Mundo Estranho

... 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.

This one really felt like a Pixar film more than a typical Disney movie. Disney continued the trend of no villian. Instead the movie dealt with family conflict similar to Encanto. Instead of granddaughter who had issues with a grandmother, this film dealt with problems among three generations of fathers and sons.

Most of the movie takes place in a beautiful unexplored place near the community of Avalonia. Avalonia is a land surrounded by impassable mountains. No one knows what is on the other side. Our explorers leave on a quest to discover why an important crop is failing. In the process, they not only discover a new land, but also discover more about themselves.

The scenery is gorgeous. The new place looks like cross between an underwater ocean and regular land. Starfish-looking creatures swing through the trees. A pod of skate-type creatures swim through the air. It reminded me of an ocean enough that I felt myself relax the same way I do when I look at a real ocean. Ahhhhhh

Some people may not enjoy the movie as there is no princess, no singing, and no big baddie to defeat. I enjoyed the movie.

Since I now know what the new land is, I'll see if I can spot the clues the next time I watch it. I did spot one clue, but brushed it off as the animators attempts to make the landscape look alien.

I do recommend this film.

Interesting. A bit of a self-fulfilment by Disney here, in my opinion. "Strange World" has flopped quite badly at the box office, mostly I suspect due to a lack of promotion - the film was in the cinema before I'd even heard of it. You have to wonder though if that lack of promotion was because the company lost faith with a movie that struggles to shake off the idea that it's all a bit second rate.

Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal), son of the legendary explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) returns from an aborted expedition without his father, who continues on alone, but with a mysterious plant that can generate electricity. Decades later, with Searcher now a husband and father, he's tasked with another expedition, to work out why his miracle discovery is started to die. His new mission, undertaken with some of his father's old crew, follows the plants to their root and discover an undiscovered land, with odd creatures.

So, there are some positives to it. The vocal performances are good. The visuals are, to a point good. The creatures I found to be a bit bland, but there is an explanation within the story as to why they look the way they do. There are a few funny moments along the way. The environmental aspect of the story is worthy and some of that came as a pleasant surprise.

But it has to be said that the rest of the plot is pretty underwhelming. It's a pedestrian adventure once we're underground and, though there are a couple of surprises that you will certainly see coming, there's not really an action scene to really get the heart racing.

I've had a patchy time with Disney's own animated releases over the past few years, with "Encanto" being much better than "Raya and the Last Dragon" and with "Strange World" closer to the latter than the former. I'm more forgiving of this than I might be, as we watched it on Disney Plus and my son enjoyed it, than I would be had I been to the cinema.

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.