Brad Bird's Ray Gunn review: an old-school animated noir triumph

Brad Bird — described by the Guardian as "the Spielberg of animation" — returns to form with Ray Gunn, an animated film-noir sci-fi caper that the paper's review judges "a terrific family film" retrieving the genre from "the doldrums of dull, AI-formulaic stories and visuals."

Sam Rockwell voices the tough private detective at the centre of the story. Scarlett Johansson plays the femme fatale who draws him into trouble. The Guardian's review, published on 10 October, calls the result "a big-hearted and beautifully designed fantasy spectacular."

What makes Ray Gunn stand out?

The review credits Bird's "masterly authorial touch" for a film it sums up in three words: "smart, witty, humane." It frames Ray Gunn as a fantasy spectacular built on old-fashioned entertainment values, centred on what the critic calls "a beguiling and sweet romance."

The setting is a city of marvels in a world to come. Bird and his designers build a retro-futurist urban landscape with visual nods to Metropolis and Blade Runner, complete with:

• moving walkways
• flying cars
• eerie hologram billboards

The review notes a "light touch" that keeps these genre fixtures from collapsing into cliché.

How does the film play with noir conventions?

Ray Gunn stages an old-school noir thriller inside its sci-fi city. The cast of characters includes careworn cops, cynical club owners and alluring shady ladies — the latter, the review observes, carrying "touches of Lana Turner and Veronica Lake."

The bad guys wield state-of-the-art laser-particle firearms, which the review identifies as the explanation for the film's title (while conceding the critic had hoped for a reference to 1980s Republican politics as well).

The design details push the retro conceit further. The airborne automobiles have "the bulbous lines of a previous century," and the TV monitors show black-and-white images — the review quips that plasma flatscreens "have evidently been disinvented."

Why does this matter for animation?

The Guardian's verdict positions Ray Gunn as a corrective to a genre it sees as stagnating in formula-driven, machine-made storytelling. Bird's authorial control over story and design, the review argues, is what lifts the film into classic territory — an old-school family picture with genuine craft behind its cityscapes and romance alike. For a director long compared to Spielberg, the review suggests Ray Gunn is proof that the handcrafted, big-hearted animated feature still has life in it.