Avalonia, l'étrange voyage

This movie is a the epitome of cliche . We felt the same when we left the theater as we entered it. We came with our children full of hope for a nice family film, however, about halfway in, we just wanted it to end. The movie didn't make us laugh or make us cry, it didn't move us at all. We felt like empty plastic throughout the film. As much as we wanted to feel something, the movie went nowhere. It was formulaic and predictable. The characters are shallow and unrelatable. The animation is nice as well as the action, but it was lacking a story line . If we could ask for a refund, unfortunately, we would. Definitely not recommended.

Ehhh pretty generic and meh. Didn't feel much for the characters emotionally and the movie wasn't that funny. The Strange World stuff wasn't really anything I hadn't already seen before. Where the plot goes at the end thinks it's more clever than it actually is. I was underwhelmed by the entire execution.

At the end of the day, this is very weak by Modern Disney standards. It's an easy watch and the animation is decent in places, as well as the music, but overall I'm not going to remember much from it that I had already seen these premises/concepts done in movies before. A Mediocre World is what it is.

5/10.

Disney has been taken over by incompetence it seems. There's no story or creativity here. I realize not every film is going to be fantastic but this must not have been screened anywhere. I'm not even sure it should have been released on streaming because it essentially devalues the subscription. Everything was forced. I should say something nice about it so I'll say the voice acting was okay. Now they just need to hire some writers. My kids and I gave up halfway through. They were excited to see a new movie available, but I didn't read the reviews beforehand. A lesson I won't soon forget. I bet soon you'll be able to take the synopsis and hand it to AI and get a better result than what they came up with here.

... and while I think they did a great job building a world, with a lot of cool recombinations of old sci-fi concepts, the actual characters don't feel at all well sketched out and the themes and plot are remarkably thin. Like it's an okay film but it's a bit below the normal standards of Disney Animation.

The dialogue is definitely too much on the nose, and it feels pitched a little too young for what they're going for.

The main character arc of the movie is reminiscent of (and far inferior to) Mitchells vs The Machines to me, which can't be a great help. Not saying that there can only be one "quirky teen has strained relationship with father" movie but it's definitely a detriment when I'm thinking about a film that does that much better and with a whole lot more emotional complexity and heart while watching this.

Also, does anyone else feel like the sheer quantity of movies that are coming out right now that are about intergenerational trauma is getting a bit tiresome?

The environmental message is fine, but honestly it's mildly horrifying how culturally we're already at the point where kids movies are pitching "you should be willing to accept a much lower standard of living to save the planet." Not totally this movies fault, but that is where we are.

The opening sequence is really nice though, I'll say that.

The last fifteen minutes or so do redeem this to a certain extent, but otherwise it is a curiously disjointed story that seems drawn from "Island at the Top of the World" (1974) with bits of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (1959) and "The Lost World" (1960) thrown in for good measure. We start with the legendary explorer "Jaeger Clade" who is determined to find a way past the enclosing mountain peaks of their community. Like many a father, he drags along his unwilling son and when things come to an head, he proceeds alone leaving the younger man "Searcher" with his newly discovered crop of radioactive Brussels sprouts. Twenty-five years pass, and he has now grown up and successfully developed a farm of these particularly useful vegetables. He even has his own statue! Suddenly, though, the plants start to die and it falls to him and his own young son "Ethan" to embark on a perilous mission to the heart of the plant's root system and save it before it dies. These escapades are nicely and creatively animated with some fun to be had along the way, but there is simply too much sentiment, familial discord and cheesy dialogue to sustain this - as well as a dog that really annoys after a while. The characterisations are really undercooked and just about every box you can imagine is ticked as the story ultimately concludes with a bit of a nod to Oriental mythology. It is certainly watchable, but there is no need to shell out on a cinema ticket for it. Disney+ will do fine in due course when you can safely leave the kids to watch.