Strange World movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (2024)

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Strange World movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (1)

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All the basic elements of “Strange World,” Disney’s latest sci-fi/fantasy flick, are familiar. There’s a family of adventurers, a dire mission to save the planet from a mysterious ecological crisis, an absent father, three generations of insecure men, and a bunch of under-developed female supporting characters whose placeholder personalities range from strong to loving. It’s “Avatar” meets “Fantastic Voyage,” and it also looks really good on a big screen thanks to Disney’s many, many talented animators. With their help, “Strange World” breezes through a checklist of formulaic plot points and canned emotional revelations with enough style and sensitivity to make it work.

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“Strange World” is the latest collaboration of co-directors Don Hall and Qui Nguyen, who previously worked on “Raya and the Last Dragon” with Hall’s co-directors, Paul Briggs and Carlos López Estrada. It’s always hard to know how to praise collaborations of this scale and nature, but Nguyen’s solo writing byline on “Strange World” stands out, and so does his co-director credit (this is his debut feature). Hall’s no slouch either; his name, on recent Disney successes like “Moana,” “Big Hero 6,” and “Winnie the Pooh,” also seems noteworthy.

After “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Strange World” feels like a lower-stakes, and therefore more comfortable, union of Hall and Nguyen’s talents. These guys have clearly seen and maybe even studied the Disney cartoons that defined the company’s ‘90s animation renaissance. (Seriously, have you seen “Big Hero 6”?). So it’s nice to see that, with “Strange World,” they’ve found a project that brings out the best of their combined talents and doesn’t just feel like it was focus-grouped to death.

“Strange World” zips along with an easy pace that makes up for its lack of dramatic tension. Stubborn explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) abandons his insecure son, Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal). Searcher wants his dad to follow his lead for once, and, in this case, pay attention to a mysterious green plant that he calls Pando, but Jaeger dismisses both Searcher and Pando. Twenty-five years pass in the blink of an intertitle after Searcher leaves his fellow adventurers to find the outer limits of Avalonia, the Clades’ isolated mountain valley home. In that time, Searcher has become Avalonia’s hero, since they’ve adopted Pando as the town’s main power supply. Searcher’s a Pando farmer now and his world mainly revolves around his crops and his family: his loving aviator wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union), his easily-embarrassed teenage son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), and Legend, their three-legged dog.

When the Pando crops are not yielding the electrical charge that they used to, Callisto (Lucy Liu), one of Jaeger’s old explorer buddies, asks a reluctant Searcher to help her find out. And he does, with his wife and son in tow. Together, they descend into a big hole in the ground, where they discover a vibrant, Pandora-like world filled with various creatures, plants, and other sentient fauna that look like they were traced from old biology textbook illustrations. They also quickly stumble upon Jaeger, who now lives among the amoeba forests and acid rivers. He and Searcher play catch up while Searcher chases after Ethan, who’s always a few steps ahead.

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As you might expect, the Clade men do not see eye-to-eye, nor do they work well together as a team. Their creators thankfully avoid several clichéd power dynamics, though they tiptoe up to a few of them along the way, like when Jaeger asks Ethan about his love life and mercifully doesn’t bat an eye when he discovers that Ethan likes a boy named Diazo. Searcher’s parents already know and accept their kid for who he is, and their affectionate concerns always err on the right side of heavily telegraphed sentimentality. Their dialogue appears to have been polished and rewritten without also being sandblasted down to bland talking points.

The same is true of the animation and general direction of “Strange World,” which flies from one action and chase scene to the next. Quaid and Gyllenhaal stand out among the strong ensemble voice cast, but the animators make what could have been a paint-by-numbers genre exercise look good enough to gawk at. They commit to a sort of lavishly rendered paperback novel/matte painting surrealism and pack the camera’s frame with flocks of magenta pterodactyls, forests of pastel coral, and oceans of multi-colored tentacle grass.

There’s something to be said for a kid-friendly cartoon whose main appeal isn’t its creators’ out-of-the-box thinking, but rather their crew’s thoughtful execution of otherwise shopworn ideas. That doesn’t seem to happen often enough with Disney’s recent animated movies, which help make “Strange World” feel like an exceptional triumph of execution over ingenuity. You could do a lot worse.

Only in theaters today, November 23rd.

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Film Credits

Strange World movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (9)

Strange World (2022)

Rated PGfor action/peril and some thematic elements.

102 minutes

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaalas Searcher Clade (voice)

Dennis Quaidas Jaeger Clade (voice)

Jaboukie Young-Whiteas Ethan Clade (voice)

Gabrielle Unionas Meridian Clade (voice)

Lucy Liuas Callisto Mal (voice)

Alan Tudykas Duffle (voice)

Jonathan Meloas Diazo (voice)

Director

  • Don Hall

Director (co-director)

  • Qui Nguyen

Writer

  • Qui Nguyen

Editor

  • Sarah K. Reimers

Composer

  • Henry Jackman

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Strange World movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (2024)

FAQs

What is the summary of Strange World? ›

What is the message in Strange World? ›

These are the main messages from Strange World: Parents shouldn't expect their children to become exactly like them; children have their own dreams and their own paths to follow. Everything in the natural world is connected; you cannot damage one part without other parts also being affected.

What is the lesson of the movie Strange World? ›

It's a bit heavy-handed but the message is clear: Being self-absorbed is not good for your family or the planet, so you need to adjust for the sake of the future.

What was Ebert's last review? ›

The last review by Ebert published during his lifetime was for The Host, which was published on March 27, 2013. The last review Ebert wrote was for To the Wonder, which he gave 3.5 out of 4 stars in a review for the Chicago Sun-Times. It was posthumously published on April 6, 2013.

What is the summary of the strange story? ›

One night, the Smothers' daughter develops colic, an onset of abdominal pain common in infants. John Smothers rushes out to get his daughter some medicine but never returns. The story, and the Smothers' lives, progress. The daughter recovers and grows up, gets married, and has a daughter of her own.

What is the twist in Strange World? ›

The two realize that Avalonia is on the creature's back, and that they have been traveling through its body, meaning that the Reapers and all the other creatures are its immune system.

What is the deeper meaning of the Strange World? ›

The True Meaning Of Strange World's Ending

Exploiting it for resources to the point of near-death is not good, no matter what these resources provide to people. Strange World's story suggests there are always other ways to provide energy and power without causing destruction to the land and environment itself.

What is the main theme of Strange World? ›

In fact, I really enjoyed Strange World and have already watched it a few times. The story centers around an interracial family and tackles coming of age themes like parental-child relationships, generational trauma, individuation, and finding what makes you happy in life regardless of familial expectations.

What is Strange World a metaphor for? ›

The Disney movie Strange World has an a strong anti-consumption message for kids. Or kid-like adults. Spoiler for real: the plot of the movie is a new energy source is discovered by some dude in an isolated world, and 25 years later they learn: The world they live in (or…on) is actually a living, breathing organism.

Why is Strange World so controversial? ›

After Lightyear was banned in select countries due to a same-sex kiss (that had previously been removed and put back into the film) Disney was probably prepared for at least some backlash from critics once it was revealed that Strange World's main character, Ethan Clade, was Disney's first openly gay teen animated ...

Is Strange World a good movie? ›

And while Strange World is quite entertaining and groundbreaking in terms of representation, we have to admit that it's not the best movie of its genre and ends up feeling formulaic both in terms of storytelling and character development.

Who is the villain in Strange World? ›

Callisto Mal is the main antagonist of Disney•Pixar's 92nd full-length animated feature film Strange World. She is the president of Avalonia and helps lead the Clades into this new world.

What were Roger Ebert's final words? ›

Sometime ago, I heard that Roger Ebert's wife, Chaz, talked about Roger's last words. He died of cancer in 2013. “Life is but a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

What problems did Friedrich Ebert face? ›

In January 1918, when the workers in munition factories in Berlin went on strike, Ebert joined the strike leadership but worked hard to get the strikers back to work. He was pilloried by some from the left as a "traitor to the working class" and by others from the right as a "traitor to the fatherland".

Why is Roger Ebert so famous? ›

Ebert was known for his unabashed love of cinema and an unpretentious, accessible approach that allowed him to give equal critical consideration to both Hollywood blockbusters and art house fare.

What is the summary of Strange New Worlds? ›

This book is written for readers who find themselves shocked and confused at the sudden rise of LGBT+ causes within western cultures. Strange New World, by Carl Trueman, explains how our culture has changed to allow the present dominance of self-selected gender identity and the protected status of sexual authenticity.

What is the concept of a Strange World? ›

This is the second Disney Animated Canon film to stream on Disney+ just 30 days after its theatrical release after Encanto. The theme of the movie is based on these three concepts: Age of Exploration, Age of Discovery, and Age of Renewable Energy.

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