The artistic merger of Pixar and Disney is just about complete. While the business merger was done long ago, both Disney and Pixar have been producing distinctly different product. But now Disney has released Strange World, a Pixar movie in all but name.
Under the direction of Don Hall (Raya and the Last Dragon) and Qui Nguyen, Strange World takes a very specific trajectory. I struggled with it at times (perhaps Nguyen’s screenplay is a little too high-concept for its own good), but that’s pretty irrelevant to its target audience.
The film opens with a prologue explaining the exploits of Jaeger Clade (voiced by Dennis Quaid). Basically the land of Avalonia is surrounded by impenetrable mountains. The rugged Jaeger however isn’t content staying him. He wants to be the first Avalonian to cross the mountains. While his somewhat less enthusiastic son Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) and a small crew in tow, Jaeger feels he’s close to a breakthrough. But high in the mountains, Searcher discovers a strange plant that seems to exude electricity. Searcher believes this is the way forward for Avalonia. But Jaeger is undeterred and wants to press on. In a blizzard, he goes on alone… and is lost.
Twenty-five years later, Searcher and his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) have turned the plant – dubbed pando – into a successful farm crop. The plant powers just about everything in Avalonia. Searcher wants his own son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) to follow in his footsteps and become a pando farmer. The young man however has other ideas. But a visit from Searcher’s old exploring buddy Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu) – now president of Avalonia – will change everything. A mysterious disease is killing pando plants. Left unchecked, it could wipe out the entire crop. Searcher surmises (correctly) that all pando grows from a single core deep in the ground. So he and Callisto Mal mount an expedition to find it and stop the blight. A series of misadventures mean Meridian and Ethan end up part of the mission too. Once under the ground, they discover a very strange world indeed – one made even stranger by a chance discovery.
Nguyen and Hall don’t try to hide the film’s heritage in comic books and movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth. As a straightforward adventure romp it functions pretty well. But at the end, the story takes a few clunky turns. The film’s environmental message is heartfelt but isn’t fully developed. Its central personal drama about the relationships between fathers and sons works to a point, but again, it’s a bit trite. Although one of the key characters is a teenager, the film really seems to be aimed at younger kids, so its blunt approach serves a purpose. And I’m sure those same kids will lap it up (particularly if the preview screening was any indication).
The design of the “strange world” is also deliberately kid-friendly. Bright colours dominate, and the creature designs seem to be based on that perennial favourite – dinosaurs. I personally found it a bit overwhelming and more than a little garish, but as I say, I’m not the target audience.
The voice talent is uniformly good. I wonder if the team have incorporated a few in-jokes in the character design, because Jake Gyllenhaal’s character looks a lot like John Krasinski to me; while Randy Quaid’s character seems a little like a buffed-up Yosemite Sam.
Strange World is a kids’ movie with some strong characters, vibrant design and some powerful messages. In that context, the film works. I struggled to warm to it, but that’s not the point. If you have under-12s looking for summer entertainment, this should be high on your list.
David Edwards
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television