Sotiris wrote:Searcher is a horrible first name. I get they wanted something that alludes to exploration and adventure, but couldn't they have come up with something better?
Yeah, it's an odd name for a person. Meridian also seems related to the same themes; that's part of why I thought she could be Searcher's sister at first. I imagined their father could've named his children like that because he likes adventure so much. That could still be true in Searcher's case, but I guess it doesn't explain Meridian's name.
Sotiris wrote:What first drew me to Disney was the high-quality hand-drawn animation coupled with appealing, naturalistic character designs.
The quality of the animation is something really important to me too, but in my case, the way I discovered Disney for the first time was through the storybook adaptations of their films and there was no animation there, just drawings. I already had some illustrated books before that, but then I got my first from Disney as a Christmas present from my aunt and from then on I only wanted the Disney ones. It was an
Alice in Wonderland/
Bambi combo, by the way. At first, I thought Walt Disney was the author of the stories and the person who had drawn all the illustrations.
Later, I discovered there were movies these books had been adapted from. The first time I saw animation from Disney, I was totally mesmerized by the colors and movement/fluidity of it. It felt magical to me and still does. It was
Alice in Wonderland once again, which was airing on TV, while a re-release of
Bambi was my first Disney film in theaters. I guess they should be my top two favorite movies from the studio since they were my firsts in both mediums.
They're not, but
Bambi at least is on my top 10. Disney's CGI animation still retains some of this magic and I find it appealing too, but of course, it's not the same as their hand-drawn animation to me.
Regarding Disney's house style, I've read the roundness of the lines is one of the secrets of its broad appeal. I know there's more to it than just that, but it's probably a key element of it.
Sotiris wrote:Prince Kido wrote:Maybe the overall movie will change this feeling but I am also annoyed by the difference between the men and the women. Callista and Meridian don't have that stylistic goofy design. It's not homogenic. They don't fit the same movie at all and come on Disney: men always look stupid while women are badass!
I agree that there's a gap between how the male and female characters look. However, the female characters don't look good either. Meridian is short and stout and so generic-looking, people can't even tell if she's supposed to be a kid or an adult. Callisto is an odd mix of Luisa and Raya that comes off as unnatural and off-putting.
Someone else mentioned the character design not being homogenous and I saw that too, but I hadn't noticed it's the female and male characters specifically who look like they come from two different movies. That's really interesting. I agree with you,
Sotiris, that the women's designs are not too good either, but I think they look slightly more Disney than the men.
Prince Kido wrote:I like that the male lead has a beard and he could be handsome.
I like that he has a beard too. And also the fact that he's not the typical male Disney protagonist. He's probably the oldest from Disney to date and most likely the first one who's a father from the beginning of the film. By the way, I know it was in the first synopsis, but I didn't expect the whole family would take part in the adventure, I imagined it would be just three generations of male characters, like in Pixar's short
La Luna, for example. This will be WDAS' second film in a row with a family at its centre.
Prince Kido wrote:Love the poster anyway.
Yes, the poster is great. I love that it looks like a vintage one, folds included.
That's the one we got in Spain. It's practically the same teaser, but it's a bit shorter and the retro elements from the beginning were replaced with more generic stuff. They did the same with the poster. I wonder why they altered it for some countries; those old-style details were a great idea in my opinion.
Source: https://twitter.com/DisneySpain/status/ ... 3322308608
Farerb wrote:There's also a French trailer which is like the US trailer, but the name of the film is Avalonia: A Strange World, so I guess the land they will be traveling is called Avalonia:
https://youtu.be/eaQhck-EmtQ
That's interesting. I noticed that word was in the map behind the family in the shot where the whole group appears. I suspected it could be the name of the "strange world", but I wasn't sure if that was the case. Judging by the map, it looks a bit like an island, doesn't it?
I also noticed a couple more things. First, the means of transport the family uses seemed to have an eye to me in the
Encanto Easter Egg, so I thought it might be alive, but the teaser revealed it's actually a porthole.
And second, the character on the right below looks like Searcher's father, but with long beard and hair. I wonder if the reason the protagonist is forced to embark on this adventure is that his father gets lost in this world and they have to come to his rescue.
Rumpelstiltskin wrote:All the various creatures makes me think of speculative evolution, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's is what we're seeing. That would in case be the first one for Disney.
I hadn't heard that term before. I've looked its meaning up and I think you might be right, although the fact that the "animals" in this world don't have eyes, or in many cases, even proper faces, makes me suspect they're not real animals but something else like particles, cells or something like that. The textures in this land also remind me of the inside of a body, but I could very well be wrong about that.