Disney’s latest sci-fi/fantasy flick Strange World is an exciting family movie, which has a crisis ‘on the inside’. On one hand, the world is crumbling while on the other, the banter between the Clades is awesome. The relationship between the parents and their kids would at times remind us of our own families.

The end-of-day environmental disaster movie would make you feel like watching The Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Avatar or Jurassic Park, all rolled into one.

Strange World begins when a legendary adventurer Jaeger Clade, with his teenage son Searcher and crew, is out to find a safe new home for his people. Avalonia is still underdeveloped and needs ‘magic’ to solve its problem. Searcher, a not-so-expedition type, manages to find a magical plant, Pando, that produces power and revolutionises Avalonia.

Over the next two and a half decades, Searcher with his wife Meridian and son Ethan, grow Pando on his farm. Here, the filmmakers help in creating ‘a clear climate change’ metaphor with Pando very early in the movie, explaining the current climate change issue the world is facing.

After two and a half decades, Pando turns out to have dire environmental consequences, like most fossil fuels. When the crops stop yielding the electrical charge that they used to, Avalonia’s President and a former member of Jaeger’s crew tags the Clades along to find the root cause. Underneath, they encounter a world resembling the one in Avatar, with bubble-gum-pink material, hungry amoeba-like creatures, flying fish, and acid lakes.

The good thing was that they were joined by the Jaeger, who left the moment Searcher found Pando. As for the three generations of Clades, they are all torn apart by their own differences, the son never liked his larger-than-life explorer father, and the grandson does not get on well with the son. Strangely, the teenage grandson wants to become an explorer, without knowing anything about his ‘lost’ grandpa.

The voice cast does justice to their parts. Veteran actor Dennis Quaid voices Jaeger Clade, the grown-up son ‘Searcher’ is voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, known to many as Mysterio from Spider-Man while the teenage grandson ‘Ethan’ is voiced by comedian Jaboukie Young-White. Mrs. Meridian Clade is voiced by Gabrielle Union, while Avalonia’s leader Callisto is played by Chinese action star Lucy Liu.

The film has two separate tracks of father-son stories and each one proves touching. The movie is the latest collaboration of co-directors Don Hall and Qui Nguyen, who previously worked on Raya and the Last Dragon. The 102-minute runtime, Strange World is filled with themes about environmentalism, but it holds together owing to the Clades. Watching the movie is like going on an expedition with your own family.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 28th, 2023