Orion and The Dark is the first animated movie to reach Netflix’s Top 10 movie list since Into the Spider-Verse in 2023.

Orion and The Dark was a pretty solid movie when it came to the visuals. With a combination of stop-motion-influenced character design and textured backgrounds, it really captured the reality of making a film like this.

The movie started off introducing the main character Orion who was practically afraid of everything, constantly over-analyzing every possible outcome. I don’t want to get too far into the plot of the movie, but I will say the way they layer this movie’s storytelling is marvelous. They personified the element of Darkness and everything that happens in the dark into these bright characters, sort of like the animated movie “Inside Out.” They had Insomnia, Sleep, Sweet Dreams, Random Noises, and Quiet. All of these characters are elements of things that happen in darkness.

The music introduced into this movie was very good as well; they weren’t like hit songs or anything, but it was just music that really added to the visuals of the movie and the feeling of the characters in that specific moment.

While the movie was spectacular, I could not help but think that the narrative could be difficult for the younger audience to understand. The narrative was weird. We were first introduced to the child Orion and him meeting Dark. But after the key moments, a random girl’s voice appears in the background, and we were introduced to the idea that Orion is a father and is telling his story to his daughter who is also afraid of Dark.

I will give this movie an eight out of 10. I really enjoyed watching it and all of the sounds and visuals that came with it. I am just lucky that I am old enough to understand the storytelling aspect of the movie. I feel like this movie being animated should be targeted for the younger audiences, but I guess that is just not the case when it comes to Orion and The Dark.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who watched and enjoyed films like Soul, Inside Out or Elements.