After his uncredited studio work on Kung Fu Panda 2‘s script and his independent feature Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman is expanding his animation resume. He’s scripted the new DreamWorks animation Orion and the Dark, which is directed by Sean Charmatz and arrives on Netflix in just a few weeks. With a voice cast featuring Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett, Colin Hanks, Natasia Demetriou, Golda Rosheuvel, Nat Faxon, Aparna Nancherla, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gugino, and, yes, even Werner Herzog, the first trailer has now arrived today.
Here’s the synopsis: “Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid –– shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. 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, even falling off 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 grow 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.”
See the trailer below.
Orion and the Dark arrives on February 2 on Netflix.