Sadly, Disney has dropped the retro vibes that made the first teaser for Strange World so unexpectedly delightful. The full trailer is about as formulaic as a Disney trailer can be: Introduce the hero; have someone outline the plot and conflict; wacky hijinks!; only lightly funny joke, maybe two; end.
And so, we meet Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal), an ordinary fellow who “finds himself out of his element on an unpredictable mission.” One that naturally involves his missing adventurer father, Jaeger (Dennis Quaid). And also a wild and mysterious land full of wacky and/or ravenous creatures.
Strange World also stars Jaboukie Young-White as teenage Ethan Clade; Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, described as “an accomplished pilot and Searcher’s partner in all things”; and Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, who puts everything in motion when she shows up in the Clades’ front yard in an admittedly pretty cool airship.
There’s also a new poster for the film—one that suggests the adorable dog may get higher billing than Union or Liu.
The movie comes from director Don Hall and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen, who last teamed up for the beautiful Raya and the Last Dragon, so it might be a safe guess that Strange World is more than the sum of this trailer. It’s in theaters November 23rd.
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