Ray Gunn – Review
Decades in the making Ray Gunn is the bold film noir adventure honouring old Hollywood that Director Brad Bird has brought to life with modern big screen ambition.
Packed with action, romance, intrigue and plenty of thrills, the film will instantly appeal to fans of the directors past work such as The Iron Giant, in fact Ray Gunn could almost be a movie Hogarth Hughes would watch himself whilst his mom works late at the diner – without her knowing.
RAY GUNN – In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova. Cr: Skydance Animation/Netflix © 2026
The first thing that strikes bout this film is the design as the audience are thrust into a future as imagined in 1939. Design wise the team have pulled out all the stops to deliver a tangible world dripping with deco, with each prop, building, costume holding its own story. The character designs are a harmonious fit too. and whilst some of the human designs lean more heavily into classic movie glamour tropes with male characters explored with more ambition than the stick thin females, the overall aesthetic is so well stitched together that the film never loses control of its visual momentum.
Ray Gunn establishes its story with ease and with flair. The opening 10 minutes contain all you need to know about Ray, his alien partner Eye-Ra and the seedy underworld the duo investigate together, kicking things off with an action packed punch. It could be a short film in and of itself but we instantly want to know more after we’re introduced to the duo.
Though action packed, the film honours its noir roots and trundles along at a steady pace though there are moments of action that take your breath away and equally there are moments of romance that take your breath away – something which mainstream animation often struggles to get right. By its very nature as a private eye thriller the story is predictable however, there are plenty of surprises to keep audiences happy. A lot of ground is covered in the tapestry of the story, handling identity, racial segregation, corporate greed and the relentless pace of change explored with gusto. The characters are layered and each fight their own battles, making them impossible not to fall in love with. The cast are incredible with Scarlett Johansen and Sam Rockwell born to play their lead roles and Tom Waits bringing along his richly textured timbre to Eye-Ra complimenting an ensemble cast that bring to life a bill of characters that add more depth to this incredible world.
RAY GUNN – Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) and Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson). Cr: Skydance Animation ©2026
Musically the film is a treat for the ears, with Michael Giacchino’s score oozing classic Hollywood and Kimbra’s songwriting and Johansson’s voice taking us from smokey jazz clubs through to big billboard superstardom.
The rewatch value on this film is worth mentioning too. Hidden details and extra surprises reveal themselves on a second view, and like the best noir films or indeed like The Iron Giant before it, Ray Gunn will become a comfort film to many. Make no mistake Ray Gunn is not an animated film emulating a big screen classic, it’s a big screen classic that just happens to be animated.
In an age where the mainstream box office relies on animation to deliver sequels and known IP to bring in billions, risks and originality are increasingly hard to come by. Yet time and again it seems to be all the public demands. ‘They don’t make em’ like they used to’ is often the lament. Ray Gunn manages to both honour the past and point towards the future with this film to much satisfaction.
Ray Gunn is a classic, film noir, pulp novella, gumshoe detective story brought into stunning futuristic high definition by Brad Bird. If more films like this get made, the future is very bright indeed.
Ray Gunn lands on Netflix on December 18, 2026 and in Select Theatres and limited 70mm on December 4, 2026. Catch it at the BFI London Film Festival on the 17 October and at Manchester Animation Festival in November.