Strange World Review

Here’s my Strange World review which is now streaming on Disney+ featuring the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Lucy Liu, Gabrielle Union and more. The film is directed by Don Hall.

Disney is bringing us to another “Strange World” with ummm “Strange World” and I was honestly not hoping a lot for this project. Sure it look great visually with some otherworldly vibe to the creatures and there’s just a natural wonder and amazement from the trailers but it didn’t really appeal to me much.

So I sat down with very low expectations for the film and with that mindset, I found it enjoyable.

The premise here is that there’s this family of explorers who had this falling out in the middle of an expedition and the father, Yaeger Clade, abandons his young adult son Searcher to continue on his quest. Searcher returns to civilization with this plant that powers their society for the next decade or so. Fast-forward 25 years later and their new power source is failing prompting Searcher to be reeled back in to investigate the cause. Searcher’s young son Ethan stows away the airship and Searcher’s wife and Ethan’s mother Meridian follows them to their intended destination. There Searcher is reunited with his father and the Clades make a big discovery that will re-shape their society once more.

There’s a bit of controversy here in Strange World that we also need to address as well as weigh in on. You see Ethan’s gay and he likes a friend and he’s not sure how to approach both the situation and the friend. It’s the first time that a main character’s really flying the LGBTQ+ community and the diversity which Disney themselves agree on. Other characters from past films and properties don’t get that. This has prompted some backlash from fans and parents of fans.

The visuals are outstanding as usual. The character designs are great, the creature designs are awesome and the world that we inhabit for the one hour or so of the film is fantastic. I liked the take that they did to a classic myth that I don’t like to spoil.

Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo!