Many of us likely have a specific idea in our heads when we think of a Disney movie. The idea quickly conjures images of bright and cheerful stories in the vein of The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. However, that's not what Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time will feel like when it debuts. In fact, during a visit to the set of the film last year, DuVernay opened up to CinemaBlend and other outlets and explained that this take on A Wrinkle in Time would embrace the darker edges of Madeleine L'Engle's source material, which will make it feel distinct from other films in the Disney canon. DuVernay explained:
I feel like it's not a shiny, bright Disney movie. I love shiny, bright Disney movies, but this is a movie that embraces a bit of a quirkier, darker edge, like the book. This book is one of the most banned books in American literature, which is why I love it.
Even though A Wrinkle in Time is being released under the Disney banner, it appears that it won't take the form of a story aimed squarely at children. The original novel written by Madeleine L'Engle has long been hailed as a controversial piece of literature, and the film will embrace those ideas with a "quirkier, darker edge" than we might be used to seeing from other Disney movies. It's a book that plays on some potentially disturbing themes about evil and free will, as well as essential notions about the nature of the universe, and the film version of the tale apparently won't shy away from those ideas.
However, it's not just the obvious differences that set A Wrinkle in Time apart from other Disney movies. Ava DuVernay continued in her description of the story and explained that much of the appeal in a story like A Wrinkle in Time is the fact that so much of it is open for interpretation, which Disney allowed her to embrace in the creation of the film. DuVernay continued:
There's so much going on in this book, and there's so many layers and different parts of the story. People take from it what is important to them. Some people might watch this and see a sci-fi adventure, some might watch it and see romance, some might watch it and see a story about math nerds, some might watch it and see girl power, and others might watch it and see a family story. I see a cool, quirky, dark, odd and grand adventure of a girl searching the universe for her father, and she finds herself. The way the film looks is very not traditional Disney. They've been really great in allowing me aesthetic latitude to really bring my filmmaking style into it, which is awesome, and they never said no to anything. All of the choices, in terms of the cast and the diversity of the cast, and the diversity of the crew, which is not normal to see this many women and people of color on a crew, they've just been supportive and encouraging of. I don't know how I got here, but I'm here.
She's not wrong in that assessment. As Ava DuVernay laid out in those comments, a story like A Wrinkle in Time comes steeped in subjective subtext, which means that it's easy to interpret the narrative and aesthetic in a variety of different ways. Some view it as a religious allegory, while others see it in the purest of science fiction terms, and that naturally lends A Wrinkle in Time to various visual styles. As a result, it sounds like the folks at Disney embraced that idea and allowed the Selma director to go all in on her vision of a dark, bold, and delightfully weird version of the classic story, and our early glimpses at that style promise something that's nothing if not visually awesome.
If you are looking for a closer look at Ava DuVernay's work on A Wrinkle in Time, then check out a trailer for the film, below!
Tickets for Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time will go on sale tomorrow (February 22), and the film itself will debut in theaters next month on March 9!
