Disney's Strange World debuts in theaters Thanksgiving

I'm glad you enjoyed Strange World Brian. I cannot wait until I can see it myself because I think it will be fun. Of course it will be fun because my new crush Searcher Clade is gonna go on an awesome adventure and now every time my parents say the words search and searcher it makes me think that they are referring to Searcher Clade and it makes me smile with delight
 
Sounds like another reimagined flop on Disney’s part. $4.2 million opening. That’s embarrassing. They need to stick with what works. Their media segment has been an ultimate failure as of late. Hence the $1.5B loss D+ took this last quarter.
 


TwoMisfits said:
It's listed on Deadline.com, the premiere entertainment website.

It's listed all through their update for the box office so far, which is kinda catastrophic. I'd expect Iger will be moving on from someone Monday...it's gonna rival Treasure Planet's financial disaster. Disney animated and sci fi seem to be a terrible box office combo (only Wall-E and Pixar ever cracked the code)...

https://deadline.com/2022/11/box-of...ll-timothee-chalamet-thanksgiving-1235180803/
Click to expand...

It's unfortunate - I always know that these animated adventure movies are destined to fail, even though many of them are so good and among my favorites. Atlants, Trasure Planet, even Black Cauldron. I don't know what they could do really. These movies usually do come up with a strong cult following 20 years down the road though, which is how long I'll have to wait for any significant merch.
 
I truly think that Disney is hoping to attract a whole new audience with their adventure movies and they hope that Strange World will attract the fans that adore space and adventure themed movies. But when you look at the general picture when an animated movie especially a Disney movie the main reason why they want the films to do well is because they rely on celebrity voice talent and that's what sells. With Strange World it's gonna work because with Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Searcher Clade a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal fans will see Strange World because of Jake. And also because Dennis Quaid has a role in Strange World a lot of Dennis Quaid fans will watch it too. But I think Strange World will be a miracle for Disney and make them return to making great films that made them famous
 
I just left the theatre, and my first thought: that was a lot of talking.

It is not good, it is not bad. It is forgettable.

My main issue with it was: all the problems are solved very easily. They are able to kill off monsters at the first try. As soon as a problem arises, it gets solved.

There are no bad romantic relationships. Also the family relationship problems are talked out almost immediately.

The world looked interesting and it reminded of how Jim Henson talked about creating the world for The Dark Crystal movie.

And they spent a lot of attention to diversity. Besides the lead and his father, there is only one white character with lines (and to reverse the scifi trope to kill off the black guy immediately, he got killed with the first monster). There was someone in a wheelchair, the dog misses a leg, the son is gay, all ethnicities are here. I am only not sure if the second in command is supposed to be Hispanic or Native American.

I do wonder about why Disney gave this a theatrical release. They hardly did any advertising for it. Besides the first trailer, I didn't see anything. I was in Disneyland Paris this weekend, there was no merchandise.
Although, I struggle what they would make into merchandise from this movie.

On Wikipedia I found this summary of the less positive reviews, and it does sum up what I am feeling after seeing it:
For The Washington Post, Kristen Page-Kirby found "the story is too basic and the characters too slight for Strange World to pack a punch. The visual beauty of the film isn't enough. After all, pretty is as pretty does — and in Strange World, pretty doesn't do much."Jacob Stoller of Paste Magazine admitted that while the film "can be arresting—especially with its inventive setting and bulbous creatures—and its attempts at deconstructing the sweaty, macho-man ethos hawked by its inspiration are admirable. But with muddled themes and slight characters, remnants of the old dime magazines coordinate to bring Strange World down on the wrong side of familiar." Cath Clarke of The Guardian felt the characters "aren't half-bad", but the "clunky script feels like it's been re-drafted and re-drafted to the point of incomprehension – blowing any chance of conveying a message. However well-meaning, it makes for a surprisingly dull watch."
 
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Karin1984 said:
I just left the theatre, and my first thought: that was a lot of talking.

It is not good, it is not bad. It is forgettable.

My main issue with it was: all the problems are solved very easily. They are able to kill off monsters at the first try. As soon as a problem arises, it gets solved.

There are no bad romantic relationships. Also the family relationship problems are talked out almost immediately.

The world looked interesting and it reminded of how Jim Henson talked about creating the world for The Dark Crystal movie.

And they spent a lot of attention to diversity. Besides the lead and his father, there is only one white character with lines (and to reverse the scifi trope to kill off the black guy immediately, he got killed with the first monster). There was someone in a wheelchair, the dog misses a leg, the son is gay, all ethnicities are here. I am only not sure if the second in command is supposed to be Hispanic or Native American.

I do wonder about why Disney gave this a theatrical release. They hardly did any advertising for it. Besides the first trailer, I didn't see anything. I was in Disneyland Paris this weekend, there was no merchandise.
Although, I struggle what they would make into merchandise from this movie.
Click to expand...

I can agree with one point, that...

Jaeger's change of heart happens off-screen, and they should have included it. It makes sense that he would inevetibly come around, after all he is not the boor that Searcher makes him out to be. Remember Searcher was saying that the son "had to" become a farmer, and Jaeger said "let him decide." Still, an additional two minute scene of Jaeger contemplating things would have gone a long way to closing the loop on his arc. It's a minor quibble though.

Otherwise, I don't know why the diversity is a problem. They have a nice little diverse society there. Keep in mind that they are all from a very small area, basically one city - there is no "Native American" or "Asian" as there is no America or Asia. It's not a problem though to showcase non-white characters - and even still, the two main characters are still white. Also, Legend is aweseom - great dog there! When I noticed he was missing a leg, I just felt, "Aww, poor baby!" I wanted to hug him. 😊

As for merch, I would love a very nice toy or model of The Venture, but I doubt they will ever make one. Like the Ulysses from Atlantis, my needs for victorian deisel-punk merch will go unfulfilled! There actually is one Ulysses toy that ws made, but it was not that great. I figure in 20 years, this movie will have a cult following and maybe a few key peices will be released. I saw an Atlantis t-shirt at Boxlunch just yesterday!
 
Yes agree, there was more to that then they showed.

BrianL said:
Otherwise, I don't know why the diversity is a problem. They have a nice little diverse society there. Keep in mind that they are all from a very small area, basically one city - there is no "Native American" or "Asian" as there is no America or Asia. It's not a problem though to showcase non-white characters - and even still, the two main characters are still white. Also, Legend is aweseom - great dog there! When I noticed he was missing a leg, I just felt, "Aww, poor baby!" I wanted to hug him. 😊
Click to expand...
Not saying it's a problem. It's just very noticeable that diversity was on the forefront of the mind of the makers. Ten years ago this movie would contain only white characters, Five years ago they would have been all able-bodied.
And I said 'native American' as it felt like a checklist to make sure they have everyone included. Disney makes movies with the US market in mind, a society in a movie like this reflects modern day US.
If it would reflect modern day The Netherlands it would look different as our minorities are from different cultures/countries. With us there would probably be characters resembling Turkey, Morocco and Surinam.

BrianL said:
As for merch, I would love a very nice toy or model of The Venture, but I doubt they will ever make one. Like the Ulysses from Atlantis, my needs for victorian deisel-punk merch will go unfulfilled! There actually is one Ulysses toy that ws made, but it was not that great. I figure in 20 years, this movie will have a cult following and maybe a few key peices will be released. I saw an Atlantis t-shirt at Boxlunch just yesterday!
Click to expand...
You are right about the merch, the Venture would be a good option. The firebreather weapon Jaeger uses might be a cool toy, except it can't have real flames. :P
I can see this get a cult following like Atlantis. But I still struggle to understand the decision for a theatrical release. Would it just be to have a release this year?
 
Karin1984 said:
Yes agree, there was more to that then they showed.


Not saying it's a problem. It's just very noticeable that diversity was on the forefront of the mind of the makers. Ten years ago this movie would contain only white characters, Five years ago they would have been all able-bodied.
And I said 'native American' as it felt like a checklist to make sure they have everyone included. Disney makes movies with the US market in mind, a society in a movie like this reflects modern day US.
If it would reflect modern day The Netherlands it would look different as our minorities are from different cultures/countries. With us there would probably be characters resembling Turkey, Morocco and Surinam.


You are right about the merch, the Venture would be a good option. The firebreather weapon Jaeger uses might be a cool toy, except it can't have real flames. :P
I can see this get a cult following like Atlantis. But I still struggle to understand the decision for a theatrical release. Would it just be to have a release this year?
Click to expand...

But, Atlantis came out 20 years ago, and it too has a deliberately diverse cast - with Sweet and Audrey, and even Kida - well, she's not really "white" in skin tone - it's hard to say with ehr since she's from a fantasy kingdom. They've been doing for a while. I grew up in the 80's, and all the kids cartoons did this to some extent. It's normal really.
 
Karin1984 said:
I just left the theatre, and my first thought: that was a lot of talking.

It is not good, it is not bad. It is forgettable.

My main issue with it was: all the problems are solved very easily. They are able to kill off monsters at the first try. As soon as a problem arises, it gets solved.

There are no bad romantic relationships. Also the family relationship problems are talked out almost immediately.

The world looked interesting and it reminded of how Jim Henson talked about creating the world for The Dark Crystal movie.

And they spent a lot of attention to diversity. Besides the lead and his father, there is only one white character with lines (and to reverse the scifi trope to kill off the black guy immediately, he got killed with the first monster). There was someone in a wheelchair, the dog misses a leg, the son is gay, all ethnicities are here. I am only not sure if the second in command is supposed to be Hispanic or Native American.
Click to expand...
Thank you, because I really started thinking it was just me on this one. Disney needs to stop trying to make the right movie and go back to making good movies. At this point, every damn film is working off the same PC checklist. Blended family? Check. Strong female lead character? Check. Strong ethnic female lead character? Double check. Be it Star Wars, Marvel, or an animated film, every cast is now the United Nations. Heck. I'm still convinced that The Princess and the Frog was organized by Disney's Human Reaources Casting Department, who got tired of unfortunately having to tell applicants of color that they couldn't be a face character. At least this was a move fir the better, and saved them several HR nightmares.
 
supernova said:
Thank you, because I really started thinking it was just me on this one. Disney needs to stop trying to make the right movie and go back to making good movies. At this point, every damn film is working off the same PC checklist. Blended family? Check. Strong female lead character? Check. Strong ethnic female lead character? Double check. Be it Star Wars, Marvel, or an animated film, every cast is now the United Nations. Heck. I'm still convinced that The Princess and the Frog was organized by Disney's Human Reaources Casting Department, who got tired of unfortunately having to tell applicants of color that they couldn't be a face character. At least this was a move fir the better, and saved them several HR nightmares.
Click to expand...

But, the world IS "The United Nations" - there are all kinds of people in it. Why does it hurt things to reflect that? Would Strange World be any different if the cast were all white? Would it have performed better? I don't think so. Strange World does have a blended family, however the two leads are still both white males anyway. What material difference does any of that make to the story?
 
No, it doesn't hurt, and no it is not bad to have a multi-coloured cast. It does make it a product of the time we live in now. Disney and other companies are scared, they are scared to be labelled too white or not inclusive. We need to find a balance in the future, and at the moment, some companies are trying to hard. I am sure that in the future things will even out and/or it becomes less noticeable. If you don't notice it, that's very good. Then you are further than others.

But I stand by that things were different the last few decades. I think the multi-coloured cast in Atlantis is different as they are all misfits and outcasts. When movies like Tarzan, Meet the Robinsons, Rapunzel, Wreck-it Ralph or Frozen would be remade now, the cast would be more diverse, and not just in colour. They are making up with it for Frozen in the musical. In the casts of Frozen, Kristoff is cast with an actor of colour. I think that's standard, but don't quote me on this. It's at least the case on principle casts on Broadway, West End and Hamburg. And no, it doesn't make a difference. It is different from how it would have been done 10 years ago, and therefore it's noticeable. Again, it will take another 10 or 20 years before it becomes less noticeable.

I think it started to give a coloured person a 'normal' role with Wasabi in Big Hero 6. With a "Let's see what happens"-thought. the answer was nothing. It was fine. But Wasabi was still a relatively forgettable side character.

Next was Captain Mattias in Frozen 2. Where he needs to have something important to do, it's him who saves Anna. This decision influences how I view the relationship between Anna and Kristoff and it influence Kristoff's role in the entire story. So yes, paying attention to making sure everyone is included and everyone is heard can influence the story.

I think Strange World could have performed better if they wouldn't have tried so hard to include everything. Because you need to pay attention to everything, and that takes time away from the story. Showing that Ethan is gay, his parents are in a healthy relationship, That's one thing that annoyed me in Disenchanted and in Strange World as well, we all need to be friends at the end. We need to take time in the movie to show that Giselle and Malvina make up, we need time to show that Jaeger and Sheldon make up. There is apparently a need nowadays for a 'And they ALL lived happily ever after'.

Even if it is not the case, it does give the feeling Disney is more concerned with telling the right story than a good story. In a good story, it doesnt matter.

To me, Strange World is not a good story due to the lack of conflict. It lacks conflict because there is no time for it. The focus is on how family relationships develop, not on the adventure. And that is fine, but it is not what I expect in a movie like this.
 
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I think why Disney hasn't put out any other merchandise of Strange World is because I think Disney released it in theaters too soon and they wanted to have a movie to make people try to see it over the holidays. Because when you release a movie during the holiday season it's usually meant to sell hot toys for Christmas and I can tell you that when December comes as it gets closer and closer to Christmas we will see more Strange World merchandise being put out just like they did with Encanto and Soul. Because when I have gone to ShopDisney to browse at sales the only merchandise of Strange World they have is clothing and in toys the only toys they have of Strange World is a plushie of Splat and figurines of the characters. Where is the Strange World plushies of Searcher Clade Jaeger Clade Meridian Clade and Legend the dog? and it shocks me that they released only Splat in plush and not the rest of the Strange World characters. But Disney should promote Strange World a lot more and give it another chance to be successful in theaters
 
Karin1984 said:
No, it doesn't hurt, and no it is not bad to have a multi-coloured cast. It does make it a product of the time we live in now. Disney and other companies are scared, they are scared to be labelled too white or not inclusive. We need to find a balance in the future, and at the moment, some companies are trying to hard. I am sure that in the future things will even out and/or it becomes less noticeable. If you don't notice it, that's very good. Then you are further than others.

But I stand by that things were different the last few decades. I think the multi-coloured cast in Atlantis is different as they are all misfits and outcasts. When movies like Tarzan, Meet the Robinsons, Rapunzel, Wreck-it Ralph or Frozen would be remade now, the cast would be more diverse, and not just in colour. They are making up with it for Frozen in the musical. In the casts of Frozen, Kristoff is cast with an actor of colour. I think that's standard, but don't quote me on this. It's at least the case on principle casts on Broadway, West End and Hamburg. And no, it doesn't make a difference. It is different from how it would have been done 10 years ago, and therefore it's noticeable. Again, it will take another 10 or 20 years before it becomes less noticeable.

I think it started to give a coloured person a 'normal' role with Wasabi in Big Hero 6. With a "Let's see what happens"-thought. the answer was nothing. It was fine. But Wasabi was still a relatively forgettable side character.

Next was Captain Mattias in Frozen 2. Where he needs to have something important to do, it's him who saves Anna. This decision influences how I view the relationship between Anna and Kristoff and it influence Kristoff's role in the entire story. So yes, paying attention to making sure everyone is included and everyone is heard can influence the story.

I think Strange World could have performed better if they wouldn't have tried so hard to include everything. Because you need to pay attention to everything, and that takes time away from the story. Showing that Ethan is gay, his parents are in a healthy relationship, That's one thing that annoyed me in Disenchanted and in Strange World as well, we all need to be friends at the end. We need to take time in the movie to show that Giselle and Malvina make up, we need time to show that Jaeger and Sheldon make up. There is apparently a need nowadays for a 'And they ALL lived happily ever after'.

Even if it is not the case, it does give the feeling Disney is more concerned with telling the right story than a good story. In a good story, it doesnt matter.

To me, Strange World is not a good story due to the lack of conflict. It lacks conflict because there is no time for it. The focus is on how family relationships develop, not on the adventure. And that is fine, but it is not what I expect in a movie like this.
Click to expand...

But none of that "diversity" stuff has anything to do with the story. It's fair to not like the story (though I disagree that it hsas no conflict - it has plenty, it's just that the main one is resolved in a rusehd manner). They didn't spend any more tim eon Ethan being gay than they would have had he had a crush on a girl - they still would have shown that scene because it was important for Ethan's character and motivations later on. Maybe some people think it's "weird" because it was a boy, but I don't think the story materially changes at all if the entire cast is white and straight - it's the same movie either way. There seems to be this mentallity where some think that they spend all their time and creative energy figuring out the divrsity and have nothing left for the story - but that's just silly. Plenty of movies have diversity and are also good. Some are bad, but that's not the reason why they didn't turn out so great. Most of the time these days they hire the voice actors, and the character models are somewhat tuned to that person for a more natural fit. They jsut happen to hire more than jsut white folks now - which I can't say is a bad thing.

Big hero 6 is interesting because ALL of the characters from teh comic book were Japanese. In the movie, basically only Hiro and his family are, and the rest were all changed and match their voice actors. Honey Lemon is hispanic and Gogo is Chinese (and yes, it's different than Japanese) - this is why her name isn't "Gogo Tomago" since that last name is a Japanese word. They absolutely made an effort to diversify the cast, and yet, the movie is GREAT. It's better than it ever was as a comic book. Surprising?
 
BrianL said:
But, the world IS "The United Nations" - there are all kinds of people in it. Why does it hurt things to reflect that? Would Strange World be any different if the cast were all white? Would it have performed better? I don't think so. Strange World does have a blended family, however the two leads are still both white males anyway. What material difference does any of that make to the story?
Click to expand...
Sure, but Disney does not set their cast in any organic way. It's forced, it's contrived, and it's pandering. My wife and I are a mixed couple, but we don't harp on it. We're just us. Now I'm learning that they also made their non-white lead character gay. Another check box ticked off. Bravo, Disney. Way to shoehorn in a variety of characters that absolutely no one in your target audience apparently cared about. No one is connecting with them. No one is going, "Hey! That character is just like me!" Go back to crafting solid entertaining stories with sympathetic characters and stop attempting to cater to your perceived masses. Because absolutely no one watches Snow White and thinks, "Wow, great story, but you know what would make this movie even better? If each of the dwarfs was from one of the seven continents so we can have representation. Because the world IS the "United Nations." Ugh....
 
supernova said:
Sure, but Disney does not set their cast in any organic way. It's forced, it's contrived, and it's pandering. My wife and I are a mixed couple, but we don't harp on it. We're just us. Now I'm learning that they also made their non-white lead character gay. Another check box ticked off. Bravo, Disney. Way to shoehorn in a variety of characters that absolutely no one in your target audience apparently cared about. No one is connecting with them. No one is going, "Hey! That character is just like me!" Go back to crafting solid entertaining stories with sympathetic characters and stop attempting to cater to your perceived masses. Because absolutely no one watches Snow White and thinks, "Wow, great story, but you know what would make this movie even better? If each of the dwarfs was from one of the seven continents so we can have representation. Because the world IS the "United Nations." Ugh....
Click to expand...
You're right, no one should be saying that making the seven dwarfs the UN would make it any better - but it also wouldn't make it any worse. Jsut because they are making movies today that reflect mixed group doesn't make the movie bad. They don't "harp on it" at all - it just is. It's not mentioned at all in the entire movie. None of it is. Also, the lead character is not gay, his son is. Searcher (Jake Gyllenhall) is the lead and he's a *gasp* white male!
 
BrianL said:
You're right, no one should be saying that making the seven dwarfs the UN would make it any better - but it also wouldn't make it any worse. Jsut because they are making movies today that reflect mixed group doesn't make the movie bad. They don't "harp on it" at all - it just is. It's not mentioned at all in the entire movie. None of it is. Also, the lead character is not gay, his son is. Searcher (Jake Gyllenhall) is the lead and he's a *gasp* white male!
Click to expand...
Give it time. It's a near guarantee that those idiots at Disney will certainly change up the looks of the dwarfs to appease the masses. 🙄
 
supernova said:
Give it time. It's a near guarantee that those idiots at Disney will certainly change up the looks of the dwarfs to appease the masses. 🙄
Click to expand...

But, so what if they do? It doesn't change the original and it doesn't affect the story. "Appeasing the masses" is what every movie strives to do because they want the masses to go see it.
 
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