Released this winter, Strange World is Disney’s most recent original animated movie. Nowadays, it is odd to see the words ‘original’ and ‘Disney’ in the same sentence, with the sheer amount of existing franchises they have been relying on these last few years, producing remake after remake and unnecessary sequel after unnecessary sequel, most of which are mediocre at best.
The last Disney original to be released before this was Encanto which received outstanding reviews from critics and audiences, so Strange World had high standards to meet. Unfortunately, when looking at the reception of this movie, it is not very impressive. Strange World absolutely tanked at the box office, losing roughly a hundred million dollars– a significant loss for Disney– and fell flat with fans and critics alike, especially compared to its predecessor films. Strange World also seems to suffer from a complete and utter corporate feeling.
The movie has an animation style similar to simple, modern Disney-Pixar films. Strange World seems to take some inspiration from comic-style animation, which became popular after films such as Into the Spiderverse. It never uses it to full effect, and overall the visual effects are less than impressive, uninspired, and underwhelming –not anything extraordinary, but also nothing necessarily terrible. The acting in Strange World is good, with the likes of Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, and Gabrielle Union voicing the main characters.
This film is imaginative and fresh, but something seems to be missing the whole time. It has adventure, action, and a few decent laughs throughout the running time, but there doesn’t seem to be much interesting about it compared to previous Disney movies with the same themes. There is also a reincarnation of the infamous annoying comic relief character –who they doom with constant marketing schemes– with the character named Splat. This obvious flaw is even pointed out in the film when a character comments, “It’s so cute, I want to merchandise it.” Real smooth, Disney.
In conclusion, Strange World is undoubtedly a snooze-fest and was one of the movies that I struggled to get through the entire run-time, with it being quite bland and forgettable. I would not recommend this movie to many people, but if you hit rock bottom with literally nothing else to watch, you could use this to pass the time.
