‘Strange World’ Is The #1 Streamed Movie On Disney+

TV & Film

Dec 28

Strange World’s release has been quite the adventure. As the latest outing from Disney Animation, the movie follows the Clades, the family of the long-lost explorer Jaeger Clade, as they are brought along by Jaeger’s old team to help them find their lost leader in an otherworldly ecosystem below their land of Avalonia. Directed by Don Hall and featuring the voice talents of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu, Strange World is a gorgeously animated sci-fi adventure that uses its alien setting as the backdrop of a relatively grounded family drama.

Especially compelling are the relationships between Jaeger, his son Searcher, and Searcher’s son Ethan. The film effectively fleshes out the generational differences between the characters and how Jaeger and Searcher’s parenting styles influence Searcher and Ethan, respectively. The dynamics lead to a number of heartfelt familial moments, including one of the three playing cards and one of Jaeger helping his grandson confess his feelings to the boy in school he likes. Strange World is, by all accounts, a quality animated feature worthy of Disney’s catalog, which makes it all the more disappointing how much Disney has neglected the film.

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Due to minimal marketing and unbeatable competition, Strange World was released to theaters in late November to a minuscule $4.2 million on opening day. With a budget of $180 million, the movie’s poor performance is especially disheartening in a year in which a number of animated projects have been mishandled by the company. There’s also the unfortunate addition that Ethan’s openly gay relationship, which is impossible to edit out without affecting the plot, barred the movie from being released in aggressively conservative territories like Russia, Poland, Singapore, and the Middle East.

On top of all this, Disney also announced that Strange World’s theatrical run would be limited due to the film being released a few weeks later on Disney+. Knowing the film would soon be available to stream gave audiences even less incentive to see Strange World in theaters, resulting in an underwhelming worldwide gross of $62.7 million and a loss of well over $130 million. Despite this, Strange World may be getting another chance at the spotlight on Disney+.

Upon being released to Disney+ this past weekend, Strange World entered the top 5 highest-streamed movies on the service. A combination of curiosity, positive word of mouth, and the sheer number of families wanting a movie to watch on the holidays has given Strange World a second wind. While the movie’s lack of advertising and short theatrical run was still a blow to the cast and crew working on the film, it’s nice to see their hard work being appreciated on Disney+.

Still, I hope that Disney learns from Strange World’s box office performance and reevaluates how they market and release their animated projects in the future. With Bob Chapek stepping down as CEO of Disney and Bob Iger temporarily reclaiming his old position, we’ll have to see if the company’s treatment of their animated films and series will start to get a little less strange.

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