Ray Gunn is the name of the new animated film from Brad Bird, the gifted filmmaker behind The Iron Giant, The Incredibles 1 and 2, Ratatouille and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (one of the best in the franchise), so suffice to say the man has talent to spare. After 30 years of dreaming this film up, Ray Gunn is about to become reality, as it lands on Netflix on 18 December. The first trailer has just dropped, too, and it's an absolute treat. Time to break it down.
Ray Gunn takes us into an alternate future where the year 1939 seems never to have ended. In the vast city of Metropia, cars fly, aliens rub shoulders with humans and private eyes still drag their tatty trench coats through the streets. A retrofuturist vibe that mostly serves as the backdrop to a proper film noir investigation, in which Raymond Gunn, a private detective voiced by Sam Rockwell, takes on a spying job involving Venus Nova, a media star played by Scarlett Johansson. Naturally, nothing goes to plan, and with his alien colleague Eyera in tow, the case quickly turns into a murder investigation, dragging Ray Gunn into an adventure promising action, betrayals and plenty of twists. The trailer fully embraces its film noir inspiration, with a jaded detective, a femme fatale, a conspiracy and a slightly world-weary old partner. All of it mixed with science fiction and a retro aesthetic that gives the film an instantly recognisable identity.
A film stuffed with references
The trailer also shows that Brad Bird intends to have fun with his influences, and some sequences clearly feel like they've escaped from Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. There's a flying-car chase that also brings to mind Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. In short, we're in for plenty of nods and winks. The animation looks meticulous and highly polished too, with an art direction that lets Metropia blend the codes of 1930s cinema with a far more contemporary brand of science fiction. The presence of aliens adds a more whimsical touch, even if the film seems aimed more at adults than children. Brad Bird explained at the Annecy Festival that he hadn't designed Ray Gunn specifically for kids and had initially even wanted a PG-13 rating. But Netflix made the call and ultimately went for a PG (all audiences, basically), so the film could reach a wider crowd — and even serve as the family animated film of Christmas.
Who do we have to thank? Netflix
Ray Gunn is also a special project in Brad Bird's career, as the director spent a long time trying, largely in vain, to get the film produced, before Netflix finally decided to fund it. The budget is reportedly around 150 million dollars, according to World of Reel, which is pretty hefty for this kind of project. The fact that Ray Gunn is going straight to Netflix is obviously a significant change for Brad Bird, who is more used to seeing his films hit cinemas. But the director says what stuck with him above all was the support the platform gave his project.
That said, Brad Bird insists he conceived the film for the big screen, with the ambition of delivering a genuine cinema experience, not least thanks to a carefully crafted Dolby Atmos sound mix. Above all, the filmmaker is grateful that Netflix let him make a big original film, something that's becoming increasingly difficult in Hollywood once the budgets start climbing. In his view, expensive projects are now far more easily financed when they're built on an already familiar intellectual property — remakes, reboots, sequels or prequels. Ray Gunn, by contrast, leans on no existing franchise at all.
Ray Gunn will be available on Netflix on 18 December.
