Film Review — Strange World
★★★☆☆
A legendary family of explorers journey to an uncharted land filled with bizarre creatures in an attempt to save their world.
As proudly revealed with a sparkly new indent, 2023 is set to bring even more fireworks for the world’s largest movie studio. Fitting, then, that the first release in Disney’s milestone one-hundredth year is a feature that pushes the art of animation whilst leaning heavily on classic inspiration.
This time around, the inspiration isn’t some old Danish folktale or a Chinese myth. Instead, Strange World borrows its story and style from classic adventure serials, the same kind of pulpy stories that allowed a young George Lucas to dream of his galaxy far, far away.
As with any Disney release in our current fractured times, the discourse around Don Hall and Qui Nguyen’s sci-fi adventure has been rather poisonous. Adding to the woe was the film’s noticeably lacklustre marketing, a campaign eerily evocative of 2012’s equally disastrous John Carter — another fusion of alien vistas and retro aesthetics that Disney didn’t want to talk about for some reason.
The truth, an inconvenient one for many it seems, is that Strange World is…fine. Quite why it’s upset so many people is a bit of a mystery.
It’s a visual treat, one that masterfully combines Disney’s contemporary style with a nice flourish of traditionally drawn sequences that give the film its retro serial sheen. Its voice cast is well assembled and mostly excellent; I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid, who, along with the film’s environmental message, makes this a delightful quasi-companion to The Day After Tomorrow. If that’s your thing.
There is a feeling that this is Disney in a much lower gear. It doesn’t come close to the studio’s classics, nor does it touch recent offerings like Moana. But it’s light, inoffensive, undemanding and brimming with positive intent. The kind of disposable movie tailor-made for a Sunday afternoon with the family.
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