Strange World – Film Review

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.

It’s extremely disappointing to see how Disney’s new animated feature Strange World came out. It’s the sixty-first film released by the juggernaut studio, following the immense success of their previous projects such as Encanto and the wildly popular Frozen II.

Although director Don Hall definitely had some bold ideas for where this film could go, he ultimately ended up crafting a massively forgettable film that strangely forgets to inject the heart and joy into the story, which is a hugely important aspect to any Disney movie.

Despite the fact that this movie focuses on some crazy, intricate locations, it feels like it lacks some serious magic. Dan Scanlon‘s Onward was a significantly more spell-binding film than this one was – and it was also more emotionally gripping as well.

Strange World does attempt to tug at your heartstrings, however, it largely misses. Throughout the entire film, we understand that our lead protagonist Searcher Clade has always viewed his dad as a bad person. Because his dad has been missing for so many years, though, he’s moved on.

But when he gets found alive and thrust back into Searcher’s life, he is then forced to re-examine their relationship and their father-son bond. While the effort to explore some truly amazing themes was definitely there, the execution was certainly less than stellar.

Qui Nguyen‘s script feels way too focused on wacky things instead of telling a legitimately compelling story. To be honest with you, most of this film just feels like Disney got super bored and decided to make a movie where people venture to a wacky world and… that’s it.

All of the vocal performances here are, however, fantastic. Jake Gyllenhaal serves as a wonderful lead protagonist in the form of Searcher Clade, while Dennis Quaid makes for a wonderful Jaeger Clade. Jaboukie Young-White and Gabrielle Union also stand out as Ethan and Meridian, respectively.

There are definitely some elements about Strange World that are undeniably impressive, but the vast majority of the film feels like a huge missed opportunity. Here’s hoping that Disney’s next animated feature is able to dazzle because with this one, they fumbled the ball.

Strange World is a respectable effort and features some stunning animation, but also contains a lacklustre story that just feels like Disney got bored and lazy.