Strange World | Walt Disney Animation Studios | Comes to Disney+ on December 23rd

[AniNate]

Might be a function of Disney getting too big for their marketing department. They have two other big tentpoles these months to promote too and I'm guessing they did have a lot more faith in those to turn a profit.

 

Presumably Strange World had test screenings that reflected the lukewarm reaction to the final product, and they might've decided it'd be more cost effective to just let it be a sacrificial lamb at the box office than try to redo it and/or move its release date. 

Edited November 25, 2022 by AniNate

[imbruglia]

then D+ would've been much better. I guess they had some contract for theater exclusive release.

[Lucas]

I'm so shocked this isn't doing well. Wow. They were marketing it so well. Everyone knew this was coming out. It was all anyone was talking about for weeks.

[WittyUsername]

It feels like Disney was deliberately trying to bury this movie, and I’m not convinced it was specifically because of quality concerns…

[El Squibbonator]

9 hours ago, Lucas said:

I'm so shocked this isn't doing well. Wow. They were marketing it so well. Everyone knew this was coming out. It was all anyone was talking about for weeks.

I hope that was sarcasm. 

 

By the way, how long do you think it'll be before we get another movie like this? 

Edited November 27, 2022 by El Squibbonator

[PlatnumRoyce]

Having now seen Strange World, I can say it's a truly terrible movie and I understand why Disney dumped it. Everyone who approved the script should be fired as well as the casting director. It's just all complete crap. They should be embarrassed by everything except the environmental visuals and action scenes. It's truly a strange script that tanks some good work of animators. 

Despite the trailers/posters, it really doesn't even attempt to be a pulpy adventure film. If you're going to make the kid an explorer at heart rebelling from his dad's farming choices...why have his visual and vocal design completely contradict it? Why not show him being innovative or curious while at home? 

Edited November 28, 2022 by PlatnumRoyce

[El Squibbonator]

Still, you'd think with a much better marketing push this movie could have done better than it actually is. Kid's movies are always in high demand, and parents are infamously uncaring as to whether they're actually good or not. However much money Strange World ultimately ends up losing, Disney only has themselves to blame for it. 

[Morieris]

2 hours ago, PlatnumRoyce said:

Having now seen Strange World, I can say it's a truly terrible movie and I understand why Disney dumped it. Everyone who approved the script should be fired as well as the casting director. It's just all complete crap. They should be embarrassed by everything except the environmental visuals and action scenes. It's truly a strange script that tanks some good work of animators. 

Despite the trailers/posters, it really doesn't even attempt to be a pulpy adventure film. If you're going to make the kid an explorer at heart rebelling from his dad's farming choices...why have his visual and vocal design completely contradict it? Why not show him being innovative or curious while at home? 

 

Post a review in the RTM! subforum because now I am deeply curious.

[Grebacio]

On 12/9/2021 at 12:19 PM, Toruk Makto XXR said:

An animated, fantastical adventure film could do big business. The Frozen of 2022!

Narrator: It didn't do big business

[XXR vs XXR]

7 minutes ago, Grebacio said:

Narrator: It didn't do big business

MBFGW legs incoming 

[SLAM!]

Um...

 

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile might outgross this... 👀

[El Squibbonator]

I don't know whether this deserves a separate thread or not, but is there a reason animated sci-fi movies have such a poor batting average? I've heard it argued that it's because they don't "appeal to families", but I'm skeptical of that, because while you do get some that are darker and more violent (Atlantis, Titan A.E.) a lot of animated sci-fi flops aren't really any less family-appealing than any other animated movies (Planet 51, Meet the Robinsons). So is there something about the genre itself that people just don't associate with animation, like pineapple and pizza? 

 

For the record, here's a list of successful animated sci-fi movies. Note that I'm being very generous with the definition of sci-fi here, and including such things as superheroes and "science-fantasy" that genre purists might not classify as sci-fi in the strictest sense.

• Jimmy Neutron
• Lilo and Stitch
• The Incredibles
• Robots
• TMNT
• WALL-E
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Monsters Vs. Aliens
• Megamind
• Home
• Big Hero 6
• The Incredibles 2
• Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

That's 13 movies. Out of the literally hundreds of successful American animated movies, only 13 have been sci-fi. I left out the Despicable Me/Minions movies because, while I suppose they technically qualify as sci-fi, this aspect was greatly downplayed in the marketing (and the movies themselves) in favor of silly Minion antics. The 13 movies here, then, are the only examples I know of successful American animated movies where sci-fi elements were prominent in their marketing. 

Edited November 30, 2022 by El Squibbonator

[ChipDerby]

I find it mind boggling to see people complain that Disney didn't market this and that's why it failed, etc etc etc.

 

It failed because it looked boring and had no hook and it was just blah. And Disney didn't market it because of those reasons.

[El Squibbonator]

I disagree. In theory, a movie being bad shouldn't be any barrier to success. As I said, kids' movies are always in high demand and parents are notoriously uncaring as to whether they're any good. If The Emoji Movie and Norm of the North were able to more than double their budgets, bad reviews shouldn't have been a dealbreaker for Strange World. Emphasis on "in theory". The only reason it had no hook was because Disney didn't do a good job of advertising it with one.

 

Heck, even the title reeks of studio disinterest. It's called Strange World, and the trailers were pretty much just showing us the setting and saying "Gee, this world sure is strange! Isn't that STRANGE that this WORLD is in a movie called STRANGE WORLD? Alsostarringabunchofpeopleandadog." In other words, there's no sense of the story, or why we should care about it. The working title, Searcher Clade, would have been a lot better at explaining what this movie is about and who the story revolves around. 

[CaptNathanBrittles]

Art style is thoroughly unappealing. They could have spent $200m marketing it, it still would have bombed.

[El Squibbonator]

How is the art style unappealing? That seems kind of subjective to me. And in any case it doesn't seem too different from most other 2010s/early 2020s Disney animated movies. 

 

That aside, do you think there's any scenario under which Strange World could have been a success if things had been different?

Edited November 30, 2022 by El Squibbonator

[ChipDerby]

I think, as someone pointed out on twitter, Disney watering down their kids films and essentially removing villains has taken its toll. No, you don't always need a villain, but with a movie that doesn't appear to have a hook, a villain would help. I think that's probably a reason Lightyear failed. The villain was barely marketed, and then was mostly just a nothingburger.

[El Squibbonator]

I guess I was asking more about the movie as it exists IRL. If you were in charge of marketing Strange World, with the intent that it must be a box-office success, what would you do differently than what Disney has actually done? What aspects would you play up in advertising? What would you not promote? 

Edited November 30, 2022 by El Squibbonator

[ChipDerby]

Nothing. There's nothing Disney did "wrong" with their marketing. If they pump $50+ mil more in ads, does that make it gross more? Doubtful.

[El Squibbonator]

If that's the case, how long do you think it'll be before Disney tries something like this again? And by "something like this", I mean an animated sci-fi adventure movie or a gay main character, take your pick.