By Jonah Naplan

November 25, 2022

“Strange World” is the 61st Walt Disney Animation Studios film, and is a love letter to voyage movies of the sixties, and fantasy movies of the current day. But it’s still engulfed by plotlines that are far too familiar—things that have been done far better, even in other Disney movies. The usual tropes it plays with are effective, but only to a point. And that’s the biggest reason why “Strange World” often feels exhausted and uninspired. Of course, the animation is beautiful to look at on the big screen, and Disney tops itself again with each magical landscape, but that’s never enough in a movie that puts style over substance in a story that always feels empty.

Directors Don Hall and Qui Nguyen worked together last year on “Raya and the Last Dragon,” a film I found to be infinitely more insightful and fascinating to watch than “Strange World.” In fact, “Strange World” sometimes appears to borrow ideas from the former, but waters them down to such a point that they simply aren’t as vivacious as they used to be. I guess that doesn’t count as plagiarism then? Either way, “Strange World” offers nothing more than another family dynamic movie for families, that is original in how it presents its ideas, but completely unoriginal in what the ideas are themselves.

“Strange World” follows the Clade family, fathered by Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), a tough, muscular, brick of a man, whose son, Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal) sees him as a fool and an opposite role model for how to be a father for his own son, Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White). Jaeger Clade was presumed to be dead for 25 years after he made it his only goal and focus to search “the other side of the mountain,” but then never came back or was heard from again after attempting to do so. Jump forward to present day, as we follow Searcher, living as a farmer with his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) and his son, get called upon by his father’s old partner, Callisto (Lucy Liu), to help save the world from an urgent ecological crisis that could destroy all of Searcher’s famed Pando crops. Searcher agrees to go on this voyage, but chaos quickly ensues when he realizes Ethan and Meridian tagged along too, Jaeger is still alive and has been living secluded for a long time, and their ship has entered a “strange world” hidden underneath what they only thought they knew.

There really is nothing blatantly bad about “Strange World,” it’s just frustratingly bland, and often heartbreakingly unfunny. I say “heartbreakingly,” because I remember a time when I was younger, when the newest Disney animated movie would always make me laugh and entertain little Jonah for a good hour and forty minutes. That’s not so much the case anymore. Disney has had a noticeable falling off in recent years, having not produced any new classics such as “Frozen,” “Big Hero 6” and “Zootopia,” in a considerable while. Several would make a case for “Encanto,” although I wouldn’t, and even parts of “Raya and the Last Dragon” sometimes feel tired.

Excuse my rant, but it’s just saddening to see a childhood favorite studio continue to release content, but not have any momentum to any of it. “Strange World” is just another piece of that puzzle. It always means well, but never actually says anything. Sometimes quite literally. “Strange World” is never a difficult movie to follow, but it’s hard to discern what the movie is really about. That’s where the “style over substance” issue kicks in. The movie is all about its gorgeous landscapes, seemingly engineered to guide the viewer away from how thin the characters really are. Even each Clade man is only defined by a few minor character traits, and I felt that the only one I was really rooting for by the end was Ethan. The message it wants to convey is sincere, and an important one at that, but it doesn’t really receive enough closure with an ending that feels all too rushed.

But what does make “Strange World” unique, out of all the other things that don’t, is that it’s never boring to watch. Sure, the ideas aren’t original, but they are still good ones. When “Strange World” isn’t developing, or not developing, for that matter, on its themes, the movie is just one big chase scene after the next, and some of them are actually pretty creative. It’s a movie that is sure to make young ones in the audience smile, even if the grins aren’t earned. It’s still manufactured well, with that good-old-fashioned Disney spice that automatically makes these movies appealing for families. You could do a lot worse this Thanksgiving weekend, but you could also do much better.

Now playing in theaters.