Strange World review: Disney’s epic sci-fi looks amazing but feels odd

While Disney musicals have traditionally been a slam-dunk for audience success, the animation studio’s Other movies — the buddy comedies, the action-adventures, the science fiction epics — are bigger risks with varying returns. Zootopia Ralph Wreck-It were beloved, sure, but there’s also the whole gamut of early-2000s misfires that only became popular years after their release.

Strange World is Disney’s latest big gamble: a weird movie inspired by pulp magazines and retro science fiction. Don Hall directed the movie with Qui Ngyuen (who previously collaborated on Raya and The Last Dragon, this new Disney movie is an absolutely gorgeous genre fest that gets bogged down by cliché family drama. There are two stories battling it out here: a phenomenally cool sci-fi epic, and a family story that mostly boils down to “This dream isn’t mine, Dad — it’s Yours.”

[Ed. note: This review contains some slight setup spoilers for Strange World.]

Image: Disney

Strange WorldIt takes place in Avalonia (fantasy-land), which is bordered on all sides with impenetrable high mountains. Jaeger Clade, a fearless explorer led by Dennis Quaid, an expedition to conquer these mountains twenty-five years back. However, the expedition was stopped when Searcher, his son, discovered a mysterious energy-producing plant.

Jaeger remained stubborn and continued to work, while Searcher, the rest of his team, returned to Avalonia. They eventually made the pando plant a source of power. In the present, the recent pando crops have been failing, so Searcher must embark on a mission to figure out what’s affecting them, even though he’d rather stay on his farm. Ethan, Searcher’s teenage son (Jaboukie Young White), is also on the journey. He secretly hopes to become an explorer. Ethan and Searcher end up under the mountain in an unknown world. Soon, Jaeger is back. Tensions spark between the two different father-son pairs, as they all try to save their land’s primary energy source.

Image: Disney

The movie’s visuals are absolutely breathtaking. Strange World This is why so many movies are successful. Should be animated — there’s no way that this gorgeously weird world, with its warm hues and constantly moving organic shapes, would look remotely this good in live-action. And it’s not just the wacky world below the mountains. Avalonia is an interesting solarpunk-steampunk world where there are coffee machines, personal airships and no cell phones. The tech they use is both familiar and unique enough that it can be used to drive the story forward. But the true heart of this movie is the strange and wonderful world. Every bit of it is delightful.

It is difficult to see the Clade families’ emotional connections as a story about adventure. It would have been a great sci-fi film with an environmental message if the focus was on pando’s quest for salvation and exploration of the zany new planet. It boils down to Clade men struggling to make ends meet with their fathers and fighting to stay from following the same paths.

Image: Disney

This could be an intriguing dynamic that you might explore in another movie. Strange WorldThe story is more interesting and has higher stakes. There’s also a shorter time frame. Although there are many touching moments between father and son, it is not without its fault. Ethan ropes in his father and grandfather to his card game of choice, which is Settlers of Catan-inspired. One of their most memorable scenes involves Ethan inviting his granddad and grandmother along on his current adventure. With more nuance and novelty, these relationships could be something new, but the “Sad Because Dad Left to Explore” trope is already overused in science fiction movies like Interstellar, Ad AstraPlease see the following: Armageddon. In Strange WorldThe storyline is resolved in the best way possible.

The exploration arc is less predictable, and it has one of the zaniest twists in a Disney movie — heck, one of the coolests twists in science fiction. When the emotional heart of the movie focuses on this group of ragtag explorers desperately trying to save the world they know, it’s a grand and exciting adventure, with beautiful scenery and fantastical creatures at every turn. It shines when the movie is focused on the larger scope of the story. But, when the film focuses back to its overdone relationships it loses the spark that makes the movie sparkle. These father-son relationships seem to be supposed to hold the movie together in reality. But they only drag it down. Strange World down when it could’ve soared.

Strange World It will be in theatres November 23.