History WesternAnimation / StrangeWorld

The plot follows Searcher Clade (Gyllenhaal), a humble farmer who once traveled the world with his legendary explorer father Jaeger Clade (Quaid), whose legacy he could never live up to. When his country’s president (Liu) calls upon him for a mission of dire importance, he and his wife (Union) and son (Young-White) join a dangerous expedition to a bizarre subterranean world full of equally bizarre lifeforms.

Notably, the film marked the first entry of Creator/{{Disney}}’s [[MilestoneCelebration 100th anniversary celebration]], marked with a special VanityPlate for the film and ending with the following entry in the studio’s animated canon, ''WesternAnimation/{{Wish|2023}}'', released one year later.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Pando, discovered by Searcher in the opening scenes, is a plant that produces energized pods Avalonia grows to depend on for electrical power. [[spoiler:[[ToxicPhlebotinum It later turns out to be ultimately detrimental]] to everyone and every''thing'' in Avalonia]].

* BizarreAlienBiology: The entire film. Most notably, [[spoiler:the creature has symbiotic organisms that can instantaneously regrow dead tissues, its "blood" appears to be giant schools of flatworm-adjacent cells, it's possible to travel directly from a hole in its back to its lungs to its stomach to its heart, and its heart lies in a cavity near an opening that is also near its face. Despite this, the end of the film depicts it as turtle-like when seen from space.]]
* BookEnds: The film's storyline in the present day depicts Searcher farming Pando with his family. It ends [[spoiler:on Searcher farming with his father, this time harvesting tomatoes.]]

* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Searcher remembers his father as obsessive and uncaring, focusing on his goals and adventuring lifestyle rather than listening to his son about what he wanted out of life. Now that he's an adult, he puts his family first, and wants nothing but for Ethan to live the safe life of a farmer...unaware that he's doing to Ethan exactly what his father did to him. [[spoiler: Ethan ultimately [[CallingTheOldManOut calls them both out for this]]. Ultimately, Searcher plays this trope straight by listening to what Ethan wants and encouraging him to lead the life he wants]].
* CallForward: One of the last images in the credits is Star from the next, upcoming Disney animated film ''Wish''.

** Ethan does this to his father, Searcher, while arguing for not accepting of he who is.

* ClimateChangeAllegory: Avalonia's use of Pando [[spoiler:is slowly destroying the heart of the very creature their entire world is built upon.]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does that remind you of anything?]]

** To ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''--[[spoiler:The Clades trying to keep president Callisto from making the Pando infection worse is very reminiscent of what happens when Milo realizes Roark's true purposes for visiting Atlantis and tries to stop him- both scenes even take place on similar airships!]] The general tone of the film is also very similar.

* DisappearedDad: Searcher's father, Jaeger Clade, went missing on him when he was fifteen during one expedition in which he decided he would make it over the mountains alone. As it turns out, he has been residing in the strange world for twenty-five years.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After learning the truth about Pando, [[spoiler:its roots start to look an awful lot like cancer veins.]]

* EyelessFace: None of the creatures in the strange world have eyes.

* FantasticNamingConvention: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but Avalonian parents seem to prefer names based on the concept of hunting or exploring [[note]]Jaeger (German for "hunter"), Searcher, Callisto (one of Artemis’s hunters in Greek mythology)[[/note]], navigational, cartographical, or geographical terms[[note]]Meridian (imaginary line used to indicate longitude), Azimuth (the horizontal angle or direction of a compass bearing)[[/note]], or scientific concepts[[note]]Diazo (a formal organic chemistry term for two nitrogen atoms bonded to a carbon atom)[[/note]]. It’s not universal, though, given there are names that don’t fit this pattern, such as Ethan, Caspian, Duffle, and Pulk.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: [[spoiler: The movie’s plot can be considered a version of this because while none of the characters shrink, their entire journey actually occurs within the body of a gargantuan animal.]]

* FirstStepFixation: The Clades are locked in a room with Splat, a local being lacking anything resembling a skeleton. The room can be opened via a switch that is outside it and they hear their dog, Legend, coming close to it. [[spoiler:As the Clades' efforts to get Legend to activate the switch prove fruitless, Splat gets frustrated, slides under the door, does what's needed to make it openable by Legend, then returns inside the room to get freed alongside the Clades]].

*** The game also foreshadows and makes fun of how [[spoiler: there aren't any traditional bad guys in the film, save for a brief mutiny.]]

** Pando's [[SicklyGreenGlow green glow]] starts looking increasingly out-of-place in the warm colours of the environments the deeper the expedition goes, [[spoiler: which foreshadows Pando being a foreign body or infection.]]

* GreenAesop: Society's source of energy, Pando, is [[spoiler:literally a parasitic plant that is killing the earth. At the end of the film, and with great effort, Avalonia switches over to a renewable and clean source of energy (wind).]] There's some LampshadeHanging when Ethan tells his father and grandpa that the card game they're playing to pass the time is about "learning to live in harmony with the environment around you".

* IChooseToStay: At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Ethan decides to stay in the strange world with Diazo and Splat. Not as severe as other examples, though, in that it seems Ethan can return at any time as shown by his group of friends visiting him on an airship.]]

** The main protagonists of the film are part of the Clade family. A "clade" is the name for a scientific group of organisms, appropriate for a group of explorers finding strange creatures. Driving this point further is that the grandfather is named "Jaeger" (German for "hunter") and the father is simply named "Searcher". Ethan breaks this naming convention and [[spoiler:decides to make a legacy all his own, outside of the shadow of his family.]]

* NoAntagonist: The main conflict at the end of the film is caused by [[spoiler:Pando, the disease that is ravaging the [[TurtleIsland massive monster that is Avalonia]].]] As [[spoiler:Pando]] is neither sapient nor a creature, the closest things the film has to a sentient antagonist are the Reapers, which attempt to eat the heroes several times but are eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:[[NotEvilJustMisunderstood part of the creature's natural immune system]]]], and [[spoiler:Callisto Mal]], who is an antagonist for around 5 minutes of the film's runtime when she [[spoiler:assumes command of the ship in an attempt to continue the ''Venture'''s mission despite Searcher and Ethan's revelation concerning Pando's nature]] before being shown the light very quickly by the protagonists. The film's whole message of protecting the environment and learning to do better as a society wouldn't work with a standard villain.

* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: The Reapers and red bird-like monsters are this, being [[spoiler:simply a part of Avalonia's immune system who mistook the Clades for a threat.]]

* SicklyGreenGlow: [[spoiler:Pando glows green, which is a hint that foreshadows it being a disease that's killing the creature Avalonia sits on]].
* SilverFox: Searcher mentions to Jaeger that his mom is currently 60 years old and works out regularly. When we see her [[spoiler: reconnect with Jaeger at the end of the movie,]] she is shown to be pretty good-looking for a 60 year old woman.

* ThatsNoMoon: The entire continent that Avalonia sits upon [[spoiler:is actually a massive sea creature succumbing to the disease that created Pando.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Searcher farms Pando, which appears to be a plentiful and reliable power source [[spoiler:but is actually a virus that is destroying the planet]].

* WhamShot: [[spoiler:When Searcher and Ethan end up on the other side of the mountains, the mountains themselves seem to rise up out of the ocean, revealing a giant eye.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: The making of book ''The Art of Strange World'' reveals the names of the rest of the Venture Crew.

* SilverFox: Searcher mentions to Jaeger that his mom is currently 60 years old and works out. When he see her [[spoiler: reconnect with Jaeger at the end of the movie,]] she is still good-looking for a 60 year old woman.

* TimePassageBeard: Jaeger is shown to have an incredibly long and ragged beard when Ethan and Searcher find him on the strange world in the official trailer.

** Pando's [[SicklyGreenGlow green glow]] starts looking increasingly out-of-place in the warm colours of the environments the deeper the expedition goes, which foreshadows Pando being a foreign body or infection.

* {{Steampunk}}: Avalonia, especially its Pando-powered airships, definitely evoke this aesthetic. [[spoiler:This continues even after the Clades destroy Pando and replace it with wind power.]]

** It also features a reference to ''WesternAnimation/WInnieThePooh2011''; the Backson from that movie appears during the closing credits.

** To ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''--[[spoiler:The Clades trying to keep president Callisto from making the Pando infection worse is very reminiscent of what happens when Milo realizes Roark's true purposes for visiting Atlantis and tries to stop him- both scenes even take place on similar airships!]] The general tone of the film is also very similar.

** [[spoiler:The Backson from ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh2011'' appears during the closing credits.]]

''Strange World'' is a 2022 animated sci-fi adventure film and the 61st entry in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. It is directed by Don Hall (''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'') and stars the voices of Creator/JakeGyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Creator/GabrielleUnion, Creator/LucyLiu and Creator/DennisQuaid. It premiered in theaters on November 23, 2022 (except in France where it debuted on Creator/DisneyPlus after its theatrical run in other regions).

''Strange World'' is a 2022 animated sci-fi adventure film and the 61st entry in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. It is directed by Don Hall (''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'') and stars the voices of Creator/JakeGyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Creator/GabrielleUnion, Creator/LucyLiu and Creator/DennisQuaid. It premiered in theaters on November 23, 2022 (except in France where it will debut on Creator/DisneyPlus after its theatrical run in other regions).

* PteroSoarer: The flying creatures who attack the ship are rather reminiscent of Pterosaurs, but are clearly something different.

** Searcher does this to his father, Jaeger, for abandoning him as well as not believing him about Pando.

** Pando's green glow starts looking increasingly out-of-place in the warm colours of the environments the deeper the expedition goes, which foreshadows Pando being a foreign body or infection.

* RescueRomance: Jaeger's advice for Ethan to woo his crush is to manufacture one of these. [[DeconstructedTrope: Ethan thinks it's a very toxic way to start a relationship.]]

* RescueRomance: Jaeger's advice for Ethan to woo his crush is to manufacture one of these. Ethan thinks it's a very toxic way to start a relationship.