Strange World

Strange World

A journey deep into an uncharted and treacherous land, where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades—a family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest, and by far most crucial, mission.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 102 minutes
  • Genre: Animation, Family
  • Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Tudyk, Dennis Quaid, Gabrielle Union, Jaboukie Young-White, Lucy Liu, Alan Tudyk
  • Director: Qui Nguyen
 Comments
  • grigoraaakis-889-295918 - 22 April 2024
    Disney should be bold like this more often
    A very ambitious movie made by the "Disney" studios. Reading all the reviews I felt like it was bad movie. On the contrary "Strange World" feels like an ambitious movie, with a very interesting plot, a very fresh and original idea from a studio that used to be bold. This sure is fresh, and it tries to mimic many adventure movies, sometimes it misses but it mostly succeeds in creating the world. The generational trauma seems like a pattern Disney decided to examine lately, where they've made many movies with the same themes about family bonds and relationships. "Strange World" is a turn at the right direction, they just have to find a better way to execute their ideas. It feels current, it feels modern, it feels real. We need more of this ambitious tales no matter the end result. This is the path the studio should be following from now on.
  • DanLawson146 - 28 October 2023
    Nowhere near Disney's best animations
    POSITIVES:

    1) I thought the father/son relationships that Searcher had with his father and with his son were very well done and I was invested in them. The film portrays three generations of men who, despite being family, have completely different backgrounds and experiences; a concept which works very well 2) Visually I thought the film looked great. It was very unique and eye catching and I was certainly never bored by the visuals

    NEGATIVES:

    1) The film's messaging felt extremely forced and took me out of the film. Back in the golden days of Disney Pixar the messaging was subtle and thought provoking, but now it's so in your face that it's painful 2) I thought the humour was horrific. I couldn't decide if it was the bad script or the cringey acting that did it, but I don't think I laughed once in the whole film despite several poor attempts at humour.
  • bill_allison - 13 May 2023
    visually amazing, but a weak script
    The artistic concept and animation are fantastic. It seems like how Fantasia would look if designed by Salvador Dali. I would give a lower score if the scenery wasn't so great. The film makers often seemed to focus on the scenery with nothing else happening, perhaps they knew the script was weak?

    The story seemed disjointed when the plot suddenly changed topics and left the audience behind. The plot seemed like pieces of various well known stories were spliced together - did someone use A. I. to write the script? The lessons of the story were overly heavy-handed and left little for the actors to work with. It was not slapstick enough to be just a silly funny film and there was too much over-acting to let the audience participate in the story emotionally. If they had shifted the film one way or the other (either slapstick or nuanced) it would have been better. This is not a sophisticated analysis, just my own reaction to it.

    In summary - you must see at least some bits of this to appreciate the fantastic art design, but the story can be ignored as it is mostly unsatisfying.
  • bankofmarquis - 7 January 2023
    Takes too long to find it's legs
    If a film is going to be 1/2 good and 1/2 bad, is it better to have the good part first (which will get you to watch until the end) or last (which will leave you with a good feeling, if you make it that far). With the new Disney Animated Film STRANGE WORLD it is bad first, good second. So, if you stick through the disjointed first part of this film, you'll be rewarded for your persistence with an interesting and satisfying finale.

    A nod to the "Pulp Magazine" Science Fiction works of the 1950's, STRANGE WORLD follows the adventures of the Clade clan as they try to find out what is beyond the hills of their land with the central conflict of this movie being that the Grandfather - the great explorer Jaeger Clade - wanting to explore. His son, Searcher Clade, wanting to stay put and the Grandson, Ethan Clade, caught between the 2.

    It is pretty standard fare that is made all the more confusing by the setup of the premise and the clumsy introduction of the myriad of characters and situations that leads the audience to the exploration adventure that is to come.

    Written and Co-Directed by Qui Nguyen (and directed by Don Hall) - both of whom are responsible for the criminally under-rated RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON - Strange World stumbles out of the gate and spends the first 1/2 (maybe even the first 2/3) trying to recover from that stumble.

    It finally does get it's legs under itself and the end is worth the patience one must have to get through the beginning.

    The voice cast is steady - but unspectacular. Jake Gyllenhaal (Searcher), Gabrielle Union (Meridian Clade - the Mom and pilot), Jaboukie Young-White (Ethan, the Grandson), Lucy Liu (explorer Callisto Mal) and Dennis Quaid (Jaeger, the Grandfather) all put in "professional" work, but none of them stick out - which is especially disappointing in Quaid's case, for his character looks like it was written to be the quirky, different, interesting character.

    Disney animation has had a mixed bag with "action/adventure" animated films. For every BIG HERO 6, there are TREASURE PLANET attempts that seemed earnest and well-meaning, but just don't hit the mark.

    If you are in the mood for a good Disney/Animated adventure that comes from Hall and Nguyen, skip STRANGE WORLD and, instead, check out RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON.

    Letter Grade: C+

    5 1/2 stars (out of 10) - and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  • Drawmort - 4 January 2023
    Simple isn't always a bad thing. I liked this movie!
    I don't know why there are so many unfavorable reviews for this movie. It's entertaining, with several good messages and teachings for young audiences, including environmentalism, the importance of energy, agriculture, and also a necessary and contingent quota of LGTBQ+ integration.

    Visually the film is amazing, full of very strange creatures, but they manage to fill their places in history very well.

    Among the negative points could be the reiteration with which the characters face their problems and the humor, which doesn't always go down well. The rest is of very good quality. The soundtrack is impeccable, the character design is good and the story is entertaining enough to keep your attention on your toes the whole time.

    Strange World is clearly not one of the latest animated masterpieces, like Soul or The Mitchells vs. The Machines, but it does meet the minimum parameters to be considered a good (or at least decent) movie.

    Recommended for all types of public, from 7 or 8 years old upwards.
  • szkbndhj - 1 January 2023
    Mundane and unimaginative
    This felt like it had potential, a good movie about a man having to confront childhood trauma and abandonment issues.

    It became to predictable and lackluster. It also feels like they tried to take a secondary story and forcefully mash it together in a desperate attempt to make sense. Which ended up making the whole movie feel soulless, clunky, and honestly unmemorable.

    Ethan is annoying I found myself hoping he would get eaten and it felt like his awful behavior was rewarded. What a great message for kids. He also felt like an after thought. The only purpose he served was to put everybody's life in danger. They would've been better off without him. Merchandise-able side kick was a morph rip off and about as annoying as Ethan.

    The only reason I'm giving it a 3 star is because the animation was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed looking at the background and scenery overall.
  • HalBanksy - 30 December 2022
    Disney Animation really needs to up it's game
    This barely feels like a movie.. more like a cartoon episode for kids to half-watch on a Saturday morning over a bowl of cheerios.

    Not a single likeable character, expect maybe the dog. Boring nothing plot. Surprisingly bland visually - really needed more colour. Zero sense of danger or stakes. No good jokes. Voice cast sound bored. I've already forgotten the score, so that can't have been much good either.

    The twist reveal was so obvious.. so what was the point in keeping it a surprise? Just make it part of the story from the beginning - maybe something interesting could have been done with it then.
  • omarabubaker-28130 - 29 December 2022
    Very disappointing movie
    Really very disappointed, and I strongly beileve it does not go to the "Disney movie" level. If I want to grade it, it will take 0 on the story, 0 on the comedy, 0 for morals got from it, 0 for message.. may be a 7 for the visual effects... absolutely disappointing and a waste of time and money.. Main thing that they wanted, very unsuccessfully, to get and to stick to that whole mess, is to speak about diversity and accepting each other.. but unfortunately, it was made ina way that lacks the taste or any drop of imagination.. It does not come close to what we used to see from Disney.. I, very much, do not recommend it.
  • JumpingCineFile - 26 December 2022
    Uninteresting characters and story, nice design at times
    This film was boring from both a story and character point of view. The characters felt very one dimensional and as if chosen to make sure all the representation boxes are checked first rather than fit the story.

    At its heart, this is a father-son story, and about finding your own path to travel as you become an adult, although there is a pin additional storyline about working together to achieve balance rather than use destructive forces. Neither of these were presented in an interesting or compelling way for me.

    I did like the design and look of the world and how it changed. I also enjoyed the opening title sequence.

    The voice acting was serviceable but unremarkable - more of a fault of the script than the actors.

    While the technical quality of the animation was top level, it had no emotion behind it. And the little blue sidekick character the main characters pick up became instantly.anthropomorphic and this seemed too much of a contrivance. Especially as it was becoming obvious what this world actually is, so this change to the blue creature's inherent nature felt completely forced.

    The final reveal of the world and its blend of Hindu and possibly Discworld lineage was a curiosity.
  • clarknaima - 25 December 2022
    Not good at all !
    Disney is supposed to do something different each time they release a movie. But somehow when watching this movie I felt like I've seen it before. Plot has been done before, art style has been done before, which isn't that big of a deal but please switch it up. In my opinion, it's not interesting, it's boring and cliche. I think Disney is losing its touch or something. Why didn't they advertise this as much? Why did they wait last minute to even do any advertising at all? Movie is really slow paced and filled with lots of useless scenes. I wanted to turn it off within the first 20 minutes but I also wanted to give it a chance. Not worth the watch!