ANI-MOVIES, *Strange World

On what could be viewed as one of the first solarpunk motion pictures ever made, Disney's Strange World was an attempt of the billion dollar company to create a more ecologically minded animated movie, even though Fox beat them to the punch 30 years earlier with Ferngully. Aside from being another Disney CGI movie that had nothing to do with Pixar, Strange World suffered from a severe depletion of the average amount of publicity into one of their major theatrical releases. There was also some drawback since the film featured not only one of Disney's first multiracial characters but also their first canonical gay character as well which made various parties protest against it. Inspired by vintage sci-fi pulp fiction stories, this was the directorial debut of Disney regular animator Don Hall with an original screenplay by Qui Nguyen who formally worked on Raya And The Last Dragon.

Taking place in a parallel Earth-like world, the land of Avalonia is a country that is totally blocked off from the rest of the planet by a nearly endless mountain range. Famous explorer Jaeger Clade leads several expeditions looking for the edge of the mountains despite losing the respect of his teenage son Searcher. Jaeger leaves on his own while Searcher manages to create a sustaining electrical system using peculiar plants which conduct their own power called Pando over the next quarter of a century. Searcher eventually married, had a son of his own named Ethan, and ran a farm that harvested the Pando energy. Avalonia's female president Callisto enlists Searcher to help her discover why the Pando isn't flowing as frequent, so Ethan stows away along with his mother Meridian chasing after him to an unknown inner world below their own. This new realm is filled with various different lifeforms, some of which cause the team's airship to crash. Searcher finds his long-lost father who spent the last few years fighting to survive with his own modified flamethrower, while Ethan runs across a bizarre blue slime he names Splat. After the family reunion, they continue to resolve the Pando power loss which leads to a major revelation of not only the land they live in as well as their planet of origin. Along the journey, Jaeger, Searcher, and Ethan resolve their father-son relationships, even though it has the reoccurring Disney trope of a secret antagonist that shows up near the finale.

Disney's lack of promoting Strange World made it their biggest animated theatrical flop, plus the hesitancy to plug their more diversified release had several countries put a ban on the film. As far as the originality of the story is concerned it is exceptionally inspiring, even though the characters are tediously stock and predictable in their conflicts and actions. The animation quality is however in its own level of superiority far exceeding Disney's prior CGI movies, with a special initiative centered on the otherworldly creatures and their own unique biology. Strange World is a fair enough adventure keeping par with their prior efforts like Atlantis, although the stereotypical characters might ward off anyone considering adding this title to their personal movie library.