SPOILERS GALORE
This post is so disorganized, stream of thoughts here, but here we go.
I didn't love this, although I did like it. But it was aptly very "strange," accurate title. The way the film opened with the song, the way scenes transitioned, the way it ended--I wouldn't say I loved all of it, but it couldn't help but feel refreshing after so long WDAS films have felt like products on an assembly line because of so much "same-iness" and lack of risk in PIXAR-esque fashion.
As far as the weirdness of the "world," I wonder why the advertising didn't focus more on the less ugly "creatures." All I remember being advertised were the dumb looking dinosaur/elephant-looking things (the ones that restore things in the movie), the pterodactyl-esque flying maroon things, and Splat (another design I'm not crazy about). The deer/gazelle-like creatures are much nicer to look at and then there was another one I can't quite remember right now. The focus on weirdly-designed creatures in the advertising as though we should be awed by them is sort of a hallmark of advertising I associate with flops, unfortunately (and I mean in terms of how they perform at the box office, not how I much like them or dislike them on a personal level)--Treasure Planet and A Wrinkle in Time are two films that I liked that did the same. There have been quite a few other live-action films that did the same thing from Disney with a similar result, too, although I can't name them all right off.
To the characters, I generally felt opposite about the various character designs than I expected going into it. Ethan's design was the one I liked on posters and so on, but in-film it didn't work for me. I mean, it did
sometimes--but often his face was too bulge-y or smoosh-y (lol), and often very ugly to look at, tbh. The voice actor wasn't quite what I imagined for the character either. On the other hand, I did like Searcher a great deal. His design is cute even if I still dislike the cartooniness of the big noses; I think they did that just to force us to notice family traits in Searcher and Ethan by making them so pronounced (Ethan's eyes like the father and nose like the mother, Searcher's nose like his father's, etc.).
Meridian's design is still a bit bland to me, but I ended up liking the character. How bizarre was that kitchen dancing scene!
I felt I had been wrong about not liking Callisto's design when the movie first started, but I ended up disliking it when she "changed" (showed up in the movie later with the braid). I definitely preferred her design in the opening when they were in the mountains. I thought Callisto (the character) was overall pretty bland as the movie went on. Meridian and Legend were both better characters than I expected in comparison; I didn't notice from the previews that the dog was missing a leg? Legend ended up having the funniest moments in the movie to me (other than Searcher's "And the giant eye must be the eye."
), I really thought he'd be a boring animal character, and he looked too much like Max from TLM to me. I guess Splat was a little better than I expected, too (I hated the cartoony design), but not as much as those two. I loved when we found out Splat was trying to lead Ethan to his death because Ethan came across pretty dumb to follow a random creature like that.
Anyway, I feel like I was right about Callisto to a degree. The turn when she locked them all in the closet had the feel of an early Twist Villain reveal that they pedaled back from, to the point she was just a temporary antagonist. The grandfather had some line during the card game that made me laugh, about how no villains is lazy storytelling.
That whole argument felt like Disney fans v. Disney executives. They don't want us to have villains because they don't want to depict anyone as being fully bad yet it's unsatisfying that almost none of their new films have them.
I really liked Searcher as a character, too (not simply the design). He reminded me a bit of Tadashi and Benja--a healer, builder male personality--while having a bit more fire to him, as far as arguing most of the film with Jaeger. I liked Jaeger more than Ethan, too, actually... I don't know if anyone here has ever played Jak & Daxter, but Jaeger reminds me so much of the mayor in the first game of that franchise (from the mustache to the voice). They were definitely pulling from John Silver and Jim Hawkins for this film in different ways. The part where Jaeger decided to go back rather than finally crossing the mountains reminded me of Silver leaving the treasure at the end of that film. As far as Ethan, the only moments I really liked in the film involving him were the one where he tells Searcher he doesn't want to be like him (I thought that dialogue at least felt real), whenever he was saving Legend, and when they were playing the card game and the only thing that could stop Searcher and Jaeger from criticizing and judging one another was for them to gang up to criticize and judge Ethan.
The
very ending panout to the planet gave me a WTF vibe what with the turtle they were living inside being so big you can see small details of its shape and everything from space.
blackcauldron85 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:05 pm
I know I like everything, but I for one have liked Don Hall's previous films.
I looked up Don Hall, and, wow, he's been involved with a wide array of film types, hasn't he? My reaction to all the movies he's been involved with directing has been all over the map. Loved
Raya, thought
Moana was good if a touch bland, overall didn't like BH6, WtP and
Strange World were okay. I'd throw
Meet the Robinsons in that last category, too, since he wrote the screenplay for it. So really only BH6 did I dislike, and there were some scenes, characters, and moments that I liked about it at least.