“Ray Gunn” Review
What’s phenomenal about living in an era of animation is that we get to see it unfold in astounding projects such as Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn”. What begins in the familiar outlines feeling like an adjacent world to “The Incredibles” ends up becoming something unexpected and a mystery that encapsulates you and won’t let you go.
Taking place in Metropia we see futuristic world that is infused with humans and aliens residing with a segregated tension. However, we see an exception being made with this world’s last human private investigator named Raymond “Ray” Gunn voiced by Sam Rockwell and his alien partner Eye-ra Kadok voiced by Tom Waits. There’s a wonderful comradery that lies between them in this world where individuality feels like it’s fading.
However, we see Metropia having a focal point with vocal sensation Venus Nova who is voiced Scarlett Johansson. She once again graces us with musical performances throughout the film that demonstrates the vocal talent she has once more. After her voice performance in “Sing” and Sing 2”. I continue to be impressed with how much she is able to bring to her performance here in “Ray Gunn” and we’re going to continue to see her on the big screen well into next year’s slate of films.
Director Brad Bird brings a glorious display of talent, charisma and a sharply witted screenplay (also co-written by Matthew Robbins) that is accompanied Michael Giacchino’s powerful score. It’s infused with several genres such as mystery, thriller, romance and capsulated by as film noir overall. I loved being genuinely surprised by not knowing what to expect, but then seeing how authentically this voice cast excelled at bringing this script to life.
I don’t want to give too much away to this fantastic film because you deserve to go in as blindly as possible. However, if you need some films to reference to give you inspiration to watch “Ray Gunn” then keep these in mind:
“La La Land”
“Sing”
“K-Pop Demon Hunters”
“The Incredibles”
“Elemental”
Additionally, there is a strong ensemble rounding out this voice cast including: Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Jones, Aasif Mandvi, Alan Tudyk, and Kathryn Hunter. I do hope you catch this movie in a theatre is possible. I do expect it to be in the conversation of and should be an Academy Award nominee this upcoming awards season.
Releasing for limited release in theaters on December 4th and streaming on Netflix on December 18th please be on the lookout for my spoiler review on the fourth!
Stay tuned!
Please check out my podcast and Letterboxd review below!
Letterboxd: First Thoughts and Review of “Ray Gunn!”
Podcast Review:
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