STRANGE WORLD (2022)

A lackluster outing from the Mouse House that explores familiar themes, Strange World is settles somewhere near the lower tier of Disney’s catalog for story, but is sure to have people talking for some of the social aspects of the script. 

When a resource relied on by his people mysteriously begins to fail, Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal) is recruited to find the source of the problem along with old friends and his family, leading to the discovery of a strange world and a treacherous journey back home. Strange World is a fine film that has brief moments of entertaining plot points, but it ultimately falls flat. The voice cast of Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quiad, Grabielle Union, and Jaboukie Young-White are great, it’s just that their characters don’t have much dimension to them. For a film titled Strange World, the exploration of this new and interesting setting is muted, instead focused more on feeding the themes of father-son relations and environmentalism as a whole. There is a bit of charm to be felt, but it goes as quickly as it came.

There is no denying that the animation is beautiful, but it is certainly not Pixar; there is a ruggedness and simplicity that does little to set it apart from others. Strange World is notable, however, for the construction of a modern family that sees a White man married to a Black woman with a mixed race, openly gay son. It’s as though Disney actual hears the criticisms about their blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion efforts, here establishing Young-White’s character’s sexual orientation as accepted by all without discussion. Honestly, it’s a gutsy move for Disney, but one that I applaud it for. Give Young-White his own movie/series and you’ll have me hook, line, and sinker. Otherwise, Strange World is destined to be a bunkmate for Home on the Range.

Strange World hits theaters on Wednesday.

Rating: 3/5