The first thing you’ll notice in the trailer for Ray Gunn is that it’s not about Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, the Australian woman who gained infamy following her breakdancing performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (That story is told in the Netflix Untold docuseries episode Raygun: Breaking Badly, if you are interested.)

The next thing you’ll notice is that the animation style is reminiscent of Pixar movies like The Incredibles and Ratatouille, both films directed by Brad Bird, who also helmed The Iron Giant. Despite that, as you are sure to have noticed, Ray Gunn is not for the kiddos.

Ray Gunn is a neo-noir set in a city called Metropia, which according to Netflix’s Tudum site is “a dazzling retrofuturistic city where humans and aliens live side by side, flying cars speed through the skies, and buildings stretch a mile high. But look past the streamlined Art Deco–inspired sheen, and you’ll find a reality that’s grittier: murder, corruption, and one “flameout” of a detective trying to make sense of a changing world.”

Bird told Tudum that “The elevator pitch I came up with is The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I like both of those genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements and extreme characters.”

In the trailer we see Ray wearing a jetpack and flying over a futurish, noirish city, which is the future we were all promised back when The Jetsons were on the air for the first time.

Title character Raymond Gunn is voiced by Sam Rockwell. In the film, he and his one-eyed alien partner (say it out loud) Eye-Ra, who is voiced by singer/actor Tom Waits, get mixed up with megastar Venus Nova (voice of Scarlett Johansson), who is mixed up in a scandal. Ray and Eye-ra delve into the glamours world (and seamy underworld) of Nova’s entourage.

“You’re being hopeful with the city, but you’re still showing there’s a dark underbelly — things that happen in the shadows,” Bird told Tudum.

Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Chernus, Kether Donohue, Michelle Rodriguez, Aasif Mandvi, Matt Jones, Kathryn Hunter, John Ratzenberger, Justin Peck and Patton Oswalt also lend their voices to Ray Gunn, which will debut in theaters and on Netflix in December.

Ray Gunn is coming from Skydance Animations and is the first non-Pixar movie for Bird since he directed The Iron Giant for Warner Bros. animation in 1999. He’s currently working on a third Incredibles for Disney/Pixar.

Ray Gunn will blast into select theaters on December 4th, with a limited number of 70mm screenings, before debuting on Netflix beginning December 18th.