“It’s hard to have ideas, and it’s easy to give up.”

Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a NASA-loving, teenaged girl says this to her little brother when he asks why they are taking down the launch platform at Cape Canaveral. Casey’s father (Tim McGraw) used to work for NASA, but his last paid gig there is to remove the rigging, a sad ending for a once-proud engineer.

The Disney live-action fantasy “Tomorrowland” announces its message of hope and optimism in this scene, and it still feels fairly natural to the story at this point. But writers Brad Bird (who also directed) and Damon Lindelof telegraph their intentions ad nauseam, and “Tomorrowland,” a film otherwise filled with plenty of movie magic, starts to lose a bit of its luster.

It should be noted that the unabashed positivity of “Tomorrowland” is a refreshing change of pace for a science-fiction film. Or at least it was noted by me silently before a trench-coated bad guy played by Hugh Laurie comes right out and actually says it. Mentioning the post-apocalyptic nightmare trend in everything from movies to video games, he goes on to explain how these entertainments rob us of our hope to change the future.

He’s got a point — and I know this is a Disney film aimed at kids — but jeez Louise: Ever heard of “show don’t tell”?

And now I’m going to give that point a rest, because there is plenty of amazing imagery, action, suspense and mystery baked into “Tomorrowland” that is worth celebrating. Bird has long been a fan of ’50s- and ’60s-era sci-fi design.

His 1999 fantasy “The Iron Giant,” which happens to be screening May 31 at Liberty Hall, featured a giant robot that fell from the sky but looked as if it had just walked off the set of “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” This aesthetic is alive in “Tomorrowland,” especially in a wild “Mars Attacks!”-type scene that takes place at a vintage collectible toy and comic shop (where “The Iron Giant” is specifically referenced).

Combining design elements from EPCOT Center and the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland theme parks, Bird and crew have created a serene utopia filled with monorails and flying spaceships. Casey’s first visit is one of the highlights of the movie, done in one long sweeping take that feels like a ride itself. In fact, for a while, “Tomorrowland” plays like a bevy of childhood fantasies come to life.

A young boy named Frank (Thomas Robinson) invents a jet pack, there are laser-shooting ray guns and flash forwards in time. Tomorrowland itself is a hidden world built right on top of our existing one. A sense of wonderment and discovery is definitely alive in “Tomorrowland,” even if Bird struggles to restage and duplicate that sense throughout the movie.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/may/20/291845/

The structure of the film is interesting, if a little jarring. It starts with a direct address to the audience by Casey and an adult Frank (George Clooney). They argue briefly over how to tell the story and then begin with a flashback to the 1964 World’s Fair.

The backstory of each character seem like mini-movies unto themselves and give “Tomorrowland” a charming, scrappy vibe. Once the two characters finally meet, there’s an invigorating home-invasion set piece that’s full of surprises and certainly the high point of the movie.

12-year-old Raffey Cassidy steals the film from Clooney and Robertson as Athena, a girl tasked with finding special people and bringing them to Tomorrowland. This is partially because she holds the answers to all the audience’s burning questions and spends most of the movie withholding them, but her outward poise and confidence also masks a lifetime of hurt that extends beyond her age.

With technology moving forward at an ever-increasing rate and the Maker Movement gaining more prominence, there are more opportunities than ever for young people to use their curiosity and creativity to make the world a better place. “Tomorrowland” unfolds with that same optimism, daring to punch cynicism square in the nose. It’s a wonderful sentiment for kids.

When Bird’s movie clicks, it’s easy to believe that human intelligence and ingenuity can overcome impending global disaster. That’s why he should have given his audience more credit and not spelled everything out for them.

“Tomorrowland” is rated PG for Spielbergian flights of fancy, sequences of sci-fi action violence and peril, thematic elements, and language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYf_nyjvxlI

Free State Festival Under the Stars

Friday, May 29, will be the first of four free outdoor movie screenings as part of a pre-Free State Festival program.

George Lucas’ 1973 film “American Graffiti,” which helped to kick off a big ’50s culture revival in America, will play at 9 p.m. outside the Lawrence Arts Center. Two more coming-of-age films follow the next two weeks, with John Hughes’ 1985 classic “The Breakfast Club” on June 5, and 1986’s “One Crazy Summer,” where recent high-school graduate John Cusack’s cartoons come to life and he gets to hang out with a rock singer played by Demi Moore.

The last film of the Under the Stars series on June 19 will be Jim Henson’s “Dark Crystal,” a 1982 fantasy populated entirely by Henson’s puppets, who play a race of elf-like beings known as Gelflings. A sequel has reportedly been in the works for years, so why not catch up with the original now?

‘Wichita’ gets DVD release

Nicholas Barton, of Great Bend, wrote and directed the independent western/thriller “Wichita,” which has recently been released on DVD.

The movie was profiled in a Scene-Stealers blog last year, and is a piece of historical fiction that takes place in Wichita circa 1882. Barton shot the film at Wichita’s Cowtown Museum in Wichita, the Flint Hills, and other south central Kansas locations.