Ray Gunn review – Brad Bird’s animated film-noir sci-fi caper is an old-school family classic

Sam Rockwell lends his voice to the hardboiled detective entangled with Scarlett Johansson's dangerous woman in this generous, beautifully crafted fantasy spectacle.

Brad Bird, animation's answer to Spielberg, brings his masterful directorial touch to a wonderful family film that rescues the genre from the rut of dull, AI-driven narratives and imagery. This animated feature is clever, witty, and compassionate: a fantasy spectacle rooted in old-fashioned entertainment values, featuring breathtaking cityscapes and a charming, tender love story.

The story unfolds in a wondrous metropolis of the future, a retro-futuristic urban environment echoing Metropolis and Blade Runner; it has its share of standard moving sidewalks, flying cars, and eerie holographic billboards, yes, but a lighthearted approach restores the fun to what might otherwise be clichés. This is where a classic noir thriller plays out, starring tough private eyes and villains wielding cutting-edge laser-particle weapons (hence the title, though I had hoped for some nod to 1980s Republican politics). There are weary cops, cynical nightclub owners, and alluring shady women reminiscent of Lana Turner and Veronica Lake. The flying cars also boast the bulbous curves of a bygone era, and the TV monitors display black-and-white images; plasma screens have apparently been uninvented.