‘Strange World, the latest Disney animated adventure, is turned out to be an expensive disaster for the studio. The film debuted worldwide on Wednesday with $4.2 million. Its five-day extended weekend haul has been pegged by Variety as $26 million. All signs (and figures) are pointing towards a movie that would not even recoup its strangely high $180 million price tag, let alone turn a profit. The film was earlier expected to earn $30 million to $40 million.
Directed by Don Hall and written by Qui Nguyen, ‘Strange World’ follows the Clades, who are are a family of explorers, and exploring is what they shall do until the Day of Judgment. Or at least that is the outlook of the patriarch Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) believes. He ventures out into the mountains with his son Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) around the land of Avalonia. On such a trip, Searcher discovers a plant that exudes energy. Satisfied, he wishes to return, but Jaeger wants to go ahead and find out what is beyond the mountains. Furious with what he perceives as a lack of courage and ambition, he continues, while the rest of the expedition comes back to their lands.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu, have lent their voices to the movie.
Wion’s review of the film was negative. It read, “As good as a visual experience ‘Strange World’ might be, it fails as a film. The script, not exactly ‘bad’ per se, is painfully predictable. There is a narrative turn at the end, something I suspect the writer Qui Nguyen and director Don Hall, thought to be a twist. But the only thing it will elicit is a drawn-out groan. That the film comes from the stables of Disney makes one mind inclined towards one kind of denouement. ‘Strange World’ ends exactly as you would expect.”
