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Rating: “I believe that having the land and not ruining it is the most beautiful form of art one can wish for.”
Let's say it right away to get it out of the way: "Strange World," the 61st Disney classic, directed by Don Hall, was, in all likelihood, the production company's biggest flop. With a budget of $180 million, the film earned less than half.
Two problems, the first cultural, the second artistic.
Cultural Problem
The streaming era has completely changed the way films are consumed, taking away the sensitivity toward the "cinema event" and projecting what was left into a more homely dimension. This phenomenon was exacerbated by the pandemic, with all the associated economic uncertainties.
Put simply, why go to the cinema when I can enjoy a film calmly and whenever I want, comfortably seated on my sofa at home?
"Strange World" is released at a time in history when cinema (both structure and art) must come to terms with this change, making a deal with an audience that must be strongly encouraged to leave home and go to a theater. It needs to spark curiosity, to make it clear that the product cannot be enjoyed in the same way on a screen whose size does not reach the national average length of the male member.
Well, this film failed to tap into that type of emotion, resulting in a modest box office income.
Artistic Problem
The synopsis is about generational incommunicability, on both a purely human level and a social one. The protagonists of this confrontation are the members of the Clade family, with the patriarch Jaeger Clade, a famous and intrepid explorer devoted to adventure, his son Searcher, a scholar inclined to the comforts of a more peaceful life, and his grandson Ethan, more akin to the grandfather than the father. In the background is a world as mysterious as it is fascinating, that of Avalonia, which is dying: the natural form of energy used, the pando, is exhausting its potential, risking putting the entire civilization in crisis. The task of the Clade family will be to discover what is threatening the pando and find a solution.
Thus, the ecological theme is represented in the most didactic and understandable way possible, intertwined with the family drama; all set against a colorful and hallucinatory tapestry populated by a fauna of bizarre creatures. What is offered is an immersive experience, reminiscent of Verne's great classics and Cameron's more recent film experiment, " Avatar," reinterpreted through a warmer and more seductive animation lens, with character design favoring soft, reassuring shapes, albeit at the cost of characterizations that might be too stereotypical, unable to provide the right depth.
Even the family theme, widely elaborated, seems unattractive and closed to alternative narration: there is the tension that leads to the inevitable breaking point with the predictable growth and last-minute reconciliation. All already seen and better explored, as happened in the previous "Encanto," where the family saga lived through multiple conflicts leading to continuous twists.
Worthy of praise, however, is the use of inclusivity, which rightly remains a background and not the central pivot of the story: Ethan is black and homosexual, and this, apart from causing no friction, remains a mere detail.
In short, "Strange World" succeeds in portraying a vivid and intriguing world, but fails to capture the snapshot of a more clearly defined family capable of supporting the entire plot, getting lost in the usual literary topoi so dear to Disney.
Certainly a disappointing product, unable to embed itself in the common imagination, yet still deserving of a warmer reception from the audience.
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