Tomorrowland ~ Review ~ Spoiler and Non Spoiler

Tomorrowland ~ Review ~ Spoiler and Non Spoiler

Spoiler warning is given

Many movie critics have panned this movie. Many say the story is confusing and disjointed. To me that is just proof that this story is not fiction or science fiction. This is truth/fact. The world is jaded and full of despair. These reviewers have no imagination and are desperate. I don’t listen to them and I hope you will not.

Is your world one of fear and despair or is your world a world of hope? In Tomorrowland you learn there is a choice. It is time for you to make that choice.

Here is my 3 word non spoiler review – GO SEE IT!!!!!  Hands down this is one of the best Disney movies ever and one of the best movies any studio has put out PERIOD! The basic moral of the story goes back to an old Cherokee legend called “The Wolves Inside.”

Having grown up in the 1960’s when anything was possible and now living in a world filled with fear, despair and doubt about the future I NEEDED this movie!!! It is a great reminder that WE have to make a choice. Do we chose despair or hope? Do we want to allow things to continue as they are or make a real and positive difference? I personally want to choose positive change.

While on the surface there is a save the world from the damage that man is doing story line that is a minor point and actually to me appears to be part of the smoke and mirror misdirection to get you off track. Man’s failures are not the why there is hopelessness. It is man’s lack of focus on hope and imagination that is the problem. We need more dreamers in the world!

I believe this movie is a good depiction of the attitude Walt Disney had in life. “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter. With the laugh comes the tears. . .“ Walt Disney knew that with the good comes the bad and you cannot separate them. It is the choice you make during the times that are complicated that make the difference. Do you give up or keep on trying? Given time and the right attitude full of hope all things are possible.

When we came home for seeing Tomorrowland we found we had accidently left another one of our hopeful Disney movies running in the player. Meet the Robinsons was playing and we came in on the scene where young Lewis meets Cornelius for the first time. Cornelius tells Lewis to have faith, keep moving forward and make good choices and things will work out. I think that is a message we need to hear today. I highly suggest you go see Tomorrowland and then come home and watch Meet the Robinsons.

I’ll leave you with this non-spoiler thought by way of Meet the Robinsons:

Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulder

Don’t you know the hardest part is over?

Let it in, let your clarity define you

In the end we will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours

These small hours still remain

Let it slide, let your troubles fall behind you

Let it shine until you feel it all around you

And I don’t mind if it’s me you need to turn to

We’ll get by, it’s the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours

These small hours still remain

Rob Thomas – Little Wonders Lyrics

Make sure to listen to the end credit song, The Future has Arrrived in Meet the Robinsons as well.

STOP STOP STOP!!!

Stop here if you have not seen the movie and don’t want spoilers!

In the world of the early 1960’s there is nothing but hope. There is technological advancement and anything is possible. This is a perfect time for young Frank Walker. Anything is possible, including his jet pack.

Young Frank sneaks off and goes to the 1964 World’s Fair and shows his jet pack to David Nix. Nix is a judge of new inventions at the World’s Fair. Nix is not impressed with Frank’s attempt because it does not quite work. . . yet. While he is talking to Nix Frank catches the attention of a young girl, Athena. Athena gives Frank a pin with a stylized “T” on it and tells him to follow her. Frank follows her and her group as they enter the “It’s a Small World” ride at the fair. He sneaks on as the ride is closed after the group Athena is in boards their boat.

Once on the boat Frank finds all is not as it seems. A droop appears and his boat falls. He is swept away into Tomorrowland! Here he sees a glimpse of the future where all things are possible. But, something happens.

Current day, Casey Newton is the daughter of a NASA employee. She is optimistic and sees that all problems must have a solution. We just need to work hard at finding them. The launch platform at Cape Canaveral, Florida is being dismantled and Casey attempts to stop it by breaking the equipment. She knows an era will be over and her father out of a job once the platform is dismantled. She hopes the delay will allow people to see the need to continue to explore the stars.

When she sees her father is worried about the future and what will happen once his job with NASA is over she reminds him of a story he told her often. “There are two wolves. One is despair and the other is hope. Which one will win the battle? The one you feed will win.” The message is clear, nurture hope and keep it alive.

Casey is caught while causing damage and arrested. When released she finds a strange pin in her personal items. It is a “T” identical to the pin given to young Frank years ago. When she tells the officer who gives her items it is not hers he ignores her. When she picks it up she sees a glimpse of the world as it could be, full of hope and beauty. She is instantly drawn to this “Tomorrowland”.

On the ride home from jail Casey tries to tell her father about the pin and even gives it to him believing he will see what she did. He does not see what she did and takes the pin from her. Later that night she steels it back and tries to figure it out. Through trial and error she follows the pins vision to a beautiful city. Once there she explores and sees amazingly hopeful things. A world where people are exploring and life is good. Then the power to the pin runs out and she is home!

Casey wakes her younger brother, enlisting his help to get past the changed password on the family computer so she can find information on this amazing pin! The search leads her on a trip from Florida to Texas to check out a shop of SiFi collectables. The shop has advertised they are looking for a pin like hers. She goes there hoping to find answers to her questions.

Instead of answers Casey finds it is a trap. Robots are after her! They are trying to find out who gave her the pin! They are demanding answers and are attempting to kill her when a young girl jumps in to save her. It is not any young girl. It is Athena, the same girl that encouraged Frank to follow her! Athena and Casey escape and Athena takes a car.

Athena tells Casey the world needs her help. She tells Casey they need to go see Frank Walker who can take her to the places she has seen through the pin. At first Casey does not believe Athena and that distrust is deepened once she realizes Athena is a robot, like those that were attempting to harm her. Finally Casey does trust and in fact falls asleep on the long ride. When she awakes she finds herself laying on the side of the road watching Athena drive off!

Once she looks around she sees she is next to a mailbox with the name Walker. As she walks up to the house she is “attacked” by a hologram guard dog and hit with a force field of some kind. After sitting out in the rain for a while she tricks Frank into letting her in. As Frank comes into the house the robots catch up to her and attempt to kill her. While the battle rages they are in a “situation room” where there are many monitors showing the problems of the world. There is also a monitor showing a percentage. Frank tells Casey that he can tell her when she will die. He asks her if he could do that would she want to know the date of her own death? Would it change how she lives her life? Would she attempt to change “her fate?” She says she can believe his prediction and she would want to know BUT, she believes even knowing she could change it because she would not accept it. The percentage displayed changes and drops from 100% to 99.99% when she states she believes she must have hope. After fighting with and destroying many robots Frank leads Casey into the bathroom and they jump into the bathtub which becomes an escape capsule. They are jettisoned out of the house and fall to ground away from the house where they can continue to run.

Frank is upset that Casey led the robots to him. He is even angrier when Athena shows up. It is obvious he feels that she tricked and mislead him years before. He is hurt by the fact he fell in love with a robot without knowing she was not human.

Athena convinces Frank they need to get Casey to Tomorrowland because Casey has the optimism to change the future and save the world. They need to go to undo the damage Frank accidently caused to both Tomorrowland and the world.

Frank takes them to a location and they use a device hidden there to travel to Paris, France. They find themselves on the Eiffel Tower. Frank shows them that they great thinkers of the past have hidden a rocket type ship that will take them to Tomorrowland in the Eiffel Tower.

Once in Tomorrowland they find it is no longer the optimistic place it once was. Governor Nix captures them and tries to send them to a deserted island. He will not listen when Casey and Frank tell him they realize what when wrong. Frank had tried to set up a machine that would warn the world of the negative impact of their collective actions. It is like a radio signal being broadcast that nobody can escape. He thought the warning would be listened too and positive changes made. Instead people became filled with despair and gave up. Things got worse.

Casey realized that Frank’s machine was amplifying the negative and understood that if the negative influence was stopped the world would change. She realizes that despair is being fed and hope starved!

There is a battle with Nix and his robots. Athena is injured and her self-destruct sequence activated. All other options are gone and Athena tells Frank to use her to destroy the signal stopping the negativity flooding the earth.

Frank tosses the now shutdown/dead Athena into the machine and she explodes taking it out. The world does not change right away but now they have a chance to find the dreamers and hopefully stop feeding despair and building hope.