Rating: 8.0
Premise: The Clades are a legendary family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest and most crucial mission into uncharted and treacherous territory.
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Disney
Directed by Don Hall
Written by Qui Nguyen
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, Lucy Liu
Runtime: 1hr 42min
Rating: PG
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
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IMDb Rating: 5.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%
RT Audience Score: 62%
Metacritic Score: 66
CinemaScore: TBD
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My Review:
I enjoyed Disney’s newest animated film “Strange World”! It may not be the new flagship Disney movie like “Frozen”, “Wreck-It Ralph”, or even “Encanto” was, but I thought it was a pretty delightful homage to 1960’s adventure movies, as well as stories like “King Kong” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”! It is flawed, and definitely not top-tier Disney, but I’m a sucker for Disney animation! If you want a movie that will put a smile on your face, look no further — this is it!
Now, what is “Strange World” you may ask? Well… unfortunately Disney did a terrible job marketing this movie, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it until now. Heck, even me being a big Disney fan thought the few trailers were pretty forgettable. But I’m so happy to report that it is much better than the trailers made it seem — this movie deserved way better advertising. “Strange World” follows the Claudes, a legendary family of explorers seeking to save their home by following the roots of their most precious resource, Pando, into a world much —stranger — than their own.
Much like with every single Disney animated movie, the animation is stunning. I especially loved what they did with this film, making it look a little more cartoonish/pulpy while having a great sense of realism and detail at the same time. The colour palettes were also used quite well, most notably in the contrast of the red and magenta based strange world, and the orange, green and white based Avalonia. Speaking of the two worlds, I found Avalonia to be quite interesting and I loved the world building in it, almost more than that does for the strange world. Unfortunately, while the strange world is cool, it does feel somewhat generic and ordinary for a fantasy/sci-fi location like that, it never really stood out as being too strange.
That brings me to my main thoughts on the film. It’s enjoyable, but overall pretty average and nothing stood out as overly unique. It is very ambitious, but never quite accomplishes all it sets out to do. It left me wanting more from it, I was never fully fulfilled by the end. The film has a very cool concept, great, likable characters, and a fantastic cast, but only partially delivers. I wish it explored its themes, worlds and story a little more. The world building was pretty great too, but again, we didn’t get to see enough of either world. The middle especially feels a little montage-y, much like the first “Captain America” how it montages and summarizes its way through the story. It has a rough start as well, and for the first few minutes, I wondered what I was getting myself into, but luckily found its groove quickly after that! The messaging was also pretty good too! A lot of it focuses on legacy, as well as father/son relationships, and this tends to get quite predictable and repetitive. The message and theme I really connected with instead was when it focused on climate change and how we are killing our own world. I don’t want to get too into this as it is a major part of the third act, but I found the exploration of this theme to be very thoughtful and resonant. It made the film better for me to be honest; I didn’t know it would explore climate change related ideas, but I loved it when it did!
So while overall this is a pretty ordinary movie, I liked it; it worked for me! I’d give it a thumbs up and recommend it! “Strange World” had a feel I enjoyed, and I always love getting to see a new Disney animation movie, they always put a smile on my face and at the very least have some phenomenal animation! I loved the world, the characters, and the whole cast, I just wish it had a little more to it!
Fun Fact: "Strange Worlds" was the name of two 1950s American science-fiction comics. One was by Avon Comics, the other was by Atlas Comics (the predecessor to Marvel Comics, which Disney owns).
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