Strange World

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm just saying that the animation studio, which is the heart and soul of the company, just doesn't seem to be a priority for them anymore, and it felt like that for a long time (I think I even said it in the past).

It used to bother me that WDAS was being treated as the red-headed step-child by Disney. I don't care, anymore. First, they abandoned 2D animation, then they made modernized adaptations of fairy tales and instituted the twist villain. After that, they abandoned fairy tale adaptations and villains altogether as well as romance for their leads. Now, they're moving away from the Disney house style. Almost all of the creative talent of the '90s and '00s is gone too. There's nothing "Disney" left at Disney Animation. It's just an empty name.

I feel like the princess films do feel like fairy tales at least. What I don't get is why they don't adapt fairy tales from other cultures--since that would allow them to tell "princess" stories that were diverse. I don't believe they'll be away from literature or fairy tales forever, although the best of them have already been done by Disney, tbh.

I think villains will return eventually. Everything gets tired with time--that's why the twist villain is gone now and they're starting to break out of the buddy roadtrip formula a little at a time. No villains will get old, too, to the point people will start making fun of it online. Aside from that (and of course hand-drawn animation), I've been mostly positive about Disney-PIXAR, it's just these recent reveals considering they had been on a roll, imo. Who knows, I may end up liking it, it's really just the horrible designs that have taken me aback.

[D82]

Meridian doesn't sound like a kid (she said "Let's go" I think in the trailer), so I bet she's an adult.

Yes, that's true. She does have an adult voice.

Avalonia: "Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalonia?wprov=sfla1) It's also a computer program UI's or video game UI's name (obviously it's not relevant to this film's content, but maybe Disney couldn't name it "Avalonia" because of it? IDK.

I didn't think of looking "Avalonia" up to see if it was an existing word. Now I think Rumpelstiltskin is probably right that it's a lost continent or something similar. This movie's sounding more and more like Atlantis.

But wouldn't his dad have the same last name as him? I think Calypso Kahn will be a female character given the name and Disney's diversity efforts (making a statement by having the Captain be a woman).

Oh, you're right. His last name has to be Clade like his son's and I had forgotten Calypso is a female name. Calypso Kahn must be a character we haven't met yet then. I wonder who she'll be. Maybe a rival explorer or someone who got lost in this strange land?

Your theory about the names would make sense, especially since Ethan who we know is Searcher's son is the only one with a normal name, if Meridian and Searcher were of the same race. But Searcher's dad having Meridian with a Black woman and then his son also having a kid with a Black woman is too implausible and weird.

Yeah, you're right. I guess the filmmakers just chose names inspired by exploration for the characters to fit the film's genre. Unless Meridian is Calypso Kahn's daughter, a rival explorer of Searcher's father, who also has the habit of choosing names like those for her children. That could also explain why Meridian can pilot a vehicle like the one in the trailer. But, I guess that would be too complicated.

Comedic characters and villains have always been more caricatured than the leads. It allows for broader, more theatrical performances.

That's true. What I meant is that the contrast is perhaps more stark in Snow White, but personally I've never had an issue with that.

I think it's more plausible the island being gigantic; Avalonia as seen on the map, may only be one part of the living organism, the visible part, while the rest of it could be hidden underwater.

One of the reasons I thought they were inside a living organism is that it doesn't look like this place is on the Earth's surface. It being underwater would also explain that.

See? I said the long necked animals resembled Hallucigenia, which could be a hint that the place has been isolated for a very long time. It's gonna be interesting if they have used other prehistoric animals as inspiration:

https://www.reddit.com/r/disney/comment ... nimals_in/

Then there is the more obvious, like fan worms and echinoderms. The tentacled thing looks like a sea anemone, and maybe there was also some rays there. Not sure. The whole place is like a terristrial environment mimicking the underwater environment around a coral reef or something (James Cameron was also partly inspired by the ocean when the came up with Pandora's ecology in Avatar).

What if there is something in the atmosphere that allows these animals to have a lifestyle similar to that of marine/aquatic species? There are these giraffe things that have a dense collection of long threads growing out of their necks, just like filter feeders does when they're eating.

The long necked animals do look a bit like that prehistoric species. They also remind me of dinosaurs. And there are some flying creatures in the teaser that resemble pterodactyls. The land in this movie does remind a bit of Avatar, especially the floating "rocks".

[Sotiris]

This movie's sounding more and more like Atlantis.

It's interesting that both Lightyear and Strange World have strong similarities to Atlantis.

Unless Meridian is Calypso Kahn's daughter, a rival explorer of Searcher's father, who also has the habit of choosing names like those for her children. That could also explain why Meridian can pilot a vehicle like the one in the trailer.

That would be interesting and it would make sense. I hope your theory turns out to be true!

The long necked animals do look a bit like that prehistoric species. They also remind me of dinosaurs. And there are some flying creatures in the teaser that resemble pterodactyls. The land in this movie does remind a bit of Avatar, especially the floating "rocks".

I can see some resemblance to prehistoric animals, but the creatures in Avalonia look more sci-fi and cell-based, to me. In the trailer, it says this world is "past space and time", so they might be alien in nature. I'm starting to think Avalonia is not a place on Earth.

[Farerb]

Avalonia could be a reference to Avalon, the legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend.

[DisneyFan09]

The characters design pretty much feels like any studio could have made this film.

Agreed. They`re not as lackluster as the designs from Luca and Turning Red, but they still feel from the same cloth. There`s nothing particularly Disney about the designs of these characters, as they look too generic and ordinary to be distinctive. And looks like they`ve could`ve come from every animation studio.

This is hands down the worst character design work in the history of Disney Animation. I don't understand why they would abandon the appealing and beloved Disney house style in favor of some of the most generic and ugly designs I've ever seen. In the past, when they experimented with design, they fused the Disney style with other influences, but the end result was still recognizably Disney. The Disney-esque quality was evident in the visuals and aesthetic of films like Hercules, Atlantis or Lilo & Stitch. There's nothing in this that signals "Disney".

To be honest, I`ve always thought that the design for Lilo seemed somewhat Nickelodeon-esque. There`s little about her proportions and features that looks Disney. But otherwise I agree with your other examples, despite how Kida is hugely influenced by manga and anime.

From the male love interests of the Revival era, Naveen is definitely the best-looking one, but Flynn and Kristoff are not bad either.

Agreed, Naveen is the best one. He`s handsome, but still have some distinctive features that makes him look interesting (at first, I thought he looked like a blend of Gaston and Kent Powers from Quack Pack) . Flynn is certainly good looking, but Kristoff looks awfully generic. Even Bastion (who Kristoff was most likely based on) looked more appealing than Kristoff.

It's interesting they're promoting this movie as "from the studio that brought you Frozen and Encanto" given that this is a male-led adventure film. Wouldn't Zootopia be more fitting, in this case? Does Disney consider Encanto more successful than Zootopia now?

Yeah, it`s pretty odd, indeed. Considering that Zootopia was a bigger blockbuster than Encanto. But due to how the latter movie is more recent in mind, it was most likely to be mentioned.

[Disney's Divinity]

They`re not as lackluster as the designs from Luca and Turning Red, but they still feel from the same cloth.

I generally liked the design of those two films whereas I don't like the look of this one.

To be honest, I`ve always thought that the design for Lilo seemed somewhat Nickelodeon-esque.

I've never thought about it before, but I agree.

[D82]

It's interesting that both Lightyear and Strange World have strong similarities to Atlantis.

I think Strange World more than Lightyear, at least from what we've seen so far, but yes, some aspects of Lightyear also remind me a bit of Atlantis. This year Avatar will be re-released too (as well as its sequel) and I've always thought that movie was probably quite inspired by the Disney one, so this will be the year of the Atlantis-inspired films.

That would be interesting and it would make sense. I hope your theory turns out to be true!

I'm glad you liked my theory. I was half joking, but I really would like the characters' names to make sense in the context of the story and not be just like a reference only for the audience, so I hope there's at least some explanation behind them, whether it's this one or another.

I can see some resemblance to prehistoric animals, but the creatures in Avalonia look more sci-fi and cell-based, to me. In the trailer, it says this world is "past space and time", so they might be alien in nature. I'm starting to think Avalonia is not a place on Earth.

One of my first thoughts was also that it could be another planet. I wasn't too impressed with the look of this strange land at first, but now I'm quite curious to know more about it. I hope we get more details about it at Annecy.

Avalonia could be a reference to Avalon, the legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend.

Who knows. What's interesting is that Avalonia (the prehistoric continent) also comes from the name Avalon, but in this case the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland (according to Wikipedia).

[Rumpelstiltskin]

After seeing the trailer again, the place seems even more organic than before. When the navigator says "brace yourself" 19 seconds into the trailer, it looks like the ship is crashing through a giant cell membrane.
And the whole place looks like it is inside something, as there is no sun on the sky or anything, even if it gives the impression that there is a night and day cycle. Another alternative could be that the sky is covered by a thick mist. If it is the fist, it takes you back to Jules Verne and A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

There is also something strange about the waterfall, like it is moving like honey or some other thick and gelatinous liquid.

It could be on earth, or space, or a third option; in another dimension. So ar it is not possible to say for sure where it is.

I can see some resemblance to prehistoric animals, but the creatures in Avalonia look more sci-fi and cell-based, to me. In the trailer, it says this world is "past space and time", so they might be alien in nature. I'm starting to think Avalonia is not a place on Earth.

There are some creatures that does look like pterosaurs, but the glimpse is too short to tell exactly what they looks like.

[D82]

After seeing the trailer again, the place seems even more organic than before. When the navigator says "brace yourself" 19 seconds into the trailer, it looks like the ship is crashing through a giant cell membrane.

That's one of the main things that gave me that feeling, as well as the lack of a normal sky, as you also mentioned. I hadn't noticed the waterfall thing, though. It's true that its liquid looks thicker than water.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

It's more like slime pouring down. And because there is no blue sky, the liquid shouldn't be blue either, unless it is actually blue and not transparent as water (water does look blue if you go deep enough, but that's not the case here). HG Wells' First Men in the Moon comes to mind, where there is a blue glowing liquid running in the Selenite tunnels:

And, after all, I do remember one other thing besides the purely personal affair, which is, that a sort of gutter came presently across the floor of the cavern, and then ran along by the side of the path of rock we followed. And it was full of that same bright blue luminous stuff that flowed out of the great machine. I walked close beside it, and I can testify it radiated not a particle of heat. It was brightly shining, and yet it was neither warmer nor colder than anything else in the cavern.

And soon I perceived that we were approaching a declivity of some sort, because the little blue stream dipped suddenly out of sight.

In another moment, as it seemed, we had reached the edge. The shining stream gave one meander of hesitation and then rushed over. It fell to a depth at which the sound of its descent was absolutely lost to us. Far below was a bluish glow, a sort of blue mist—at an infinite distance below. And the darkness the stream dropped out of became utterly void and black, save that a thing like a plank projected from the edge of the cliff and stretched out and faded and vanished altogether. There was a warm air blowing up out of the gulf.

Other stories that gives associations to the trailer is Bruce Sterling's novellette Swarm, which takes place inside a large asteroid. The place is a superorganism of various creatures, many of them larger than humans.

I have probably mentioned it before somewhere, but one of my favorite non-Disney animated features is Fantastic Planet. That movie too show us a very alien landscape:
https://www.tresbohemes.com/2017/02/fan ... a-planeta/

[D82]

It's more like slime pouring down. And because there is no blue sky, the liquid shouldn't be blue either, unless it is actually blue and not transparent as water (water does look blue if you go deep enough, but that's not the case here). HG Wells' First Men in the Moon comes to mind, where there is a blue glowing liquid running in the Selenite tunnels:

It's true, it must be a blue liquid. Maybe it's inspired by the book you mention. It's interesting to know these kinds of details about things that might've inspired the filmmakers. You're quite an expert on sci-fi books and movies, Rumpelstiltskin!

I have probably mentioned it before somewhere, but one of my favorite non-Disney animated features is Fantastic Planet. That movie too show us a very alien landscape:
https://www.tresbohemes.com/2017/02/fan ... a-planeta/

I remember you mentioning that film before. I'll have to watch it someday. It's one of those cult classics I want to watch, but they look so weird that I never feel like it (like also Watership Down, for example). They must have a following for a reason, though, and I usually don't regret watching them, so I'll have to give this one a try as well.

[Disney's Divinity]

With the theory that they're inside the body of...something--is this film now The Magic School Bus?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

It's true, it must be a blue liquid. Maybe it's inspired by the book you mention. It's interesting to know these kinds of details about things that might've inspired the filmmakers. You're quite an expert on sci-fi books and movies, Rumpelstiltskin!

I remember you mentioning that film before. I'll have to watch it someday. It's one of those cult classics I want to watch, but they look so weird that I never feel like it (like also Watership Down, for example). They must have a following for a reason, though, and I usually don't regret watching them, so I'll have to give this one a try as well.

Thanks, but it is mostly the classics. Science fiction back then was different from what it is today. The filmmaker also says the movie is inspired by the pulps he read.
C. S. Lewis' novel Out of the Silent Planet also have several similarities, like alien and colorful landscapes. I found the ending to be a little anticlimactic, but visually it would have been great to see on the big screen.

Some quotes:

Before anything else he learned that Malacandra was beautiful; and he even reflected how odd it was that this possibility had never entered into his speculations about it. The same peculiar twist of imagination which led him to people the universe with monsters had somehow taught him to expect nothing on a strange planet except rocky desolation or else a network of nightmare machines. He could not say why, now that he came to think of it. He also discovered that the blue water surrounded them on at least three sides: his view in the fourth direction was blotted out by the vast steel football in which they had come. The hut, in fact, was built either on the point of a peninsula or on the end of an island. He also came little by little to the conclusion that the water was not merely blue in certain lights like terrestrial water but ‘really’ blue.

He tried hard, in such stolen glances as the work allowed him, to make out something of the farther shore. A mass of something purple, so huge that he took it for a heather-covered mountain, was his first impression: on the other side, beyond the larger water, there was something of the same kind. But there, he could see over the top of it. Beyond were strange upright shapes of whitish green: too jagged and irregular for buildings, too thin and steep for mountains. Beyond and above these again was the rose-coloured cloud-like mass. It might really be a cloud, but it was very solid-looking and did not seem to have moved since he first set eyes on it from the manhole. It looked like the top of a gigantic red cauliflower—or like a huge bowl of red soapsuds—and it was exquisitely beautiful in tint and shape.

He shuffled on to find another gully, and went so far that he began to think he had got out of the region of them. He had almost determined to turn back when the ground began falling steeply; he slipped, recovered and found himself on the bank of a torrent. The trees—for as ‘trees’ he could not help regarding them—did not quite meet overhead, and the water itself seemed to have some faintly phosphorescent quality, so that it was lighter here. The fall from right to left was steep. Guided by some vague picnicker’s hankering for a ‘better’ place, he went a few yards upstream. The valley grew steeper, and he came to a little cataract. He noticed dully that the water seemed to be descending a little too slowly for the incline, but he was too tired to speculate about it. The water was apparently hotter than that of the lake—perhaps nearer its subterranean source of heat.

Watership down feels more like an animated movie that is less for children, even if all ages can see it (despite being a little scary for the youngest). Fantastic Planet is for me more about the mood and the atmosphere.

With the theory that they're inside the body of...something--is this film now The Magic School Bus?

I don't think that series have ever been shown in my country, but it sounds like the type of concept that could be adopted into The Magic School Bus - The Movie. If they really enter the body of something in the Disney movie is hard to say, but the whole place looks alive.

[D82]

Thanks, but it is mostly the classics. Science fiction back then was different from what it is today.

I see, but the classics are probably the best anyway.

Watership down feels more like an animated movie that is less for children, even if all ages can see it (despite being a little scary for the youngest). Fantastic Planet is for me more about the mood and the atmosphere.

OK. Yes, they look different from each other, but they both look more for adults than for children to me.

I don't think that series have ever been shown in my country, but it sounds like the type of concept that could be adopted into The Magic School Bus - The Movie.

Maybe it didn't air in my country either, because I've never seen that series.

[D82]

Grace Randolph revealed in her latest livestream she has heard from a source that Ethan Clade (the protagonist's son) is an LGBT character and that "that's part of the father-son bonding experience when they go on that adventure together." She said there would be an LGBT character in Lightyear several months before it was confirmed, so it's likely this is also true. I only watch some of her videos, especially the ones about the box office, which I find interesting since she knows a lot about the industry, so I'm glad I watched this livestream and that I did it in full this time since this was revealed at the end of the video.

[Disney's Divinity]

^ I've sort of suspected that could be the case for a while. I'm excited if so, but it's sort of disappointing that it's happening in a film with such poor designs. Moreover, I guess I always hoped the first gay protagonist would be in a film like Tangled, TP&TF, Frozen, etc. and there would be music / romance. Ah, well.

[Sotiris]

Grace Randolph revealed in her latest livestream she has heard from a source that Ethan Clade (the protagonist's son) is an LGBT character and that "that's part of the father-son bonding experience when they go on that adventure together."

I totally called it! My gaydar is on point!

It's sort of disappointing that it's happening in a film with such poor designs. Moreover, I guess I always hoped the first gay protagonist would be in a film like Tangled, TP&TF, Frozen, etc. and there would be music / romance.

It's disappointing, I agree. I think most people would want the first to be in a traditional fairy tale musical with royalty, villains, romance, and magic, but the problem is WDAS doesn't really make those type of films, anymore.

[Prince Kido]

Grace Randolph revealed in her latest livestream she has heard from a source that Ethan Clade (the protagonist's son) is an LGBT character and that "that's part of the father-son bonding experience when they go on that adventure together.".

I knew for quite a long time that there would be a queer character in Strange World but didn’t know which one. After seeing the teaser trailer, it was obvious to me and I guessed that this would probably be Ethan as a non-binary teen.
I will see if they will going to officially mention this tomorrow at the Annecy Festival’s presentation I will attend…

[Farerb]

I knew for quite a long time that there would be a queer character in Strange World but didn’t know which one. After seeing the teaser trailer, it was obvious to me and I guessed that this would probably be Ethan as a non-binary teen.
I will see if they will going to officially mention this tomorrow at the Annecy Festival’s presentation I will attend…

Have fun at Annecy!
And if it's not too much to ask, could you share information about the film if you're allowed to?

[D82]

I totally called it! My gaydar is on point!

Oh, it's true! I knew someone had mentioned it, but didn't remember who it was. Good eye!

It's sort of disappointing that it's happening in a film with such poor designs. Moreover, I guess I always hoped the first gay protagonist would be in a film like Tangled, TP&TF, Frozen, etc. and there would be music / romance.

It's disappointing, I agree. I think most people would want the first to be in a traditional fairy tale musical with royalty, villains, romance, and magic, but the problem is WDAS doesn't really make those type of films, anymore.

Well, it's not Disney's first gay protagonist, just the first openly gay character. Ethan's father is the film's protagonist. They could still make a film like the one you're both describing.

I knew for quite a long time that there would be a queer character in Strange World but didn’t know which one. After seeing the teaser trailer, it was obvious to me and I guessed that this would probably be Ethan as a non-binary teen.
I will see if they will going to officially mention this tomorrow at the Annecy Festival’s presentation I will attend…

A non-binary teen would be interesting, and they have even less representation than gay ones, at least from what I've seen. I was also thinking that since the public for a movie like this is mainly comprised of children and their parents, a relationship like Ethan and Searcher's could be beneficial for the ones who are in a similar situation.

Have fun at Annecy!
And if it's not too much to ask, could you share information about the film if you're allowed to?

Yes, have fun! If you could share something, we'd appreciate it. I hope they at least reveal some more info on who's who in the family or something about that mysterious land.