I personally love it when Disney leaves their comfort zone and releases action films that don't fit their typical mold. The first images of the animation studio's 61st animated feature, Strange World, were fantastic and gorgeous. The film is a steam punk environmentalist fantasy that features an ethnically diverse utopia where queerness appears to be integrated without homophobia and patriarchy seems non-existent. It is a strange world indeed for the Mouse House and to be honest, I found it all rather glorious.
The story focuses on intergenerational connection with the backdrop of a world saving mission that takes on the energy sector and is filled with tributes to Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fantastic Journey, Lovecraftian mythos, Pulp Magazine stories, and American Indigenous legends. And it is a gorgeous film. The art direction here is out of this world (pun intended) and simply beautiful to watch on a big screen. It does appear Disney is dumping the film's theatrical release in favour of a bigger streaming rollout which is too bad because this is the sort of film that would stand out on the biggest screen possible.
Another factor here that I found fascinating is that this is a film without villains. While there are occasionally characters in opposition to each other, the film doesn't boil things down to black and white, instead allowing us to see the different perspectives and understand why characters are doing what they are doing. The film even cleverly references this when some characters are playing a card game (the amazing looking Primal World which I hope they release for real cause I want to play it!) and one of them explains that there aren't "monsters" the goal is to live in harmony with your environment.
And the story is just a lot of fun, filled with wonder and suspense, twists and complications. I am sad to see Disney not give this the biggest rollout they can cause I think it's going to be one of my favourites.
Strange World
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, Lucy Liu
Director: Don Hall
Writer: Qui Nguyen
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