Strange World - Review!

I saw the movie on Tuesday, and I was so numb to everything going on onscreen that I didn’t even notice the dog was missing a leg until you mentioned it here.

There is no question that Disenchanted would have murdered this movie at the box office.

I don't think the writers of this movie knew what the word subtle means. They really beat the viewer over the head with what they were trying to say, not only with the similarities with the father and sons mistakes but man, that line in the beginning where the newscaster says something along the line of "Sure would be a shame if these plants started losing power.." made me shake my head

You touched on it briefly, but I feel like Disney's problem is the one they created. Disney+. When you put a bunch of theatre quality movies straight to Disney+ and then take all of your movie theatre movies and put them on your service 45 days after it hits theatres, you lose the urgency to go see it in theatres. I have a couple of friends who didn't like the theatre experience in the first place so they just wait for it to go on Disney+.

One thing that I appreciate about Dan Murrells set up is that his razzamatazz in the background are easter eggs of his interests, not just pop culture fluff

Although I love Disney animation something about Strange World just made it look really generic, after seeing all of the incredibly vague marketing I feel like if I tried to pitch this movie to someone all I could come up with is “Well….it’s a movie about characters going to this strange place and they’re……on a quest to……find something” Maybe if the trailers filled us in on WHY they’re going to this place it would’ve made the movie look like it had more substance, but the fact they didn’t made the movie just look like nothing but visual noise

I appreciate this review. The family will save money by not going to the theater, and instead stay home and watch disenchanted this Holiday weekend. Thanks Dan!

The only ads I’ve seen for Strange World were some posters at my nearby mall and most of the people in my friend circle didn’t even know this movie is coming out at all. I definitely agree that Turning Red deserved to be released in theaters too.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD There was something so contrived about the “bad father” trope set up in the beginning. We’re supposed to believe Jaeger is deplorable because of 1 fight? And AFTER saving his son’s life??? And choosing to stick to the mission he created and led? And all of his crew in the blink of an eye decided to go with Searcher? There was nothing set up to make me believe these dynamics. There should have been a montage of Jaeger not listening to Searcher or the team for that to have worked. Also, where was the search and rescue team for Jaeger? Then Searcher spoon feeds his son: “he’s a bad father.” That’s horrible writing. He should’ve told Ethan his grandfather’s actions and allowed him and the audience to draw their own conclusions. People don’t speak like that in real life. There was no subtlety or nuances with the thematic elements. The relationship between Ethan and his crush was there solely for tokenism. How did Diazo know Ethan was an explorer rather than a farmer? That relationship should have been established more thoughtfully in a way that uses Diazo as a plot device to help Ethan discover himself. Why not world-build by showing them at school, reading a book about Jaeger together, hearing how his fellow students talk about his legendary grandfather, and having Diazo encourage Ethan to learn more about exploring? That would make it a more meaningful relationship. Why did they animate a whole crew to go to the strange world only to use 2 of them? The others didn’t need to be there frankly. The dialogue was a mess. The self awareness did not work (splat being called merchandise/Ethan using the phrase toxic relationship). Jaeger’s wife “moving on” was the weirdest joke that I wouldn’t even know how to explain to kids lol. That stuff just pulled me right out of the immersion. There’s so much wasted potential here. It’s a shame. Hollywood needs to give a little more TLC to their stories again, rather than spectacle. Also can we drop the cynicism? I miss the magic.

Finally, a non politial review, it’s refreshing 😅🥺

Color grade and lighting is looking much better. Thanks for all you do Dan! I always trust your takes, as we have similar taste. You save a new dad lots of precious time!

I think even the title strange world is generic. If they revealed the twist earlier and used it more in the marketing, I think they could have dane a better title.

Disenchanted was like one of those straight to dvd sequels from back in the day.

Saw an early screening for this. While overall it was fine, it felt very first draft. Lots of cool concepts that suddenly get introduced without much foreshadowing.

Pixar needs to be their own thing again. Disney has really screwed them these last 2-3 years

The lighting looks great in the video Dan :)

The design of the world felt very suessian or Pandora like with its environment and I didn't pick up that they were inside an organism until halfway through. I just wasn't engaged with the characters or writing and felt it really needed a rewrite.

Very surprised they releases this movie in theaters but not Red, Hocus Pocus and especially Disenchanted!

I never considered the world being a REDACTED at all, I feel kind of dumb for that. I was sold on the adventure thing, that was a big selling point for me, the old school homage and all that. The REDACTED thing works as a reveal but it's pretty standard, I've seen this reveal a few times. After the box office failures of Atlantis and Treasure Planet, I'm glad they tried again with an adventure but like those, I liked this but it is deeply flawed. I think they haven't cracked the code fully yet so if this flops, don't expect them to try again for a while.

Disenchanted would’ve gotten me in a cinema for sure, I was waiting for that movie bc I love the original. I’ll wait for this to be on Disney+.