If you have been following the field of animation across the past few weeks, you would know about the recently released film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, "Strange World". Specifically, how it's been shafted by the corporation's top brass and as such, it's become a box office bomb for the history books. And many people who closely follow these events such as myself have been trying to break down what went wrong and what their failings could potentially signify. It's all a troubling situation, to say the least, so I want to dig considerably more into the background before I tell you what I personally got out of it, just so everyone is up to speed here.
Although we currently don't know much about the film's production, the available details make it pretty clear the process wasn't a particularly smooth one. It only started to officially reach the public around mid-2021, with full production beginning July 1st of that year. This was in part because, even though the film was in development long before, it essentially had to be put on hold for a year and a half due to director Don Hall suddenly having to pick up the pieces on and subsequently finish "Raya and the Last Dragon". And even when the ball got rolling, supposedly the film was 'massively behind schedule', which explains why the initial teaser trailer (released in June 2022, a mere five months before release) was pretty much a montage of random shots with little context given. According to a secondhand account, there straight up wasn't much finished footage to work with at the time. This is further suggested when Don, in an interview published around the film's release, said they "just finished this". So already it was at a disadvantage.
However, let's circle back to the teaser for a minute, because it's time to discuss how much the bag got fumbled in marketing the flick. As said before, they only first started putting out trailers less than half a year in advance (which is already a big mark against it), but even later advertisements - be it theatrical, TV, or online - alike were not as commonly allocated to consumers as you'd expect a mainstream Disney animated film to be, despite them very much existing. And while posters, signs, and the like weren't unheard of either, they were shockingly sparse, even around the area where the studio itself is located. So often, when a tweet involving the film blows up, it's filled with replies of people being shocked that it came out and they're only now hearing about it, even weeks after release.
As if the amount of ads weren't damaging enough, very few of these really indicate what kind of plot this movie is going for. Aesthetically, it shows a throwback to 50s supernatural films, with a comic filter thrown in for good measure - but apart from the titular strange world, there's little context given as to what any of these pretty visuals are meant to tie into. But to an extent, this is okay; other Disney films have started with vague marketing only to further reveal the plot from there, and became successful for it; look at the majority of Pixar's early teasers. Unfortunately, the full trailer released in September - while it does further hint at the themes and ideas - seems content with showing a compilation of moments that feel less like hyping and more just giving the audience a random sampling. Even when plot points are plain sight, it's really hard to go out of it having an idea on what the story will be - which is crucial in making audiences go see it.
But if the marketing didn't ultimately seal the film's fate, the release status certainly did. Domestically, it got sandwiched weeks between two huge, highly anticipated blockbusters from the same parent corp - "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", and "Avatar: The Way of Water". Needless to say, these took precedent in terms of press coverage and mass marketing, and according to at least one person who worked on the film, this even went as far as merchandise, which "Strange World" got shockingly little of as a result. And if using up theater energy on one or both of those wasn't enough to demotivate some people, some reports also claim the film is gonna reach Disney+ for Christmas - just 30 days later. And as stated before, why go through the trouble of traveling and paying when it'll be on something more convenient that you're already paying for? And it's not even like other countries have it much better; windowing rules caused the film to skip the French theaters entirely, and the small subplot where Ethan is crushing on another boy caused many other key countries to pass.
But speaking of the gay crush, yeah the way that was approached didn't do the film any favors either. This has been known to be a thing in the film as early as when certain scenes were privately showcased at the D23 event, but for a while it wasn't officially built up all that much. And while word of it certainly spread in the weeks building to release, all of a sudden - pretty much the week of, in fact - it seemed to take up much on the film's publicity in the press, and became the target of ridicule for countless people online. People who'd want to see such representation was only reminded of Disney's many other instances of queerbait in recent history and felt sure they were trying to feed them scraps once more, when in reality it took front-and-center more than once and was even used in a key bonding moment. That said, there was still the sense that it was being used as a crutch. And needless to say, you have those types who are happy to go after anything even remotely progressive and dislike-bombed the film everywhere they possibly could. Any chance the film had at a solid reputation was effectively ruined thanks to that decision.
To quickly discuss the film itself, I don't think it's one of the studios' best modern entries; in fact, I found the writing pretty mediocre and the plot a tad disjointed. But it's ultimately held together by the strong character bonding (specifically in the three generational Clades), as well as the incredibly surreal aesthetics and ideas. It was apparent just from watching that the team had a really strong creative vision that seemed to for the most part avoid being compromised. It is certainly a very different-feeling film from the rest of the studio's recent catalog. So on that level, the film most definitely has my respect and I admire all the talent and passion poured into bringing it to life.
This seems to be the general consensus too, and as such - despite everyone rightfully criticizing the confused, sometimes-nonexistent marketing - there isn't all that much clamoring for people to go watch this in the theater. Not that there aren't big fans of the film out there - I believe anyone who got into the likes of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Treasure Planet" would get into this too - and I am quite confident it will gain a cult following before long, but the somewhat mixed opinions are definitely preventing word-of-mouth from boosting its numbers. On top of that, even if the film did have a stronger reputation from the start, how would you really go about selling it as a story? It's not the most complicated or disjointed plot out there, but it is one that's hard to sum up in one sentence and the closest thing there is to a big hook is just the strange world itself, which is itself meant as a sort of mystery for most of the runtime.
So, what exactly happened to cause seemingly everything to go wrong here? Well, the more fantastical plot and deep relationships aside, Disney was internally going through a bit of a rough patch they're not quite fully out yet. And a lot of it can be attributed to the then-CEO, Bob Chapek, who had a history in their consumer products and theme parks prior to taking reign. He quickly made it apparent that he was a corporate figurehead through and through, the kind who believes building a content profile takes priority over the quality and intangible value of the work hence the added emphasis in Marvel and Star Wars-related products after Disney+'s launch. From October 2020 on, he made this especially well known to company staff and the wide public alike, not to mention putting his colleague Kareem Daniel in control of distribution. To his credit, he did greatly benefit the appeal and value of the platform with decisions like allowing Disney TVA programs to arrive sooner than before and becoming more lenient with adult content. But this mentality would show its ugly side with the pattern that emerged with their animated films especially.
Chapek was put on board right around the same time the COVID pandemic first hit the States, and at first a lot of the decisions felt out of necessity given the uncertain climate. "Onward" was quickly pushed to Disney+ due to theaters closing. "Soul" was bumped from its initial Summer release to a Christmas one, and then the same month Kareem was brought on, it was announced to be going straight to Disney+. But then the start of 2021 has the service start toying with a premium $30 fee for current films while they're simultaneously in the slowly-reopening theaters - "Raya and the Last Dragon" being one such example. It's definitely a good deal for families, who this was primarily aimed at, but it blatantly shuts out any solo viewers who aren't well off. Despite the backlash, this practice continued until it breached an acting contract in Marvel's "Black Widow", which led to Premier Access being dropped less than a year into its life. But while this was going on, "Luca" was dropped straight on the service that June with no theatrical release of its own. Felt a little weird, but still within reason given COVID variants causing an upsurge of cases.
Speaking of COVID variants, the end of the year seemed to be slowly returning to normal (around "Encanto"'s theatrical release), only for Omicron to rear its ugly head and plummet that film's numbers, so it was bumped to Disney+ one month later and saw much more success there. It's at this point where corporate clearly got too comfortable with this pattern, as not long after came the announcement that "Turning Red" - for a while built up as Pixar's return to theaters - would skip it and instead go straight to the service. At the time, some like myself saw this as another Omicron-based decision and chose not to question it, but others were more skeptical and felt this was devaluing Pixar's worth. Even people at the studio, though understanding of the circumstances, felt turned off by this decision. And while "Lightyear", set to release a few months later, never left its theatrical release plan - the pattern for these animated films to soon reach the small screen very likely confused some parents, or they just felt it wasn't worth going out and paying for the ticket when it was such a small gap of time - and its box office numbers reflect that.
However, mere days before the film saw its official debut, a shocking development came forth: Bob Chapek had been ousted by Disney's Boards of Directors, in favor of the prior CEO Bob Iger returning for two years to help get the overall strategy and direction back on track while a new successor is decided. Considering how animated had been treated under his tenure, as well as some comments he made somewhat devaluing the medium, the entire industry let out a big sigh of relief. Iger may not have been a perfect CEO himself, but he is someone who has actively supported branches like DTVA, knows better than to let data alone influence creative decisions, and most importantly, actually is able to speak up in favor of LGBTQ+ rights without needing to be pressured into it. It's safe to say the damage is very much done in regard to "Strange World" specifically, and there's a lot of damage he'll have to pick up during his time back, but these factors alone are automatically a step in the right direction.
It's very clear that "Strange World" was always meant as sort of a secondary-priority film, essentially meant to serve as the studio's obligatory release this year; while WDAS's next film "Wish" - which has already seen promotion via D23 - is the one they're gonna really bank on. I wouldn't be surprised if this was why the gay crush was even allowed in the film to the extent it was. But even other B-team films from the studio were allowed some time of day compared to this, and the events that have occurred with other animated films released under their roof make the picture look more bleak than it would've by itself. But with Kareem now out of the picture in favor of handing distribution control back to the animation studio heads, we can only hope that going forward (specifically starting with Pixar's "Elemental"), Disney will be able to better make the audience both aware and excited for the new stories coming out from their top creative minds, and overall do so in a way that will make everyone working there more satisfied in the end. Not just for their own good, but for the well-being of the American animation industry as a whole.
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