A Whole New World
Disney finally lives up to its imaginative reputation and manages queer representation in one film. See? Not so hard.
STrange World
Directors: Don Hall, Qui Nguyen • Writer: Qui Nguyen
Starring [English]: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union, Jaboukie Young-White, Dennis Quaid, Lucy Liu, Karan Soni, Alan Tudyk, Adelina Anthony, Abraham Benrubi
USA • 1hr 42mins
Opens Hong Kong / Disney+ November 24 • I
Grade: B+
In its infinite, frequently baffling wisdom, Disney has shuffled its latest family-forward, find-your-purpose adventure off to its streaming platform. That’s a shame, really, because for the first time in a long time, a Disney film has been fuelled by unbridled imagination and visual splendour – the kind of thing The House of Mouse thinks defines its reputation now, rather than the board or directors-positive IP merchandising that actually does define its reputation. Who knows? Maybe now that there’s been a much-ballyhooed change of leadership (Disney swapped Bobs recently) films like the strangely under-the-radar Strange World will get more marketing attention and, better still, more theatrical release time. Because this? This is big screen material.
Playwright, Raya and the Last Dragon co-writer and first-time feature director Qui Nguyen re-teams with his Raya co-director Don Hall (who also had a hand in Big Hero 6 and Moana) and guess what? They made a film about being true to yourself, forging your own path and the bonds of family (surprise!), and wrapped it all in an on-the-nose environmental cautionary tale (kind of) that’s entertaining, a treat for the eyes and effortlessly diverse. See Disney? You can do it!
More of this, Mickey
The story starts with some beautiful, old-school 2D cel-type animation, recounting the adventures of super-explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid, whose presence here could tip off the olds to the larger story), looking for a way to get beyond the mountains that surround his Avalonia home, erecting a barrier to the world beyond. On a quest, the son he’s dragged along with him, Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal), finds a plant the team dubs Pando. Jaeger insists on continuing his exploration, disappointed Searcher doens’t want to follow. Uh oh. Could history repeat itself? Surely not! The rest of the crew goes home with Searcher, who revolutionises life in Avalonia with the green power source Pando turns out to be. Indoor lighting! Flying machines!! Hot coffee!!!
Twenty-five ears later, Searcher and his pilot wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union, in full elegantly exasperated mode) run the Pando farm that’s made Searcher a local celeb, while raising their son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White, best known as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah). When it appears something is messing with Pando and killing the plants, Avalonia’s leader Callisto (Lucy Liu) mounts an expedition to the heart of the world through a sinkhole she thinks leads to Pando’s roots. Off they go – three-legged dog Legend in tow – and needless to say, they find an alternate world, a flipside to Avalonia, that’s, erm, strange and wondrous and vibrant and completely alien. They pick up a guide in the form of an adorable blob with a huge personality called Splat (move over Baby Yoda), find long lost Jaeger, and discover the truth of Pando. Oh, and daddy issues are resolved across three generations; family bonds are reaffirmed. Duh.
And this…
This year’s Christmas must-have?
Hall and Nguyen are not particularly subtle in their messaging, and the secondary, ecological theme is clever, if half-baked, though Strange World’s strange world is a bit of a surprise. But that’s neither here nor there. Even though this is by-the-numbers Disney storytelling, Strange World is gorgeous, and its images have the kind of detail until now seemingly the purview of Pixar: the leather on a truck seat, the wind in Jaeger’s beard, scorch marks on an unfortunate Splat. The list goes on and on. The army of animators has built an engaging, primary-coloured landscape (that comes together as one large space slowly but surely) that carries an essential environmental message that we may roll our eyes at, but isn’t any less true for it. Hall and Nguyen are also brave (switched on? humanist?) enough to write an LGBTQ+ character – Ethan – who’s LGBTQ+ for the hell of it, not for Disney PR. Ethan’s gayness is simply part of who he is without discounting it, and it bears no more concern than the colour of his shirt. This is the way Disney should be inserting LGBTQ+ characters. His awkward crush on a buddy called Diazo is as much about being gay as it is about awkward teen-ness and dealing with Searcher trying to be cool around Ethan’s friends (and naturally failing). Those glorious background details include a diverse landscape of people, too, who are pointedly not the story. Taken with the ecologically-minded plot and Ethan’s non-event queerness, Strange World could be Disney’s most modern film of the last decade. About time. — DEK