When the credits started rolling on Tomorrowland, the theater audience erupted in applause. I can’t remember that last time that happened. The critics said it was tripe, but us stupid commoners seemed to buy into it anyway. Must have annoyed all those sourpusses.
Sure, it was a bit syrupy, and the plot had a few holes, but it did make a good point. What happened to that unbridled optimism we used to feel? I think it has been crushed by the reality of our civilization. Our choices are not focused on building a good world for everyone. We could change that, though, and part of the change is to imagine something better.
My favorite character was Athena. What a wonderful gynoid! She was quirky and clever and charming, and she had such a great simmering romance with Frank. (As a writer of robot romance, this would of course appeal to me.) Too bad they killed her off at the end. It seemed rather unnecessary, especially in a movie about optimism. It made me think about alternate endings.
With a very small change, Frank could have kept her. Before I go too far on this topic, we should notice the obvious. This is a Disney film rated PG, so of course we can’t have something icky like a 60-year-old man romantically involved with a 12-year-old girl, even if she is actually a robot even older than him. It’s the appearance that matters. Simple, change her into a woman at the very end. Just before he drops her into the time thingy, she pops open some slot, pulls out her memory and tucks it in his pocket. In the final scenes, she shows up loaded into a rather well-built adult model. Yeah!
Is there any point to Casey? Almost everything that happens with Athena and Casey could be replaced by Athena and Frank. I wonder if that was how it was originally written. In Utopian literature there is usually a character who visits the other world, as a vehicle for the rest of us to go there. At the beginning of the movie Frank is the visitor. Then Casey takes over that role. Imagine an alternate script …
The movie starts the same, with Frank and (adult) Athena briefing us. They tell about their childhood encounter at the World Fair, and their growing relationship up to the point he is thrown out of paradise. Then we see him as an older man waiting for the end in his techno-hideout. Athena staggers to the door and begs for help. The other robots are after her. At first her refuses to let her in, but his bitter old soul can’t resist the cries of his childhood sweetheart. They battle the robots and escape in the bathtub.
They grab a vehicle and go on the run. Along the way they fight about the past. She explains the situation in Tomorrowland, and they agree to go back and try to fix it. They battle it out with Nix, and as a last resort use her self-destruct. Just before she explodes she ejects her memory core. Later, Frank finds it and has it loaded in another, more age-appropriate robot. They live happily ever after.