In the early 2000s, emboldened by the popularity of anime in the states, three big budget, sci-fi/action animated features would be released in America by major studios. They were "Titan A.E." – a Don Bluth/Fox production – "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Treasure Planet," which were both Disney productions. All three were box office failures, signaling the end of traditional animation as a popular medium in U.S. cinema. It also suggested that mainstream audiences didn't have much interest in science fiction cartoons. (Cult audiences, meanwhile, quickly embraced all three.) It's been twenty-two years and, despite these past failures, Disney seemed ready to try a similar experiment again. "Strange World," a CGI animated film, would see the world's most famous animation studio trying their hand at telling another expansive science fiction story.
Jaeger Clade is the most celebrated explorer in all of Avalonia, a country surrounded by an impenetrable wall of mountains. Jaeger is determined to make it to the other side of the mountains, much to the chagrin of his meek son, Searcher. During the same mountainous expedition Jaeger disappears, Searcher discovers an electricity-producing plant he names Pando. Twenty years later, Pando has made Avalonia a technologically advanced utopia. Yet Searcher notices that the plant is losing its effectiveness. The President of Avalonia soon arrives to tell him that Pando is dying at its root, deep within the earth. Searcher joins an expedition into the planet's heart to reverse the problem before it's too late. His rebellious teenage son, Ethan, stowaways on the vessel as it descends into the bizarre world under the surface. Along the way, Searcher is reunited with his father.
"Strange World" draws inspiration from the pulp science-fiction magazines of the early 20th century. It features a lot of the same themes and ideas present in those old stories. The time period for the story is never specified, with many modern touches existing alongside a vaguely 1920s style aesthetic. Jaeger Clade is exactly the kind of stout-chinned, two-fisted hero that was common place in such stories. The premise of a fantastical world within the earth, that the heroes uncover from inside amazing flying machines, obviously recalls the works of Jules Verne. The same sense of classical adventure and discovery that inspired those works clearly drove the filmmakers behind "Strange World."
What maybe impressed me the most about "Strange World" is the imaginative world building on display. There's so much cool stuff packed into this film. The society that thrives on the planet's surface is really clever. The invention of Pando produces a number of miraculous machines and technologies that take the place of modern conveniences, like airplanes and automobiles. There's flying machines that hover along the skyline, powered by these little glowing Brussels sprouts. While not meeting the definition of "steampunk" or "dieselpunk," it feels drawn from a similar vein. The film imagined a world that is set in the past but pushed forward into the future by technology unavailable in our time.
Once the trip into the planet's interior begins, "Strange World" gleefully lives up to its title. You can tell the designers and animators really had fun cooking up increasingly odd alien life forms. Some of the creatures are clearly inspired by animals that live on our world. The antagonistic "Reapers" resemble pterodactyls made of swirling, red fabric like matter. There are creatures that move around like gazelles but have a mass of twitching tentacles in place of heads. Others are stranger yet, resembling floating nudibranches or ambulatory landscapes. There's lots of polyps and blob-like membranes. I never expected to see a big budget Disney movie so obviously influenced by "Fantastic Planet" and yet here we are.
Yet even this is not what "Strange World" is really about, at least not singularly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of Disney movies over the years have focused on the relationships between parents and their children. The studio's Marvel superhero flicks have especially foregrounded conflicts with fathers. "Strange World" similarly wears its Daddy Issues right on its sleeves. Jaeger and Searcher never really bonded, as the son felt inadequate in his boisterous father's shadow. A boy more interested in science and agriculture didn't find a lot of common ground with this proud adventurer. When his single-minded focus on reaching the other side of the mountain led to him disappearing for two decades, Searcher felt truly abandoned by his dad. It confirmed all his worst fears about his dad. Their reunion inevitably has them putting their differences to rest and learning to appreciate one another.
This subplot is at its most compelling when illustrating the ways that, no matter how divided Searcher feels from his dad, they are similar people. Both have single-minded visions for their own sons, Searcher hoping Ethan grows up to be a farmer like him despite the boy having more in common with his explorer grandfather. This is illustrated in an amusing scene that shows the two men unknowingly mirroring each other's movements. As someone who has sometimes struggled with his own father, and accepting that he's part of me no matter how much he's let me down, I can't help but be a little touched by this. It has a tidy Disney movie resolution but I appreciate "Strange World" even touching on the idea. Maybe we should all be a little more forgiving of our bad dads.
As much as I liked "Strange World," there is one issue facing the film. As soon as I saw the trailer, I noted a number of distracting one-liners and quips. This, unfortunately, was not just the trailer overemphasizing the pithy dialogue. "Strange World" has jokes in and they are mostly pretty lame. It's the kind of lazy, sitcom-level dialogue that feels desperate to get the audience to laugh. This is what you expect from the lesser Dreamworks movies and it makes the film seem insecure about its sci-fi story and family drama. The only moment in the film that really got me to laugh was a sequence where the three-legged dog – one of two adorable animal sidekicks – is called upon to help the heroes escape a situation.
The voice cast do an admirable job though. Jake Gyllenhaal has a likably nervous quality as Searcher, a man certain about many things but constantly forced out of his comfort zone. He has strong chemistry with Dennis Quaid as Jaeger, who does a suitable job summoning the classic adventurer hero energy, and Gabrielle Union as his resourceful wife. Jakoubie Young-White is also nicely suited to the role of Ethan, definitely bringing the right youthful quality to the part. Lucy Liu plays the President of Avalonia who, in a lesser film, would be the antagonist of the story. Instead, she's simply someone working from her own preconceived notions that are challenged throughout the narrative.
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