Orion and the Dark quickly earns its laudits for being one of 2024’s first great animated movies. It’s funny, gorgeous to look at, and it features some incredible heart.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 24, 2024

“Orion and the Dark” is surprisingly effective in conveying its message that sometimes we must learn to accept the unknown and get on with the business of living.

| Mar 27, 2024

Orion and the Dark is a fun children's fable built on a classic narrative that makes its message clear and appeals to audiences of all ages. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 4, 2024

Kaufman has created a story about codependency, time, and fear that deals with the heavy stuff while never feeling like anything other than a family friendly adventure.

| Original Score: 4 / 5 | Mar 1, 2024

DreamWorks and Netflix bankrolling an animated movie that’s basically Charlie Kaufman’s Inside Out for neurotic kids with anxiety … respect!

| Feb 21, 2024

It's all about facing your fears ... for anybody who's ever been a kid.

| Original Score: 3 1/2 stars | Feb 20, 2024

Already a contender for one of the best surprises of the year.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 19, 2024

Kaufman puts his unique spin on a whimsical kid’s fantasy that is as strange as it promises to be.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 14, 2024

Despite being a film about kids facing their fears, and other adult concepts, it isn't too mercurial and lacks the more terrifying possibilities our adult brains conjure up when we think of what might happen to us in the dark.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 14, 2024

It may be totally derivative, but I enjoyed it to no end.

| Feb 13, 2024

Mostly endearing and sweet.

| Feb 13, 2024

It talks and it talks and it talks. There's just not an original idea in it.

| Feb 13, 2024

Kaufman's desire to expand the world of the picture book is admirable, though the resulting adaptation loses the central premise and likely its target family audience as well. An admirable swing, but not wholly successful

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2024

The way it addresses anxiety with honesty and empathy is wonderful for kids

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 11, 2024

Kaufman’s signature touches — he gets none other than Werner Herzog to narrate a couple of sentences, and inserts references to David Foster Wallace and Saul Bass — should keep adult audiences entertained.

| Feb 10, 2024

Orion offers plenty of ponder and discuss post-viewing, as well as delivering an entertaining and character-filled ride.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 10, 2024

This is the best new IP from DreamWorks Animation in recent years alongside The Bad Guys.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 9, 2024

This one took me by surprise, and I can easily see adults and kids taking lessons away from this delicate, beautifully rendered work.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 9, 2024

Will appeal to viewers of all ages...embeds a typically Kaufmanesque obsession with existential questions, along with some sharp satiric jabs aimed at older viewers, in a jovial, kid-friendly parable that also exalts the power of story-telling.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 9, 2024

Turns into the Being John Malkovich of kids movies. Not saying it works. But I was certainly having more fun watching this unfold while my kids turned to me multiple times being like, “what is this??!!”

| Feb 9, 2024