Strange World review: Disney’s eco-drama is a breezy watch with a refreshing take on inclusivity and legacy

4/5

Story: The legendary family of explorers, the Clades, are on their most important mission, but their differences threaten to overturn their mission. Will they be able to put aside their issues to save their motherland, Avalonia? 

Review: The movie begins with the legendary explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), who is on a mission to cross the seemingly insurmountable mountains of Avalonia, with the hope that the discovery that awaits on the other side will change the future of Avalonia for the better. A young Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) has been accompanying his father Jaeger on his many expeditions since he was a baby, and Jaeger always assumed that Searcher would become an explorer like him. On their mission, Searcher, who is evidently smaller built than his burly father, stumbles across Pando — a plant that is surging with electricity, and convinces everyone but his father that the future of Avalonia lies in the Pando and not something beyond their land. 

Cut to 25 years later, and Avalonia is a happy, thriving country, thanks to Searcher’s farming of Pando that powers everything — from stoves, to flying cars, street lights and more. Searcher is a legend and no one has heard from Jaeger, who chose to continue on his expedition. Searcher lives a happy life as a farmer, with his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) and 16-year-old son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), who Searcher is sure will carry on his legacy and become a farmer like himself. But Ethan secretly harbours the dreams of becoming an explorer. Things take a turn for the worse one day, when Pando’s powers start to deteriorate. President Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu) summons Searcher on an expedition to the heart of the Pando, which seems to be under attack. 

Searcher’s entire family ends up on the expedition to a ‘subterranean labyrinth’, where Searcher finds Jaeger, who has still not aborted his mission of getting to the other side of the mountains. The family and expedition crew encounter fantastic creatures under Avalonia, which reminds one of those found underwater. Thus begins a journey that is both internal and external for all the people onboard, especially Jaeger, Searcher and Ethan. 

Jaeger and Searcher, who think they are nothing like each other, are more similar than different. One also gets to see the ways in which different generations view the world through Ethan and the popular game, Primal Outpost, the purpose of which is to live harmoniously with the environment. Jaeger and Searcher are unable to understand what kind of game has no bad guys, while for 16-year-old Ethan, it is the most simple game — a reference to the current times. Meridien, who is the pilot of the ship, wonders why the labyrinth is so weird, to which Ethan says, “I think it’s amazing.”  

Verdict: Strange World is a fun and easy watch, with several moments that will make you laugh out loud. It is not only fun, but has a message that is relevant in current times. Through three generations, the film redefines what it means to leave behind a legacy and what acceptance truly looks like. It shows the Earth as a living, breathing entity, and highlights why it is important for us to leave behind our old ways and adopt a new way of life — one that is good for the planet, and by extension, us. It ends with a note on how resilient people can be, and how we can surprise ourselves by being resourceful and change the world if we really want to, thereby giving ourselves a better chance at the future. As Ethan notes, “The best legacy we can leave is making a present worth opening tomorrow.”  

Perhaps the most refreshing part about this film is the inclusivity and the fact no one bats an eyelid about it. We get to know from the very beginning that Avalonia is an all-inclusive land. Searcher is married to Meridian, an African-American woman, and their 16-year-old son Ethan is a mixed-race gay teen. Jaeger, who meets his son’s family for the first time in possibly his 60s, treats all these seeming differences as normal and accepted. The inclusivity continues with the Clade’s pet, a three-legged dog named Legend, and with the President of Avalonia — the feisty hispanic Callisto. 

All of this makes Strange World a fun and, in fact, important watch for the entire family. Don’t give this holiday watch a miss.