Strange World

Plot

In the land of Avalonia, which is surrounded by an endless wall of mountains, Jaeger Clade and his son, Searcher brave the wilderness to explore new worlds. While trying to traverse the mountains to find a way across it, Searcher discovers a green plant that gives off energy. He and the rest of the expedition team decide to return to Avalonia with the plant while Jaeger angrily continues his mission alone.

25 years later, Searcher has made a name for himself by introducing the miracle plant, dubbed Pando, as a fuel source for Avalonia. He and his wife Meridian are Pando farmers while their son Ethan has a crush on his friend Diazo and chafes at his father's expectation of becoming a farmer like him. One night, Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and one of Jeager's former expedition teammates, shows up in her airship, the Venture, to inform the Clades that Pando is losing its power and asks Searcher to help find the cause. He joins an expedition to travel into a giant sinkhole in which the roots of Pando have been located.

On the way down, Meridian tries catching up in her crop-duster when Ethan and their three-legged dog Legend stows away on the Venture. While being attacked by red wyvern-like creatures, the Venture crash-lands in a subterranean world, where Searcher and Legend are separated from the group. They are attacked by a creature called a "Reaper," but are rescued by Jaeger who has been living underground all these years. He has been trying to cross the mountains from below, but is blocked by an acidic ocean and states his intention to board the Venture to attempt to cross it.

Meanwhile, Ethan sneaks away from the Venture to find Searcher. He befriends an amorphous blue creature, naming it Splat, before being reunited with Searcher, Legend, and Jaeger. They are attacked by more Reapers, but are rescued by Meridian and President Callisto and return to the Venture. Searcher insists on completing their mission, while Jaeger wants to continue journeying across the Strange World. Ethan becomes frustrated with them and their opposing worldviews. After another wild encounter, Searcher and Jaeger finally have a heart-to-heart talk and realize that they do respect each other's goals in life. They eventually find a cluster of Pando's roots, which is being attacked by the Strange World's creatures. When Searcher learns that Ethan wants to explore more of the Strange World, he blames Jaeger's influence on him. Ethan angrily jumps off the Venture and on to one of the Reapers, while Searcher follows him aboard a small flying vehicle. In a heated argument, Ethan reveals he does not want to be a farmer. As a remorseful Searcher is apologizing, they realize that they have passed through the mountains to the ocean beyond where they see the eye of a giant turtle-like creature. The two realize that Avalonia is on the creature's back and that they have been traveling through its body, meaning that the Reapers and all the other creatures are its immune system.

Voice cast

Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, a 40-year-old man who is Jaeger's son, Meridian's husband, and Ethan's father as well as a farmer of the Pando power source.

Dennis Quaid as Jaeger Clade, Searcher's father and Ethan's grandfather who is more of a larger-than-life explorer.

Jaboukie Young-White as Ethan Clade, Searcher's 17-year-old son and Jeager's grandson who longs for adventure beyond his father's farm while also navigating a school crush on Diazo. Ethan is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first openly gay main character.

Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, Ethan's mother, and Searcher's wife who is a pilot and natural leader in the Venture.

Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, the President of Avalonia and leader of the exploration into the strange world who helps the Clades to lead the adventures in her airship called the Venture.

Karan Soni as Caspian, a nerdy member of the expedition to Strange World.

Alan Tudyk as:

Duffle, a pilot for the expedition to the strange world in the Venture who is killed by red wyvern-like creatures. His role is a reference to Tudyk's Firefly character Hoban "Wash" Washburn.

The Newsreel Narrator at the beginning of the film.

Radio Host #1

Adelina Anthony as Captain Pulk, the second-in-command of the expedition to strange world.

Abraham Benrubi as Lonnie Redshirt, a member of Jaeger's expedition crew before he disappeared. His last name refers to the trend in Star Trek for those wearing red shirts to die insignificantly.

Production

Development

Development on Strange World began in 2017, after Don Hall finished co-directing Moana (2016). His frequent creative partner Chris Williams was also involved in the project before leaving Disney in November 2018 to direct the Netflix Animation film The Sea Beast (2022). Hall pondered the origins of a generational family with the concept of "environmental overtones", which was described as "Indiana Jones meets National Lampoon's Vacation". Shortly after the announcement of Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) at the D23 Expo in August 2019, a major rework happened, with the creative leadership on the film were being swapped, while some cast members were replaced. Hall reteams with Qui Nguyen, who serves as co-director and writer. During a story meeting, Disney artist Burny Mattinson suggested adding a dog character for the Clades, which ultimately became the character Legend in the final film. Overall, the budget of Strange World was approximately between $135–180 million.

Writing

Nguyen adds that filmmakers wanted to make sure that, at the end of the film, viewers "could go backward and — like watching The Sixth Sense — be able to track all those moments and go, 'They told us all along what this was, and only now have we realized we got that last puzzle piece.'"

Casting

On June 6, 2022, following the release of the teaser trailer, Jake Gyllenhaal was announced as the voice of Searcher Clade. Eleven days later, the rest of the main cast for the film was announced at France's Annecy Animation Festival, including Jaboukie Young-White as Ethan Clade, Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, and Dennis Quaid as Jaeger Clade. The inclusion of Young-White voicing a gay character named Ethan marks Walt Disney Animation Studios' first openly LGBTQ main character.

Animation, design, and influences

According to Hall, Strange World takes heavy influence from pulp magazines—popular fiction from the first half of the 20th century that was printed on inexpensive wood pulp papers, in addition to science fiction works such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fantastic Voyage and King Kong. He also said "[he] loved reading the old issues of pulps growing up. They were big adventures in which a group of explorers might discover a hidden world or ancient creatures. They've been a huge inspiration for Strange World."

The miracle plant Pando is named after a forest in Utah in America. The land of Avalonia was given a "warm, nostalgic" color scheme to contrast with the titular strange world inside the creature, for which the filmmakers "avoided earth tones and leaned into reds and magentas." They also created a way for the character Splat to communicate non-verbally, similar to the magic carpet in Aladdin.

The production team for the film conducted research on climatologists, paleontologists and biologists, as well as a farmer, while filmmakers visited National Geographic for research, which is reflected not just in the film's setting, but in its inhabitants.

The land of Avalonia is named after the island of Avalon of Arthurian legend and presented as a utopic community.

Music

Henry Jackman was announced to compose the score for the film on September 5, 2022, marking his third collaboration with Don Hall, after Winnie the Pooh and Big Hero 6, and his fifth overall feature-length scoring work with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which includes the Wreck-It Ralph films. Walt Disney Records released the score album on November 23, 2022, in addition to the song "They're The Clades!" performed by James Hayden, also having a reprised version of the tracks, the same day as the theatrical release.

Release

Marketing

Following the project announcement, the first look concept art of the film was released on December 9, 2021. Max Évry of /Film said the image "[looked] a lot like Avatar, or at the very least the Pandora section of Disney World's Animal Kingdom." The marketing campaign for Strange World began on June 6, 2022, with the release of a teaser trailer. Petrana Radulovic for Polygon felt it was "an homage to retro sci-fi flicks" and similar to Raya and the Last Dragon, it "definitely seems to lean more into the action than Disney's typical musical fantasies." A new trailer was shown at the 2022 D23 Expo and the official trailer was released on September 21, 2022, followed by a cast reaction video a day later. Lex Briscuso of /Film says it "honestly looks like a breath of fresh air when it comes to animated family stories." A "special look" trailer was released on October 19, 2022. Rafael Motamayor of /Film said "Though the upbeat song and the focus on laughs kind of sells this as a more formulaic Disney film in terms of tone, the prominent use of monsters and big action hopefully makes this more of an inventive film from the studio." Two featurettes "Welcome to Strange World" and "100 Years of Amazing Characters", which showcased the characters of Splat and Legend, were released on November 3, 2022, and November 8, 2022, respectively.

Theatrical

Strange World premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on November 15, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 23, 2022.

Strange World was not released theatrically in some regions. Due to Disney's opposition to French regulations regarding theatrical windows, the company announced that Strange World would not see a theatrical release in France, and would instead go straight to Disney+. A Russian release was pulled due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The film was not released theatrically in many other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to avoid the likely censorship of the gay characters.

This was the first film to feature the commemorative 100th anniversary Disney logo in celebration of the company's centennial in 2023, created by Disney Studios Content and Industrial Light & Magic, which was revealed at the 2022 D23 Expo. Christophe Beck composed a new arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star", while Tim Davies conducted it.

Home media

Strange World was made available for streaming on Disney+ on December 23, 2022. The film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on February 14, 2023.

Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which monitors daily updated VOD charts and streaming ratings across the globe, announced that Strange World was the most-streamed film on Disney+ upon its release on the platform. The film ranked among the ten most-streamed films on the streaming service through December 2022, according to FlixPatrol.

Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, reported that Strange World was the eighth most-streamed film between December 19–25, 2022, with 527 million minutes viewed. The following week, from December 26 to January 1, the film placed third with 753 million minutes of watch time. Between January 2–8, 2023, Strange World ranked fifth with 433 million minutes viewed. From January 9–15, the film placed ninth with 200 million minutes of watch time.

On Vudu, Strange World was the sixth most-popular film on Fandango's transactional digital service during the week ending January 1, 2023.

Reception

Box office

Strange World grossed $38 million in the United States and Canada, and $35.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $73.6 million. Variety and Deadline Hollywood estimated the film would lose the studio $100–197 million, which makes it one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time.

In the United States and Canada, Strange World was released alongside Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Devotion, as well as the wide expansions of The Fabelmans and Bones and All, and was initially projected to gross $30–40 million from 4,174 theaters over its five-day opening weekend. The film made $4.2 million on its first day (including $800,000 from Tuesday night previews), which led to less optimism about it meeting initial box office projections and could debut to as low as $23 million. The film ended up debuting even lower than initial re-adjustments, making $11.9 million in its opening weekend (a five-day total of $18.6 million). Overall, it ranked in second place at the box office behind Disney's own Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Several publications labeled the film a box office bomb, with The Hollywood Reporter saying was "the worst opening for a Disney Animation Thanksgiving title in modern times" and Variety calling it a "catastrophic result for Disney". The low box-office opening was attributed to negative word-of-mouth, large budget overall, the lack of movie theater attendance, the expectation of its streaming release on Disney+ as the result of COVID-19 pandemic, rocky company politics, conservative backlash over inclusion of gay characters, critical reviews, a vague and unremarkable premise, and lackluster marketing compared to other Disney animated films. Some analysts believe that then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek's decision to send Pixar's recent animated movies, Soul, Luca and Turning Red, straight to Disney+ so that Disney could focus on building its streaming service caused consumer confusion for families. When Bob Iger returned as Disney CEO prior its release, the distribution division—which was formerly led by Kareem Daniel—was quickly dismantled. Strange World completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on February 2, 2023.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 169 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Strange World is a Disney milestone in terms of representation – but as a storytelling experience, this dazzlingly animated adventure offers little audiences haven't already seen." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 82%, including an average four out of five stars. Strange World was the first film from Walt Disney Animation to earn lower than "A–" and is considered the lowest CinemaScore rating of all Disney animated films since 1991.

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote "it's the characters as much as the environment that make this vibrant, Journey to the Center of the Earth-style adventure movie colorful and diverse in all the best ways. Great as the people and places they explore may be, however, the relatively unimaginative story consigns this gorgeous toon to second-tier status ... instead of cracking the pantheon of Disney classics." Lovia Gyarke of The Hollywood Reporter praised the visuals, writing it was "meticulously and wondrously rendered by the Strange World animators, who drew much of their inspiration from pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s. There's a painterly feel to the landscape, which, combined with the film's sci-fi bent, might trigger memories of Disney's Treasure Planet." Tracy Brown of the Los Angeles Times also praised the visuals as "vibrant, weird, visually stunning... From its lush palette to its cute and deadly flora and fauna, this strange, mysterious world is very much deserving of its status as the film's title character."

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote while the film is not in the same category as "Frozen, Zootopia and Encanto, it's a family-friendly fun fest with the expected ingredients of fast-paced action, ingenious visuals, terrific voice performances and, yes, some heaping spoonfuls of upbeat messaging about family ties, the importance of being true to oneself and how we should all take great measures to take care of not only each other but the world in which we live, no matter how STRANGE that world might be." Brian Truitt of USA Today gave the film three stars out of four, stating Strange World is "an enjoyable piece of vibrant world building that steps away from the musical bent of recent non-Pixar efforts like Encanto and the Frozen flicks." Odie Henderson of The Boston Globe praised the film's environmental and father-son messages, as well as the "excellent voice-over work plus the score by Henry Jackman make the preachiness palatable and the film fun. The look of Avalonia's underworld is a lovely distraction; its garish and bright pinks, reds, and greens look lifted from the colored roofs of a suburban New Jersey neighborhood in the 1970s."