One could swap the title to “Phobias” and change the studio branding to “Pixar” and Dreamworks’ “Orion and the Dark” would fit (somewhat) neatly into that Disney studio’s recent obsession with the metaphysical.

A movie about being afraid of the dark could be part of a quartet of films on “feelings” and emotions (“Inside Out”), the first twinges of adulthood and controlling your emotions (“Turning Red”) and that ineffable something that makes us human — explained, in animated form, as “Soul.”

But the meandering Charlie Kaufman (“Orchid Thief”) adaptation of a slim, illustrated 2015 book by Emma Yarlett has more in common with the diffuse, unsatisfying “Elemental” if I’m sticking with the Pixar comparisons.

Screenwriter Kaufman’s taken the “Christmas Carol” element of The Dark, helping a kid appreciate that which he is most afraid of by showing the Dark and its “entities” over the course of one long night, and run with it. And he’s slapped on a framing device that has this story of a childhood turning point being told by the adult version of the kid, Orion, who experienced all this at age 11.

This Netflix production, scripted by Kaufman and perhaps rendered into something more sensible by co-writer and children’s animation vet Lloyd Taylor (“Nimona”) is fanciful but formulaic, and unlike most of Kaufman’s boundary-breaking writing, it’s downright derivative.

It’s “A Christmas Carol” meets “Monsters, Inc.,” with plenty of drawn and sketched “Diary” entries from another “Wimpy Kid.”

Orion — voiced by Jacob Tremblay — narrates the story of his fraught childhood, how he’s afraid “my parents will move away” while he’s at school, of “the gym locker room,” pf the bully Richie Panichi and being called on in “Early Colonialism and Imperialism” class.

Well, he must not live in Florida.

But the phobia that consumes Orion — so-named by his aged-out-of-being hippies parents (just guessing) — is The Dark. He decorates his room with nightlights, asks for extra stories (he’s in fifth grade) at bedtime and still can’t make it through the night.

It’s no wonder The Dark (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser of “I, Tonya” and “Richard Jewell”) shows up, a tad digruntled about his rep, and takes the kid through one long night of Sleep, Insomnia, Unexplained Noises, Quiet and Sweet Dreams.

Those are the “entities” of darkness, voiced here by the likes of Angela Bassett, Nat Faxon, Aparna Nancherla and others. They take care of business, putting folks to sleep (smothering one restless old man with a “magic” pillow), driving insomnia, startling in noise, etc.

They’ve got to accomplish all this because of what needs to happen in the dark — rest and resetting the brain, keeping us and our world healthy. And they have only so many hours to do it before sunny, upbeat and not-quite-obnoxious Light (Ike Barinholtz) shows up and breaks the dawn.

Kaufman’s embellishments are imaginative, but not particularly funny or entertaining. The meta story, about adult Orion (Colin Hanks) explaining what he learned from The Dark at age 11 to his own little girl (Mia Akemi Brown) is a cute attempt at sentiment which left me cold.

Hauser’s the only voice actor to pop in this production, giving us a gruff but loveable Seth Rogen-without-the-stoner-edge sound-alike. He elicits a grin, here and there. But the other famous voices barely register, and laughs are as rare as a good night’s sleep here.

“Sponge Bob” veteran and first-time director Sean Charmatz has made a rite-of-passage picture that plays over the heads of its young target audience, and has a hard time finding the humor in any of this, despite the obvious intended light touch.

Rating: TV-Y7, scary images

Cast: The voices of Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett, Carla Gugino, Natasia Demetriou, Ike Barinholtz, Nat Faxon, Aparna Nancherla and Werner Herzog

Credits: Directed by Sean Charmatz, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and Lloyd Taylor. based on the book by Emma Yarlett. A Dreamworks production for Netflix.

Running time: 1:33