When you go to watch this movie, the first thing you need to do is remember who you were when you were 8.  When you sit down in the theater with your popcorn, soft pretzels and root beer, you are sitting down as the 8 year old you.  Once you do that, then this movie becomes the most incredible, inspiring movie you possibly watched.

Casey Newton is our protagonist who is inspired to be a rocket scientist, hoping to explore the far reaches of space. We get to know her character quickly early on as we see her day in class. Her teachers in every class tell the world about doomsday theories, and how apocalyptic events can happen soon at anytime and while the students around her accept their fate, she asks the question “Can we fix it?”  Showing the audience that Casey doesn’t accept things the way they are.

Her father, who works of NASA, is soon to be out of a job after he oversees the dismantling of a space rocket.  In her attempts to save the space program she sabotages equipment using homemade drones.  One night, Casey gets caught and arrested, when her father comes to bail her out she encounters a pin with her stuff.  She argues with the officer that the pin isn’t hers, but when she touches it she is taken to a different world, that we know as Tomorrowland.

One of my favorite part of the film is that Casey from beginning to end plays an old Cherokee story.  The story describes that within each person is two wolves who are battling each other, a black wolf that represents darkness and negativity, and a white wolf that represents lightness and positivism.  The question is then which one wins? Casey answers, “The one you feed.”  Each step taken in the movie by each character perfectly shows which wolf they feed.

I think everyone would also appreciate the viewpoint of what Tomorrowland, or basically our future, may look like.  Unlike Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, is that we don’t get crazy futuristic costumes that looks extremely hideous.  Tomorrowland actually looks sleek, functional, and interesting, giving us a better sense of what the world may look like 20 years from now. Aesthetically, the movie is extremely appealing.

I am sure many people will give this movie a negative review, since there was much confusion at certain points of the story.  Yet with every hero’s journey we must understand that not every answer is clear.  I feel what Disney tried to do with this movie was to encourage people to continue living with imagination, with wonder and with the idea that anything is always possible. At the end of the day that is what makes a Disney Imagineer, and maybe we as a society should ask ourselves…can we fix it?

I give the movie a 4 out of 5.  It’s a good movie to watch once but not a movie I would fall in love with and buy on DVD.  Yet, it would be the movie I’d actually appreciate receiving as a present.

Yet if you ask the 8 year old movie, this movie gets a 5 out of 5.  It inspired me and helped me remember to always let me imagination run wild.