Ray Gunn has lived in animation legend Brad Chook’s thoughts rent-free, predating that of his iconic options Iron Large, The Incredibles, and the Australian breakdancer of the identical title. His long-gestating ardour challenge a couple of non-public detective working in a retrofuturistic alien realm has lastly been realized, and the result’s a enjoyable, mesmerizing movie noir that acts as a love letter to basic cinema and a classy gateway for households to introduce their youngsters to the style that has been untapped in animation since Roger Rabbit. It actually feels as if Brad Chook created his personal Blade Runner for youths not sufficiently old to look at Blade Runner.
Within the retrofuturistic metropolis of Metropia, the place flying automobiles and AI-surveilled advertisements are plentiful, aliens are seen as second-class residents in a human-prioritized society. Whereas most people are discriminatory, Raymond “Ray” Gunn (Sam Rockwell) isn’t. An ex-cop turned freelance P.I., Gunn struggles to maintain his enterprise afloat whereas working in a dirty, corrupt underbelly. His insistence on at all times doing the precise factor causes his funds to say no—he can’t pay his longtime cyclopsian, tripod-legged work companion, Eye-Ra Kadok (Tom Waits), and he’s warding off repos from taking his workplace’s possessions. All that luck turns when he’s employed by Arnold Dom (Bobby Cannavale), the fourth husband of Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson)—a captivating but risky Britney Spears-meets-Taylor-Swift-esque megastar songstress—to observe her when he suspects unfaithfulness. His higher judgment on the task leads her label firm, Megamax, CEO Barry (Alan Tudyk) to rent Ray as her bodyguard to maintain the star out of hassle as they’re antsy over one other public scandal amid her newest album launch. As people in Nova’s orbit are murdered, Gunn and Kadok are thrust into an enormous internet of mysteries involving alien crime bosses, finicky particle weapons, an unsuspecting romance between a starlet and a detective, and a secret that might flip all of Metropia the other way up.
RAY GUNN – Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) and Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson). Cr: Skydance Animation ©2026
Ray Gunn is Brad Chook in his maximalist cinephile mode, carrying his love for Golden Age Hollywood noir flicks on his sleeve and demonstrating basic noir prowess with the identical endurance and visible fashion because the movies he’s tributing. Very similar to his prior works, he immerses you in his classic-noir science-fiction realm, elaborating on Gunn’s lack of depth as his morally upright spine contrasts with the gritty surroundings. Animation be damned, we haven’t had a conventional noir this lived-in in a really very long time. The movie naturally settles you into Metropia and the seedy underbelly lengthy earlier than Nova enters his orbit. When she does, the story engages with a satisfying, thrilling thriller that even on a second viewing is pretty narratively tight. Chook makes use of his most interesting attributes (in addition to his retrofuturist love), carried from The Incredibles and even Mission: Unattainable Ghost Protocol, to train the style’s pastiche in thrilling, imaginative set items bolstered by Michael Giacchino’s enchanting, swinging rating. Every stealth scene during which Eye-Ra scales partitions and buildings, capturing individuals caught within the act together with his shutter eyes, is a main instance of the style’s mix.
Whereas staying true to its personal world, every flip pays homage to a basic film character or visible cue, very similar to Chazelle’s La La Land paid tribute to MGM musicals for a brand new viewers. This movie’s influences are extra obvious in its characters’ personalities and wardrobes, which draw on The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Chinatown, and The Massive Sleep. Gunn is actually an amalgamation of each Humphrey Bogart character ever. Chook even does a Peter Lorre-like voice for a small-fish henchman and a slug-like mob-boss stand-in, Signor Ferrari (Sluggsy, Matt Berry). It features as an efficient introduction to the classics for households.
Skydance’s Greatest-Trying Characteristic But
RAY GUNN – Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) and Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson). Cr: Skydance Animation ©2026
As Skydance Animation’s fourth manufacturing in a historical past of lifeless “we-have-Disney-at-home” options, that is the studio’s first creatively pushed and visually gorgeous movie so far. From the noir-aesthetic lighting cues to Chook’s artwork deco-obsessed structure and interiors, the movie pulsates with life as vivid because the laser particles.
The lead character designers, longtime collaborators Tony Fucile and Teddy Newton, and Devonn Wilson, lay out a world as if The Iron Large‘s geometric, curved people coexisted among the many exaggerated-shaped cells from Osmosis Jones, however had been as an alternative aliens. You may inform it’s all fingers on deck (if I had been a director on any of their previous tasks, I’d be fuming contemplating how that is the one the place they “locked in” as a result of Brad Chook was the phrase), and it’s completely mesmerizing. Sometimes, you do want it had been as 2D-animated as he initially envisioned, particularly in seen areas the place corners had been lower; the animation on incidental characters and crowd photographs lacks polish, and the motion appears a bit stilted. It’s nonetheless a Skydance animation movie in spite of everything.
Firing with the Security On
RAY GUNN – In Metropia, a huge metropolis in an alternate future as seen from 1939, non-public eye Raymond Gunn is drawn right into a case involving aliens, homicide and a multimedia star named Venus Nova. Cr: Skydance Animation/Netflix © 2026
Ray Gunn‘s tonal maturity and edge are evident, however I might be remiss to not level out that it feels too constrained by its family-friendly enchantment. It may have benefited from a extra mature tone. Not that it’s fully kiddified, however Chook and Matthew Robbins’ screenplay feels extra within the accessibility camp. Narratively, it’s tight however thematically clunky. The alien-human panorama is a parable of xenophobia, but it’s underdeveloped, illustrating solely Gunn’s tolerance towards others and window-dressing the aliens’ struggles to assimilate. It’s all foreshadowing a lesson on discrimination and equality that’s begging for improvement however by no means involves fruition.
Chook and Robbins juggle too many variables, some skewering extra up to date concepts (anti-corporation, artist exploitation). Biting off greater than they will chew, these themes really feel clunky when threaded by means of the thriller. I used to be nonetheless screaming “coward” on the display screen, as a result of one reveal wasn’t pushed to the brink of its potential. As a lot because it appears to be Chook in prose and tone, you’ll be able to’t assist however really feel the Ellison-tainted contact within the studio notes clipping the nuanced wings that may’ve made Ray Gunn’s blast a bit of extra highly effective. In fact, a Skydance-produced film vocal about xenophobia wasn’t going to advertise equality for marginalized communities. As an alternative, we get a merely entertaining throwback performed so secure that it’s a far cry from his prior work—maybe about the identical high quality as Incredibles 2.
Verdict
In the end, Ray Gunn is Brad Chook in his factor, brimming with creativeness and verve. However for all its dazzling craft and affectionate tribute to basic noir, it’s additionally a movie constrained by the very machine that made it. Although the story doesn’t fairly attain its full, mature potential, sanding Gunn down into secure, household‑pleasant territory, it’s a worthy “child’s first movie noir” entry level. However Ray Gunn additionally leaves you questioning what may have been if Chook had been allowed to fireplace at full energy.
Brad Chook’s Ray Gunn, a Netflix Authentic movie, premieres globally on Netflix on December 18, 2026.
