In Strange World, the Clade family is on a mission to save their world from disaster. While doing this, they also have to save their family. Strange World is the newest film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is now streaming on Disney+ and available for digital download with bonus features.
Story
The center of Strange World really is about a father, a son, and a grandson who each have a vision for life and the world. Each of these visions is unique to the individual and doesn’t exactly line up with the others. By the end of the movie, the three come together as they go on the adventure of a lifetime together. This is the story that was told at some level. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other things happening as well and this story gets muddled a bit in all the other things. There is a saying that sometimes more isn’t better, it’s just more. In this case, it seems like more actually was distracting from the main story. What ended up happening is that there is a fantastic adventure with incredible individual scenes that just don’t have the emotional impact or emotional journey that it could have had if it had been more focused.
Quality
Watching Strange World really is quite the experience. This movie is visually stunning. The effects are awesome. There were a lot of design choices made that were really smart. All in all, this is an awesome film to look at. The audio that accompanies the film also is solid. Everything made sense, which says a lot when a lot of what is being looked at doesn’t always make sense. Thankfully, there are elements added to the audio that helps ground what is being seen. The quality of this film is top-notch and everything one would hope from a Walt Disney Animation Studios film.
Characters
There is quite a fun cast of characters found in Strange World. Once again, though, this is where I almost feel like there was too much happening and not enough focus on doing fewer things better. For the most part, every character makes sense, even the ones that don’t speak English. Their motivations make sense. There isn’t anything that just seems like it doesn’t work. There are just so many different things happening with different motivations that the ones that are most important don’t get to shine or have the emotional connection that they could have.
Music
The music for Strange World is really quite enjoyable. It has an action and adventure feel that helps move the scenes along. It didn’t pass the whistling test (I didn’t walk out of the movie whistling a specific theme) but it also didn’t do any damage to whatever was happening. In fact, it did quite the opposite. It did a wonderful job of enhancing the movie and helping push the emotional feel of any given moment.
Final Thoughts
Strange World is a movie that really has a lot going for it. It is visually awesome. It has some incredible action scenes. It has some incredible moments. It has some fantastic effects. It has a solid score. The part that it just doesn’t seem to have is some level of focus on the story being told. It just is doing so much, and none of it is bad, that it loses the power that it could have. This is a movie with a lot of cool elements that don’t add up to an amazing story and because of that, it doesn’t end up being an amazing movie. I do feel like I need to go back and try and watch it again. However, I need to digest the first viewing first. I’ll give this film a Hat Nod. It’s a fun film to watch with the family but I don’t know that it will end up being a Disney classic.
Mr. DAPs Hat Rating Scale
- No Hat – Didn’t meet expectations
- Hat Nod – It was ok
- Hat Tip – It was good
- Hat’s Off – Loved it!
