Scuttlebutt on Escape From Tomorrow started brewing during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, so those of you with your ears to the ground have probably been waiting for the most unusual Disney film of 2013 for quite some time. What makes Randy Moore’s picture so unique, though, is that Disney contributed nothing to its production save for location; Moore shot the entirety of his vision firmly within the bounds of both Disneyland and Disney World, and without securing a word of permission from the Mouse House. Is that dangerous? Not really. Is it subversive? Oh yes.
And that’s what’s pulling attention to Escape From Tomorrow: that anarchic, guerrilla spirit. In fact, discussions of the film by and large don’t touch on the narrative at all, which involves a family man who, after unceremoniously losing his job, takes his wife and children to the Magical Kingdom, hoping for a reprieve that never comes. The iconography of the place adopts a maleficent visage as the stress of his life overwhelms him, taking him on a downward spiral toward oblivion; along the way, he obsessively stalks two teenage French girls while dodging attempts on his life from his own son.
Put in fewer words, the whole thing is counter-culturally surreal and wholly seditious. Anyone who needs further convincing just needs to take a peek at Escape From Tomorrow‘s official poster:
That ought to put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, “this movie ain’t Disney-friendly”. If you’re wondering how Moore and his cohorts haven’t had their pants sued off, there’s a thing called “fair use” that should (note that my legal experience and knowledge are both limited, but I’m a pretty good reader) protect Escape From Tomorrow from taking a trip to the courts; even ignoring that, legal action is probably the last thing the Mouse House wants here, because that would just vault the film into public consciousness. They’re likely happier if this thing finds the cult audience among cinephiles that it’s likely to get, and then vanishes.
Of course, Escape From Tomorrow looks so stunningly, disturbingly weird that it could end up being a fixture of film debates for the rest of the year and beyond. If nothing else, it’s one of 2013’s more unique releases, and the imagery on display in the trailer alone should make it an engaging watch. The movie arrives in theaters and hits VOD on October 11th; conversations following its opening should be interesting indeed.
Source: Slash Film