"Strange World"'s Plot Can't Outgrow its Roots
New explorer animation brings Disney's story quality to much lower expectations.
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
New explorer animation brings Disney's story quality to much lower expectations.
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
Disney’s newest film, “Strange World” premiered in theaters on Nov. 23, bringing animation and storytelling to new levels on opposite sides of the spectrum. While the visuals were beautiful and alluring, the plot and storyline didn’t live up to my expectations for this movie.
Living half-way in the shadow the famous explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal) has built his own life as a farmer after discovering the plant, Pando, which provided electricity. After Pando starts to die and loses its power, the president of Avalonia and old friend of Jaeger, Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu) comes to Searcher to go on an expedition to find the source of what is killing Pando. Searcher’s wife, Meridian, and his son, Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), join Searcher and the rest of the explorers on the expedition to journey to the new world beneath their town and discover what is killing Pando.
The plot for “Strange World,” to say the least, wasn’t great. Most of the movie’s screen time focused on the father-son relationship dynamics between Jaeger, Searcher and Ethan. While it was cool to see those relationship dynamics between a father and son, it took up way too much time of the movie's plot. The original plot, with the exploration of this world below the town of Avalonia, was masked by the extended time on the relationships between the fathers and sons.
“Strange World” also had some major holes in the plot that had nothing to do with relationship dynamics. Just little things here and there about this new world that is being explored, that if expanded a lot more, would have pulled the plot together really nicely. Although there was such a big build-up to the big reveal at the end, the reveal was extremely disappointing because there were so many holes in the plot. The reveal made sense, however, there should have been a lot more clues through the movie to lead the audience to the final conclusion of what happened.
On the upside, one of the only things that you can always count on in a Disney movie is the animation, and the animation for “Strange World” did not disappoint. The new world that the movie took place in was put together beautifully, with the vibrant colors and detailed scenery. Included in with the scenery, were the strange, new animals who are the living parts of this new world. There were the dangerous creatures who were painted in darker colors, like purple and sometimes dark gray. The safer creatures were a lot more vibrant with bright pinks and blues.
The other pretty cool thing about this movie was how it featured a relatable family. There are no magical powers that surround the Clades and their lives. The town of Avalonia is powered by a plant and electricity. It was cool seeing less magic and more reality in a Disney movie.
All in all, “Strange World” was a half decent movie ranging from beautiful visuals and well thought out characters to bad story writing. The movie’s plot, which was basically the whole story, was half thought out and unoriginal in my opinion. From first glance, you can tell right away that many other famous movies including “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Indiana Jones” had been used as references throughout the entirety of “Strange World.” Overall, it was the failing Disney movie of the year, but not even the beautiful animation could bring it up to my expectations.
Disney’s “Strange World” is currently playing in theaters.
Living half-way in the shadow the famous explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal) has built his own life as a farmer after discovering the plant, Pando, which provided electricity. After Pando starts to die and loses its power, the president of Avalonia and old friend of Jaeger, Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu) comes to Searcher to go on an expedition to find the source of what is killing Pando. Searcher’s wife, Meridian, and his son, Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), join Searcher and the rest of the explorers on the expedition to journey to the new world beneath their town and discover what is killing Pando.
The plot for “Strange World,” to say the least, wasn’t great. Most of the movie’s screen time focused on the father-son relationship dynamics between Jaeger, Searcher and Ethan. While it was cool to see those relationship dynamics between a father and son, it took up way too much time of the movie's plot. The original plot, with the exploration of this world below the town of Avalonia, was masked by the extended time on the relationships between the fathers and sons.
“Strange World” also had some major holes in the plot that had nothing to do with relationship dynamics. Just little things here and there about this new world that is being explored, that if expanded a lot more, would have pulled the plot together really nicely. Although there was such a big build-up to the big reveal at the end, the reveal was extremely disappointing because there were so many holes in the plot. The reveal made sense, however, there should have been a lot more clues through the movie to lead the audience to the final conclusion of what happened.
On the upside, one of the only things that you can always count on in a Disney movie is the animation, and the animation for “Strange World” did not disappoint. The new world that the movie took place in was put together beautifully, with the vibrant colors and detailed scenery. Included in with the scenery, were the strange, new animals who are the living parts of this new world. There were the dangerous creatures who were painted in darker colors, like purple and sometimes dark gray. The safer creatures were a lot more vibrant with bright pinks and blues.
The other pretty cool thing about this movie was how it featured a relatable family. There are no magical powers that surround the Clades and their lives. The town of Avalonia is powered by a plant and electricity. It was cool seeing less magic and more reality in a Disney movie.
All in all, “Strange World” was a half decent movie ranging from beautiful visuals and well thought out characters to bad story writing. The movie’s plot, which was basically the whole story, was half thought out and unoriginal in my opinion. From first glance, you can tell right away that many other famous movies including “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Indiana Jones” had been used as references throughout the entirety of “Strange World.” Overall, it was the failing Disney movie of the year, but not even the beautiful animation could bring it up to my expectations.
Disney’s “Strange World” is currently playing in theaters.