I want to live in “Strange World”!

The strangest thing about “Strange World” is why it has gained no traction; I found it, by turns, charming, gorgeous, and uplifting. Don Hall and Qui Nguyen co-directed and co-wrote (their first collaboration since “Raya and the Last Dragon”) and between the two of them, they’ve got a pretty decent track record. In addition to “Raya”, they’ve either written or directed “Moana”, “Big Hero 6”, and “Meet the Robinsons”. Not bad.

But what gives? I think a couple of issues plagued the movie’s release; one is that the trailers, while eye-popping, didn’t really give enough of the film to make it more interesting and the other issue, apparently, is that there is backlash against the film for being (deep breath, long sigh) “woke.” I’m not going to waste verbiage on either of these elements, but it’s disappointing that the movie didn’t do better box office and I hope it does pick up on streaming. So far, it’s made little over half its budget; not a good sign.

All of that said, I want to live in “Strange World”! In many ways, it’s more fantastical than Pandora in “Avatar” and the film itself scores its points and gets it message across in shorter amount of time and with far more economical storytelling. In the course of dealing with three generations of father and son relationships and the navigation of the emotional land mines that are familial expectations and young people establishing their identities, we also encounter a parable of “human scaled” economics that E. F. Schumacher would be happy with. 

Jake Gyllenhaal voices Searcher Clade, son of Jaeger Clade - Avalonia’s greatest explorer (Dennis Quaid), the farmer who returned from the expedition where his father walked away from him with Pando, a plant that discharges energy as fuel to charge appliances and machinery, cleanly and robustly. (Heh-heh, “energy plant”…get it? Sorry, I just couldn’t leave it alone, could I?

Searcher’s son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) and his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) co-run the farm where they grow and harvest Pando to fuel keep the lights on in Avalonia until a blight hits, and Pando plants burn out. The president of Avalonia, Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu), lands the  airship Venture on the Clade’s farm and apprises him of the dire straits Avalonia is falling into; reports are projecting only a month left before the blight consumes all of the Pando in the land.

However, Callisto (who was also on the fateful mission where Jaeger Clade walked into history and Pando was brought back to bring prosperity and innovation to Avalonia) has research that shows the root network of Pando. If the team can get to the heart of the root, they should be able to find a way to cure plant and save Avalonia from ruin. 

Before Searcher and the group brought Pando to their country, Avalonia was a struggling state; isolated, with little interest in the world beyond the vast mountain range that encircled them and with no neighbors. There is likely a more extensive back story to account for the rich diversity of humans that live in Avalonia, but for the present, we just accept the fair land for what it is, a progressive, technological state. 

We have a biracial family at the center of our story with a gay son and it is presented as no big deal. The film is matter-of-fact about its diversity and relationships. This so refreshing but I guarantee that’s also what accounts for the backlash by the more, um, conservative moviegoers and critics. My assumption is that from their perspectives, the film is pushing an agenda. Well, so what? My guess (huh, full of assumptions and guesses, aren’t we?) is that the people who are watching the film through a less-than-inclusive, shall we call it, perspective, are finding their delicate sensitivities disturbed. Welp, their loss.

In short order, Searcher knows he has to join the expedition to the heart of the world Pando plant to save Avalonia and of course, Ethan stows away on the vast airship (I love the designs of the different crafts). Aaaand, naturally, Meridian flies in on after the Venture in her crop-duster to tell Searcher that their son is onboard and she’ll take him back to the farm. By that point, the crew have descended into the earth and in short order are assailed by fantastical creatures that seem to bid the humans ill. They crash further into the interior of their world and the story takes off from there. Searcher is separated from the ship having fallen off it earlier before it crashes and Ethan and the family dog, Legend, a three-legged sheep dog, take off in search of his dad. Ethan picks up a funny biomorphic companion he names Splat and we soon discover that Splat may not be benign as he is a kind of scout for what Jaeger calls reapers, giant squid like, omnivores. Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention that Jaeger saves Searcher from a group of reapers. 

Jaeger and Searcher’s reunion is more bitter than sweet, as Searcher attempts to confront his dad’s absence and reappearance. I hasten to add that Gyllenhaal and Quaid do some great voice work here. Actually, everyone does; but this is the first set-piece that also determines how deeply thorny the male relatives’ relations are. 

Somehow, Hall and Nguyen keep the film running fleetly while folding in generational trauma, masculine intransigence, and the general thickness of each successively older generation. Really, what does it take for parents to listen to their kids? Well, more specifically, dads. Meridian is beautifully supportive of her son and she and Callisto make a formidable team (Union and Liu are fab, just plain fab). 

The movie runs so swiftly, in no small part, owing to creature design that in some cases looks aquatic, in others, amorphous and fluid. Treelike creatures and parts of what appears to be landscape move across panoramas of bright candy colors and multiple perspectives to provide an accentuated but not exaggerated depth of field. There is so much to look at, but the field of vision is never cluttered. Forms are well-defined and often luminous. It’s a stunning visual achievement.

If it were only that, I’d be okay with it; however, it’s a crackingly good adventure story and a parable about wider perspectives and how these help broaden our understanding of our place in the world. In this case, literally. 

Callisto and her team arrive at the hypothesis that the Pando plant isn’t dying in the surface world from some blight; it’s fighting for its life against the reapers. The aim of the Venture’s crew and the Jaeger family is to eradicate the reapers; they weaponize the Pando on hand by emulsifying it into powder to spray on the reapers en masse, the energy in Pando discharging fatally onto the reapers.

Along the way, the three generation of Clade men find themselves at odds at different points. Jaeger can’t relate to Searcher, Searcher puts his idea of legacy on Ethan in the same way Jaeger foisted his expectations on Searcher. Ethan, in a fit of being fed up, takes off with Searcher in pursuit and as they attempt to discuss their situation and their issues, realize that they have traveled beyond the mountains, Jaeger’s goal that led him to abandon his family 25 years earlier. They find themselves staring eye-to-eye with the biggest eye, ever. 

They now realize that Strange World is some creature’s interior and that Pando is a parasite deep in the creature and the reapers are agents of the creature’s immune system. However, Pando is immune to their defenses and it appears that the plantlike creature has wrapped itself around the very heart of this vast being. 

Searcher and Ethan return to the Venture to tell Callisto to call off the mission, that if they don’t, they’ll wind up destroying their world, not just Avalonia. Of course, this fruitless, and also, when Searcher tells Jaeger that they’ve been beyond the mountains, he - like Callisto - dismisses their experience as the result of Searcher and Ethan not understanding what they encountered. Funny how people who haven’t experienced something are predisposed to dismissing the narratives of those who have.

Jaeger, after dismissing his son (and grandson, for that matter), leaves. Callisto has Searcher, Meridian, Ethan, and Splat confined in a closet out of which they break and decide to execute their plan to dig a hole into Pando for the reapers to enter and do their work of killing the parasite. Meridian stays behind to commandeer the Venture away from the battleground and it isn’t long before we realize that trying to dig a hole into Pando is easier said than done; Searcher is full-body shocked repeatedly. In the meantime, Splat and Ethan have gone to guide the reapers to the hole. 

Jaeger discovers the compass he gave to Searcher years ago before leaving on his adventure and this leads him to reconsider and rejoin his son and grandson. Together, he and Searcher are able to poke a hole into Pando and the reapers find it and swarm down it, destroying the parasite.

We finish in an Avalonia where Pando-power has been replace with wind energy. It’s been a year and Searcher’s farm is now a customary agricultural one, his relationship with Jaeger has stabilized, and Ethan is leading a team, along with his crush Diazo, in collecting resources from Strange World (and we are going to give the benefit of the doubt that this is non-invasive and non-threatening to the host creature). 

There are so many well rounded moments between the different characters and even though the focus is primarily on the two older men, Hall and Nguyen repeatedly show how the issues between them repeat between Searcher and Ethan. That the women are the stronger and more together characters shouldn’t be lost; this isn’t polemical, it simply adds to the analysis of the effects of what may not be completely toxic masculinity but the toll taken by the costs of projecting our expectations on those who mean the most to us. 

The positive aspect of this is how skillfully the points are made and the resolutions don’t seem shoehorned in; there is a solid narrative grounding behind each emotive beat. 

Again, it’s a pity that more people haven’t turned out to see this little gem from Disney. It’s a visually beautiful piece and a true revelation in terms of animated narratives, of a piece with “Raya and the Dragon”, “Moana”, and others. 

More thoughts/gallery

While the bulk of the film is comprised of Pixar level character design and rendering, the story is book-ended with great illustrations that could have been culled from 1930’s pulp magazines and comic books (with narration by Alan Tudyk, to boot!) The visual inventiveness is so good.

Following are some random images from the film; hopefully, it goes without saying, all images copyright Walt Disney Productions. Click or double-click to enlarge, as usual.