Strange World (2022)
Directed by Don Hall
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.
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9 films that influenced Strange World
What critics say influenced Strange World
Disney pulls further inspirations from Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar , James Cameron’s Avatar , and, strangely enough, Osmosis Jones , to mix things up even more.
In this underworld, the crew, which also includes Avalonia’s president, Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu), comes across fantastical creatures and landscapes, recalling everything from Dr. Seuss and Avatar to the films of Miyazaki Hayao, minus much of the specificity and meticulous detail that make the latter so memorable.
Once below the surface, Strange World comes to life thanks to the production’s animators, who create a world reminiscent of James Cameron’s Pandora from Avatar (2009), except mostly pink-hued.
Whatever suspicions you might have about what else the Clades might find there will prove correct, and if you’re thinking about how this film’s plant name is two letters shy of Avatar ’s setting, well … that’s the level of narrative inspiration here, filled as Strange World is with people jumping onto brightly colored flying creatures and its own sort of Hometree metaphor.
You can read the inspirations clearly even in the promotional material: early 20th-century adventure serials, sci-fi pulp fiction like “Fantastic Voyage” and “John Carter of Mars,” the tentacled horror of H.P. Lovecraft, “Avatar,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”
On the planet of Avalonia, the Clades are famous: Grandpa Jaeger (Dennis Quaid) is a legendary explorer with a statue in the village square – he’s also been missing for 25 years – and pop Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) has his own monument for discovering and harnessing a plant called pando that provides sustenance and a source of power for airships – think “Avatar” (2009).
Reminiscent of the classic original Disney adventures “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” and “Treasure Planet,” the Mouse House’s latest, an homage to 1950s science fiction called “Strange World”, is a fitting lesson on the ethos of climate change and humanity’s ability to protect their homestead.
There’s a painterly feel to the landscape, which, combined with the film’s sci-fi bent, might trigger memories of Disney’s Treasure Planet.
Not since the back-to-back years of 2001’s “Atlantis” and 2002’s “Treasure Planet” has Disney crafted a throwback, Jules Verne-esque venture this fun and rousing.
The Mouse House's Treasure Planet springs to mind, too, as do Jules Verne's contributions to literature.
Those who came of age (including this critic) right at the moment Disney, like every other major American production studio, gave up on hand-drawn two-dimensional animation and who hold those last unloved movies (“Treasure Planet,” “Titan A.E.,” “The Iron Giant”) as a final glimpse of an era that never was, may see in “Strange World” an attempt to recreate some of that lost magic.
Even outside the limited scope of Disney adventure films dating back to Atlantis and Treasure Planet , or well outside the mouse house to the film’s most obvious influences, which include but aren’t limited to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Journey to the Center of the Earth .
Reminiscent of the classic original Disney adventures “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” and “Treasure Planet,” the Mouse House’s latest, an homage to 1950s science fiction called “Strange World”, is a fitting lesson on the ethos of climate change and humanity’s ability to protect their homestead.
You can read the inspirations clearly even in the promotional material: early 20th-century adventure serials, sci-fi pulp fiction like “Fantastic Voyage” and “John Carter of Mars,” the tentacled horror of H.P. Lovecraft, “Avatar,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”
Strange World transported me back to my childhood days of watching imaginative Disney tales like Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet .
Directors Don Hall and Qui Nguyen don’t shy away from their inspirations, including “Warning from Space,” “War of the Worlds,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” and even “Interstellar.”
Disney pulls further inspirations from Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar , James Cameron’s Avatar , and, strangely enough, Osmosis Jones , to mix things up even more.
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And, unsurprisingly when it comes to big eco messages and animation, Studio Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke got there first.
You don't have to be an environmentalist to appreciate the majesty of Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke," and for all of its flaws, "FernGully: The Last Rainforest" featured endearing characters that made the sermonizing seem less obvious.
The film openly pays homage to well-respected adventure romps such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and John Carter – a decision that I found refreshing rather than redundant.
My issues with the film have more to do with the bland, familiar nature of the (human) character animation, which looks like it was pulled right out of The Croods or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs —not especially inspired or expressive, or maybe the problem is they’re too expressive, so when they react to something actually terrifying, it’s hard to tell because they make the same face when nothing is going on.
Y en la misma onda que, por ejemplo, Call Me By Your Name, de Luca Guadagnino, en la que tampoco se planteaba controversia familiar alguna.
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But maybe that’s the point — if it’s not a major plot point, nor is it a sneeze-and-you-miss it moment like, for example, that quick glance in “Beauty and the Beast” in 2017 that was heralded as the first Disney “gay moment.”