Strange World is a 2022 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film follows a legendary family of explorers who must set aside their differences as they embark on a journey to a mysterious subterranean land inhabited by surreal lifeforms, in order to save the miracle plant Pando, which is their society's source of energy. The film was directed by Don Hall and written by Qui Nguyen, and stars the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu.
Hall first conceived Strange World in 2017. It drew inspiration from pulp magazines, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Jurassic Park (1993) and King Kong (1933). To communicate non-verbally, several animators worked to create the movement of the character Splat. While the film is predominantly CGI, the film incorporates 2D animation from Randy Haycock, with additional 2D animation by Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn in certain scenes. Henry Jackman provided the musical score. The film introduced Disney's first openly LGBTQ lead character, leading to the film being pulled from theatrical release in some regions.
Strange World premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on November 15, 2022, and was released in the United States on November 23, by Walt Disney Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, but was a box-office bomb, grossing $74 million, with a projected loss of $197 million for Disney. After its release on Disney+, it was the most-watched film during its first weeks on the platform.
Plot In the land of Avalonia, which is surrounded by an endless wall of mountains, Jaeger Clade and his son, Searcher brave the wilderness to explore new worlds. While trying to traverse the mountains to find a way across it, Searcher discovers a green plant that gives off energy. He and the rest of the expedition team decide to return to Avalonia with the plant while Jaeger angrily continues his mission alone.
25 years later, Searcher has made a name for himself by introducing the miracle plant, dubbed Pando, as a fuel source for Avalonia. He and his wife Meridian are Pando farmers while their son Ethan has a crush on his friend Diazo and chafes at his father's expectation of becoming a farmer like him. One night, Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and one of Jeager's former expedition teammates, shows up in her airship, the Venture, to inform the Clades that Pando is losing its power and asks Searcher to help find the cause. He joins an expedition to travel into a giant sinkhole in which the roots of Pando have been located.
On the way down, Meridian tries catching up in her crop-duster when Ethan and their three-legged dog Legend stows away on the Venture. While being attacked by red wyvern-like creatures, the Venture crash-lands in a subterranean world, where Searcher and Legend are separated from the group. They are attacked by a creature called a "Reaper," but are rescued by Jaeger who has been living underground all these years. He has been trying to cross the mountains from below, but is blocked by an acidic ocean and states his intention to board the Venture to attempt to cross it.
Meanwhile, Ethan sneaks away from the Venture to find Searcher. He befriends an amorphous blue creature, naming it Splat, before being reunited with Searcher, Legend, and Jaeger. They are attacked by more Reapers, but are rescued by Meridian and President Callisto and return to the Venture. Searcher insists on completing their mission, while Jaeger wants to continue journeying across the Strange World. Ethan becomes frustrated with them and their opposing worldviews. After another wild encounter, Searcher and Jaeger finally have a heart-to-heart talk and realize that they do respect each other's goals in life. They eventually find a cluster of Pando's roots, which is being attacked by the Strange World's creatures. When Searcher learns that Ethan wants to explore more of the Strange World, he blames Jaeger's influence on him. Ethan angrily jumps off the Venture and on to one of the Reapers, while Searcher follows him aboard a small flying vehicle. In a heated argument, Ethan reveals he does not want to be a farmer. As a remorseful Searcher is apologizing, they realize that they have passed through the mountains to the ocean beyond where they see the eye of a giant turtle-like creature. The two realize that Avalonia is on the creature's back and that they have been traveling through its body, meaning that the Reapers and all the other creatures are its immune system.
Seeing that Pando is an infection attacking the creature's heart, they head back to inform the expedition team that Pando must be destroyed, but President Callisto has them locked up to prevent them from stopping the mission while Jaeger furiously sails off to see for himself. After Legend and Splat free the family, Searcher and Ethan head to the creature's heart to clear a path for the Reapers, while Meridian takes over the ship and convinces President Callisto to help. Just as Jaegar is about to leave, he decides to return, and with his help, they break through Pando and the creatures appear and destroy it, bringing the heart back to life and saving the land. Searcher decides to make one last stop in front of the creature's eyes for his father.
One year later, Ethan and Diazo are in a relationship as they collect resources from the underground with their friends, and Avalonia shifts from Pando energy to wind turbines. Jaeger visits his ex-wife Penelope, who has remarried during his absence, while his relationship with Searcher improves as they run the farm. The camera zooms away from Avalonia to show the giant turtle-like creature on an ocean-covered planet.
Voice cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, a 40-year-old man who is Jaeger's son, Meridian's husband, and Ethan's father as well as a farmer of the Pando power source. Dennis Quaid as Jaeger Clade, Searcher's father and Ethan's grandfather who is more of a larger-than-life explorer. Jaboukie Young-White as Ethan Clade, Searcher's 17-year-old son and Jeager's grandson who longs for adventure beyond his father's farm while also navigating a school crush on Diazo. Ethan is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first openly gay main character. Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, Ethan's mother, and Searcher's wife who is a pilot and natural leader in the Venture. Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, the President of Avalonia and leader of the exploration into the strange world who helps the Clades to lead the adventures in her airship called the Venture. Karan Soni as Caspian, a nerdy member of the expedition to Strange World. Alan Tudyk as: Duffle, a pilot for the expedition to the strange world in the Venture who is killed by red wyvern-like creatures. His role is a reference to Tudyk's Firefly character Hoban "Wash" Washburn. The Newsreel Narrator at the beginning of the film. Radio Host #1 Adelina Anthony as Captain Pulk, the second-in-command of the expedition to strange world. Abraham Benrubi as Lonnie Redshirt, a member of Jaeger's expedition crew before he disappeared. His last name refers to the trend in Star Trek for those wearing red shirts to die insignificantly. Jonathan Melo as Diazo, Ethan's love interest and later boyfriend. Nik Dodani as Kardez, one of Ethan's friends. Francesca Reale as Azimuth, one of Ethan's friends. Emily Kuroda as Ro Reed Buck as Rory Katie Lowes as Radio Host #2 LaNisa Frederick as Client #2 Dave Kohut as Client #3 Alice Kina Diehl as Client #4
Additional voice cast for Strange World include Terri Douglas, Liza Del Mundo, Shondalia White, Melanie Minichino, Michael Ralph, Shane Sweet, Arthur Ortiz, and Matt Yang King.
Non-speaking roles in the film include Legend, the Clades' three-legged Bernedoodle dog; Splat, the blue creature from the Strange World; the other Avalonia creatures; and Penelope Clade, Jaeger's ex-wife and Searcher's mother who retired from adventuring and remarried to a man named Sheldon. In the end credits, Legend and Splat are listed as playing "themselves".
Production Development Development on Strange World began in 2017, after Don Hall finished co-directing Moana (2016). His frequent creative partner Chris Williams was also involved in the project before leaving Disney in November 2018 to direct the Netflix Animation film The Sea Beast (2022). Hall pondered the origins of a generational family with the concept of "environmental overtones", which was described as "Indiana Jones meets National Lampoon's Vacation". Shortly after the announcement of Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) at the D23 Expo in August 2019, a major rework happened, with the creative leadership on the film were being swapped, while some cast members were replaced. Hall reteams with Qui Nguyen, who serves as co-director and writer. During a story meeting, Disney artist Burny Mattinson suggested adding a dog character for the Clades, which ultimately became the character Legend in the final film. Overall, the budget of Strange World was approximately between $135–180 million.
Writing Nguyen adds that filmmakers wanted to make sure that, at the end of the film, viewers "could go backward and — like watching The Sixth Sense — be able to track all those moments and go, 'They told us all along what this was, and only now have we realized we got that last puzzle piece.'"
Casting On June 6, 2022, following the release of the teaser trailer, Jake Gyllenhaal was announced as the voice of Searcher Clade. Eleven days later, the rest of the main cast for the film was announced at France's Annecy Animation Festival, including Jaboukie Young-White as Ethan Clade, Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, and Dennis Quaid as Jaeger Clade. The inclusion of Young-White voicing a gay character named Ethan marks Walt Disney Animation Studios' first openly LGBTQ main character.
Animation, design, and influences According to Hall, Strange World takes heavy influence from pulp magazines—popular fiction from the first half of the 20th century that was printed on inexpensive wood pulp papers, in addition to science fiction works such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fantastic Voyage and King Kong. He also said "[he] loved reading the old issues of pulps growing up. They were big adventures in which a group of explorers might discover a hidden world or ancient creatures. They've been a huge inspiration for Strange World."
The miracle plant Pando is named after a forest in Utah in America. The land of Avalonia was given a "warm, nostalgic" color scheme to contrast with the titular strange world inside the creature, for which the filmmakers "avoided earth tones and leaned into reds and magentas." They also created a way for the character Splat to communicate non-verbally, similar to the magic carpet in Aladdin.
The production team for the film conducted research on climatologists, paleontologists and biologists, as well as a farmer, while filmmakers visited National Geographic for research, which is reflected not just in the film's setting, but in its inhabitants.
The land of Avalonia is named after the island of Avalon of Arthurian legend and presented as a utopic community.
Music
Henry Jackman was announced to compose the score for the film on September 5, 2022, marking his third collaboration with Don Hall, after Winnie the Pooh and Big Hero 6, and his fifth overall feature-length scoring work with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which includes the Wreck-It Ralph films. Walt Disney Records released the score album on November 23, 2022, in addition to the song "They're The Clades!" performed by James Hayden, also having a reprised version of the tracks, the same day as the theatrical release.
Release Marketing