It’s no surprise that when books are adapted into movies, some elements or scenes can either be added or removed from the original story. There’s rarely any adaptation movies that stick all the way through every scene in the entire book, likely to add a fun twist or something new for the viewers who’ve already read the book to feel refreshed and intrigued rather than being able to predict every action.
Dreamworks’ recent film “Orion and the Dark,” however, takes a nearly completely different turn compared to its original book form that was written by Emma Yarlett. In the original story, Orion is a boy who is afraid of a lot of things, but most importantly the Dark. So, one night, Dark decides to take Orion on an adventure to help him with his fears and show him that there’s nothing to be afraid of.
The film does something different though. It still uses the original concept with Orion’s fears and Dark helping him conquer them overnight, but it also deals with something else. Time travel.
In the film, it is shown that Orion, who is already an adult, is the one telling the story to his daughter, Hypatia, who is also afraid of the dark. The story he’s telling is just one that he’s making up on the spot, and when he isn’t able to come up with anything else, leaving the story on a cliffhanger, he leaves it up to Hypatia to finish it for him. At first this is fine, as when young Orion is in trouble and Dark is gone, she inserts herself into the story to help him find Dark again.
Soon things start to derail though, as Hypatia then tells Orion she’s actually his future daughter, and the two meet Orion’s parents, further confusing the story a little. When the two end up in trouble near the end of the movie, a new character shows up as well as aliens that the three fight. It is then shown that the new character is actually Hypatia’s son, Tycho, revealing that she was actually the one telling the story that her dad, Orion, told her to her son.
These parts in the story start to confuse the film even more, and at this point it makes it hard to watch the rest since you’ve kind of lost track of the main message of the film and where any of it is going. From originally facing your fears to a message you can’t really point out specifically now, the film feels as though it was wasted potential. It had a great set up in the beginning, but quickly started to derail the moment Orion’s daughter inserted herself into the story.
The film could have taken the path the original storybook did, and kept it focused on Orion rather than adding character after character. It could have also used the idea that it was a story Orion was telling his daughter, but instead have Orion actually finish it rather than not knowing how to end the story and leaving it for Hypatia to continue.
Dreamworks’ “Orion and the Dark” just adds to the pile of movie adaptations for books that either don’t give the right message, or end up taking a wrong turn when expanding more of the world it was given.
