Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Strange World.
Strange World, the 61st film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, follows the Clade family, known for their legendary explorers, such as Jaeger (Dennis Quaid) and Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal). Strange World is a throwback to pulp comics and retro sci-fi films, a unique world full of intriguing creatures, odd lands, and, of course, family dynamics. For Disney, Strange World is stylistically different from what we’re used to from an animated Disney film, yet the heart and soul of the film remain wholly Disney.
But Strange World is also built around the question of what exactly is this strange world that the Clade family inhabits? Like Jaeger Clade, we also want to explore the world around these characters, what it all means, and what lies in the unseen. Strange World is a movie worth investigating, so let’s answer the questions that Strange World is asking.
But first, a little setup. Both Jaeger and Searcher live in the land of Avalonia, which is surrounded by insurmountable mountains, and Jaeger has made it his goal to see what’s beyond the mountains. The film begins with the father and son on a mission to go past the mountains. At a critical junction, Searcher notices a plant that seems to harness electricity, which Searcher believes could be incredibly useful to the people of Avalonia. However, Jaeger has his eye on the prize and abandons their group and his son in order to find out what’s beyond the mountains.
Cut to 25 years later, and Jaeger remains missing, while Searcher has made the plant—called pando—a major crop for the people of Avalonia and the source of the village’s energy. But when the energy within pando starts to fade away, Searcher, along with his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union), his son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), Avalonia’s president Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu), and a group of explorers, try to find the heart of pando and see what’s going wrong. This heart is underground, and soon after crash landing in this world, Searcher finds his father Jaeger, who has been trapped in this area for the last 25 years.
Finding the Root of the Problem
The expedition of Strange World largely revolves around following the roots of pando in order to get to the source of the problem. Upon arriving there, the group sees that several creatures are attacking the core of the pando, and the team starts fighting them off, assuming that these invaders are the cause of all their problems. Ethan shares his reservations with his father about killing these creatures, saying that it doesn’t feel quite right.
So What Is the World in Strange World?
Near this core of pando is a hole, which Ethan and Searcher find themselves on the other side of. This hole leads to what was beyond the mountains: an entire ocean and nothing else. However, when they look back at where they came from, they see a massive eye staring right back at them. It turns out their home is actually on the back of a giant tortoise-like creature, and that their entire journey has been through the insides of this walking landmass. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that the crazy things they’ve seen are different organs of this creature, and that the roots of pando are actually destroying the heart of the tortoise.
After meeting resistance from Meridian at first, the family and the crew decide to destroy the roots of pando. Even though it will be difficult for the people of Avalonia to live without the advances that pando has granted them, it’s better to be without the conveniences than to not have a home at all.
The World After Pando
Once the group returns, Strange World flashes forward a year, showing how Avalonia has survived in a pando-less society. While Avalonia isn’t as technically advanced as they once were, the town has united together to make the most of their situation, and has found that surviving without pando isn’t as hard as they once thought it would be. Jaeger finds the wife he left 25 years ago and makes amends with her and her new husband. Ethan, who has been torn between the farming life of his father, and the exploring life of his grandfather, has found an in between, as we see him taking care of the creatures in the underground of Avalonia. We also see that Ethan and his crush Diazo (Jonathan Melo) have also gotten closer. As Strange World ends, we see Jaeger and Searcher looking over Searcher’s new crops and are now closer than ever. After disagreements and a quarter-century apart, father and son have finally found common ground after rediscovering each other underground.