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Escape From Tomorrow, shot surreptitiously at Disney World, reviewed

Escape From Tomorrow begins on the Disney World roller coaster “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,” where a low overhang decapitates a rider with a satisfyingly juicy splat. The moment flashes by quickly, but it serves as a statement of purpose for the writer-director Randy Moore. With his first feature, Moore wants to change the way you look at Disney World—and he wants to blow some minds.

As anyone who has taken a child to Disney World knows, the happiest place on earth can feel like a nightmare hellscape when things aren’t going well.

Shot at Disney parks without authorization or permission—the crew used DSLR cameras, recorded sound on handheld digital recorders, and at one point fled the parks a step ahead of security—Escape From Tomorrow serves as a sort of companion piece to Gravity. While Alfonso Cuarón’s big-budget masterpiece has little in common with this mini-budgeted head trip, both movies consistently left me asking:How’d they get that shot? Simulating zero-gravity seems several degrees less difficult than shooting an entire feature under the watchful eye of Uncle Walt—to say nothing of releasing it without Disney Legal smashing the film flat with their cartoon hammers. (Admirably, and wisely considering the possible publicity backlash, Disney hasn’t said a word aboutEscape From Tomorrow.)