunately, Tomorrowland is also full of the unvarnished elitism critics found in The Incredibles: Its utopic vision is one populated exclusively by "exceptional people," who can devote all of their time to prototyping the world's problems away without having to bother with the petty and annoying rabble. This �bermensch philosophy, melded with Disney's blue-sky, pixie-dust cheerfulness, leads to the explicit message that simply dreaming of better things is enough of a start in the right direction -- a theory quickly disproven by the endless credits, which are filled with the names of hundreds of special-effects technicians who certainly did more than dream while hunched over their workstations. (And cynics will have a field day spotting all of the product placements, right down to a glucose-starved Casey guzzling down a recommended Coca-Cola -- the primary vendor of soda at Disney's theme parks -- as a cure for teleportation sickness.)

Tomorrowland does have one standout element, and that's the performance of young British actress Raffey Cassidy as Athena, a preternaturally poised 12-year-old first seen in a flashback at the 1964 World's Fair. Possessing steely-grey eyes, an enchanting spray of freckles, and the same precocious child-woman bearing as prodigies like Jodie Foster and Saoirse Ronan, she is the most fascinating part of a movie packed with explosions and martial-arts mayhem. Scenes between her and any of her co-stars -- including Clooney -- aren't even a fair fight, as her acute, austere grace quietly steals every scene she's in. Tomorrowland tries to fill our heads with theme-park visions of the future, but the only prognostication worth hoping for is a long and fruitful career for Cassidy. ~ Violet LeVoit, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Brad Bird  Director 
Brad Bird  Producer 
Brad Bird  Screenwriter 
Jeffrey Chernov  Producer 
John Walker  Executive Producer 
Michael Giacchino  Composer (Music Score) 
Bernard Bellew  Executive Producer 
Damon Lindelof  Producer 
Damon Lindelof  Screenwriter 
Jeff Jensen  Executive Producer 
Brigham Taylor  Executive Producer 
George Clooney  Actor 
Hugh Laurie  Actor 
Raffey Cassidy  Actor 
Britt Robertson  Actor 
Thomas Robinson  Actor 
Kathryn Hahn  Actor 
Tim McGraw  Actor 
Judy Greer  Actor 
Keegan-Michael Key  Actor 
Christopher Bauer  Actor 
Pierce Gagnon  Actor 
Matthew MacCaull  Actor 
Matthew Kevin Anderson  Actor 
Michael Giacchino  Actor 
D. Harlan Cutshall  Actor 
Shiloh Nelson  Actor 
Xantha Radley  Actor 
David Nykl  Actor 
Paul McGillion  Actor 
Pearce Visser  Actor 
Garry Chalk  Actor 
Dagan Nish  Actor 
Yusuf Ahmed  Actor 
Alex Barima  Actor 
Jedidiah Goodacre  Actor 
Kate Crutchlow  Actor 
Priya Rajarthnam  Actor 
Parm Soor  Actor 
Leena Manro  Actor 
Rick Pearce  Actor 
Tom Butler  Actor 
Michael Rowe  Actor 
Tim Perez  Actor 
Patrick Sabongui  Actor 
Romuald Hivert  Actor 
Mathieu Lardier  Actor 
Fraser Corbett  Actor 
Darren Shahlavi  Actor 
Aidan Gemme  Actor 
Takayuki Oki  Actor 
Natasha Davidson  Actor 
Liliane Leila Juma  Actor 

Country: USA