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
- MegaWatOfficial - 8 January 2023
A more than passable World, even if nothing more than that
After back to back releases of what seemed to be average-at-best live action remake after another, Disney seems to be FINALLY reverting back to making great originals again. Whether it be the awesome "Raya and the Last Dragon" or "Encanto" among others, Disney seems to be on a roll that they haven't been on in years, and it's great to see, with Pixar doing some heavy lifting as well, as the likes of "Soul", "Luca", and "Turning Red" are all excellent and some of the studios best in over a decade. With all of that table turning Disney has been doing, does "Strange World" continue that trend?
Kind of. Of all of the Disney/Pixar movies released recently, the only one I feel is worse than this movie is "Frozen 2". Though, that's more of a compliment than it sounds, because I thought "Frozen 2" was fine; even if a bit uneven and bland. This movie, thankfully, is only one of those things. But before we go over that, I want to go over what this movie excels at, and that is the animation and characters. This movie is one of the most consistently creative and beautiful movies I've ever seen from Disney, and I mean it. It takes the premise this movie named itself after, and not only has fun with it, but also makes it gorgeous and full of life. The characters, as well, are all some of the most likable and memorable in an animated movie I've seen, as the dynamic between them works perfectly. Whether it be the overprotective Searcher, the overadventurous Jaeger, the potential-filled Ethan, or everyone else, I was invested in all of them, even the cute blue organism lovingly called "Splat".
They (and the beautiful animation to a lesser extent) SAVE this movie. I'm so beyond grateful for them, because this movie would have no chance at being that good otherwise. While the story itself isn't necessarily bad, it's so packed to the gills with animated movie tropes, that it makes the movie feel bland. It seems that every time this movie shows off something that MIGHT be something big, it usually is, and it makes for an unfortunately predictable movie. Granted, the good pacing as well as the aforementioned wonderfully written characters and beautiful animation still make it a movie that will likely hook you to stay until the end. But this movie really does nothing to push the animated movie bar further, as I can think of movies from decades ago from the same company that smash this one.
But even with that, I can also think of plenty more that are way worse. Remember the crappy "Planes" movies? This movie is basically "Citizen Kane" in comparison. Overall, this movie isn't anything special, though because of how good the characters and pacing are and how beautiful the animation is, I can still comfortably recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It, despite it borrowing a lot from other animated movies, manages to be a very entertaining and enjoyable movie from start to finish. It does just enough to be good, even if nothing more than that. Still a lot better than the tiresome live action remakes.
