Strange World

[Farerb]

The original or the sequel? I didn't care for the original and didn't plan to watch the sequel, but surprisingly it has received universal acclaim by both critics and the audience, and even got nominated for the Golden Globes. So out of these two, it seems like the better option.

[Ben]

There are people who liked Puss in Boots?

Enough to warrant a sequel, apparently.

I wasn’t a big fan either (it just wasn’t "fun"!), hence why I’m still more interested in Strange World than a Puss sequel, but do definitely want to see it after that acclaim and nominations. And I’ve always liked Banderas. But I also know what I’m getting from a Puss movie, so Strange World wins out for me on an interest level, as at least it’s something "new".

[EricJ]

Normally the rule of "Better the devil you know" applies to Disney/Pixar vs. third-party CGI movies...
Unless it's in the case of DreamWorks, in which case, lord, do you ever know every single thing about the movie inside and out, and the devils you don't are at least worth a D+ rent.

[James]

There are people who liked Puss in Boots?

The sequel was just nominated for Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes.

[Randall]

Sure, the sequel. Well, nice if it's good. I'll give it a shot, and maybe I need to give Puss 1 another chance.

Puss 1 RT Score 86% (seriously?), audience score 67%.
Puss 2 RT Score 96%, audience score 99% (to date).

[Farerb]

4K Blu-ray on February 14:




https://collider.com/strange-world-4k-u ... s-content/

[Ben]

For once, a steel that I could get behind, though I’ll likely just get the standard.

[Randall]

Steelie for me!

[Daniel]

Officially live on Disney+.

[Ben]

Officially running in our theatre tonight in less than an hour!

[Bill1978]

My quick review is that it is the best animated feature from Disney Animation since Big Hero 6. Shame the marketing sank its success in the cinemas.

[Farerb]

Finally saw the film and I thought it was one of the most boring films Disney made, even if it's probably not the worst. Honestly, if I had watched it on Disney+ , I would have stopped after 20 minutes or so...

Everything about it just felt fake to me... As if the characters know that there's an audience, especially kids, watching them, the way they talk just never felt organic to me.

Once again, everything is just spelled out, everything is explicit. For example, did we really need Ethan to explain to us that they were in the lungs or the stomach? Do they think the audience is too dumb to figure these things out? Then they'll complain that no one takes animated films seriously anymore.

The last five films from WDAS have been completely mediocre and it's sad to see the studio regress like this and unfortunately it doesn't seem to get any better in the future.

[Ben]

I found it entertaining while it was playing, but almost have nothing to say about it after the fact. Best since Big Hero 6…hmmm…that would discount Zootopia, Moana and Raya, the first two of which I think were better films than Strange World, which certainly was strange.

I was reminded of Alice In Wonderland, Meet The Robinsons and Up in terms of tone, with cookie cutter relationships borrowed wholesale from other films and lots of "we're doing what now?" moments which all play well enough while the movie is running but don’t really make a lick of sense or stick to the film's internal logic.

And it was a bit weird that they *went* to a "strange world" when it started off, and they were a,ready living in, a pretty strange world to begin with. So there wasn’t much change or emotional arcs going on: we largely ended right back where we started, so it didn’t feel like much if a journey, despite the "ground" apparently covered. Atlantis is another film that it will get compared to, but I found it too samey and repetitive to really feel like a companion to that one: here we get at least two or three escape sequences that all play as almost alternate versions of the same thing, whereas Atlantis at least tried to progress in terms of plot.

I did find the Strange World itself to be quite samey, too, with soft and squidgy designs that also didn’t feel too Offer rent enough from each other — yes, they were all of the same part which makes sense by the film's end, it it didn’t help the sense of "haven’t we just seen this?" that permeates through the film. Emotionally, nothing resonated as such, and you could almost count the beats at the end a D the way it was structured, using the same rhythm as Moana but without the heart.

That all said, we did have a good enough time — although "good enough" should never really be good enough — and I loved Henry Jackman's exuberant score, which got a nice showcase during the end credits. It was much better than Encanto as a piece of entertainment, though doesn’t touch the earlier 2010s films. I did like the pulpy feel and the reference to this in the final shots, though this was also a little confused in starting with the old film style…starting from a pulp magazine would have been a better and more consistent stylistic choice.

Full of ideas, not all of which are well enough thought out, I can see why this didn’t fly — especially with audiences being told it was basically on TV in a month — but it’s better than a lot of the studio's recent films and didn’t deserve to crash and burn so hard. I’ll enjoy seeing it again on disc, though will wait a while before running it again.

[Farerb]

No one lives forever. Not even a giant turtle. One day this turtle will die and an entire civilization will drown and perish. It's very nihilistic when you really think about it.

By the way - they should have called this movie Colonoscopy.

[Ben]

True, and true. Strange, indeed.