Ray Gunn is currently playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival and will stream exclusively on Netflix from December 18, 2026.
Synopsis
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.
Review
For 30 years, Brad Bird has been trying to get his passion project, Ray Gunn, into motion but has always fallen short for one reason or another. Now, in the year 2026 he has finally managed to get the idea out into the world and, for the most part, it doesn’t disappoint.
From his time directing the likes of The Incredibles and Tomorrowland it is evident that Bird has a fascination for retro sci-fi aesthetics and Ray Gunn is arguably his deepest dive into this specific style. The mix of Art Deco architecture with quirky alien designs and flying cars gives this film a familiar yet distinct visual personality that is embraced in every element from the storytelling to the characters. The CG animation on display helps bring this vision to life with a colourful vibrancy that is half cartoony and half grounded, all while reinforcing that aforementioned style.
The titular Ray Gunn, voiced here by Sam Rockwell, works great as a lead character. He has all the things you’d expect from a noir-esque private detective. He’s suave and fights for the truth, but the film goes one step further by giving Ray layers of kindness, respect and strong morals that set him apart from the rough edged detectives that inspired him. The supporting cast, including the likes of love interest Venus Nova voiced by Scarlett Johansson and Ray’s partner in crime Eye-Ra voiced by Tom Waits, all fit the tone perfectly and are all equally likeable and complex as they need to be to feel fleshed out.
Brad Bird’s signature eye for spectacle and set pieces also outdoes itself in Ray Gunn. Each gunfight and chase sequence gets increasingly more outlandish and creative in approach, starting off small at first only to be followed by something genuinely unique a few scenes later. There is one chase scene in particular that gets a lot of laughs which involves a constantly morphing Ray trying to outrun some gangsters. It’s sequences like this that solidify Bird’s knack for both visual storytelling and comedy.
Even though this film has taken 30 years to come to fruition, there are plenty of themes and ideas present here that definitely feel like a jab at issues and technologies we face in our current climate. None of these topics feel forced or are handled in an overly scathing manner, they instead weave their way into the already intertwined plot in ways that feel justified. It helps give the film a sense of cultural relevance without bashing the audience over the head with a specific perspective.
The one issue some may have to begin with is that, for the first act anyway, Ray Gunn takes a little while to find its footing. It delivers exactly why you would expect from a film with this type of concept and not much else. However, once the main mystery and its many entangled layers start falling into place and gain momentum, the film quickly slots into a snappy pace that makes it a blast to watch right to the end. The narrative continually gets more intriguing while the humour gets better and a lot more frequent in the process.
Ray Gunn is a lot of fun. It finds just the right balance between paying homage to the genre it is clearly influenced by whilst also doing something wholly different. If you’re a fan of Bird’s work already then this will tick all the right boxes. It’s funny, heartfelt and has some rather poignant messaging tucked away at its core.
Verdict
Once it finds its groove, Ray Gunn becomes an absolute joy to watch. Filled to the brim with humour, fun characters and inventive set pieces, its clear to see why Brad Bird put so much into this project for as long as he has.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
