I got to visit Walt Disney Animation to check out their new animated feature film Strange World! Here are all the details from this fun day!
Hey All!
I recently was invited to attend a press day for the upcoming Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film is named Strange World. This film is an original story that is heavily inspired by Journey to the Center of the Earth. It’s filled with out of this world characters and a vibrant unique world. The breathtaking settings for this fantastical and awe-inspiring film takes us to places only seen in our imaginations—from Zootopia to San Fransokyo, Arendelle to the 8-bit arcade, Kumandra to Corona. But no world has ever been so wonderfully strange as the studio’s latest adventure. Journey deep into “Strange World,” set in a vast, hidden, subterranean world where bizarre creatures, looming danger and points unknown await. The film follows a legendary family of explorers, the Clades, as they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew that includes a mischievous blob named Splat, a three-legged dog named Legend and a slew of ravenous creatures.
We got to hear from the following film makers from the film who were in attendance:
- Director Don Hall (Director)
- Qui Nguyen (Co-Director and Writer)
- Roy Conli (Producer)
- Mehrdad Isvandi (Production Designer)
- Sean Jenkins (Head of Environments)
- Amy Smeed (Head of Animation)
- Justin Sklar (Head of Animation)
The voice cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, a family man who finds himself out of his element on an unpredictable mission; Dennis Quaid as Searcher’s larger-than-life explorer father, Jaeger; Jaboukie Young-White as Searcher’s 16-year-old son, Ethan, who longs for adventure; Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, an accomplished pilot and Searcher’s partner in all things; and Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, Avalonia’s fearless leader who spearheads the exploration into the strange world.
“Strange World” is helmed by Don Hall (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Raya and the Last Dragon”) and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer “Raya and the Last Dragon”), and produced by Roy Conli (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Tangled”).
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney. )
This seriously strange world is actually an allegory for Planet Earth, says director Don Hall. “What started everything was just thinking about my sons and the world they’re going to inherit,” he says. “How is it different from what I inherited from my dad?”
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney. )
We got the opportunity to see some scenes from the film and they were visually stunning.
Below is what Avalonia looks like. This is the futuristic land the characters live in.
Below is what the Strange World looks like. This is the world they discover outside of Avalonia.
The filmmakers created three distinctive looks and color palettes for the city of Avalonia, the Clade’s family farm and the strange world.
For Avalonia, artists removed all dark colors and played up the warm and blues and green colors especially for the Clade family farm. They also showed the progression in time for the city. Production designer Merhrdad Isvandi, “We show how the city went from single-story buildings to 100-story buildings.
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney. )
Production designer Merhrdad Isvandi, “Creating Abylonia, it’s always following the story and the cues that we can take from the story. So, it’s surrounded with the mountains, so, we wanted to see mountains in every shot. Like, every angle you look, there is huge mountain. And then, the city itself, like, again, it’s like, two-part. Like, pre-pando and post-pando. So, the pre-pando is kind of, one-story buildings and the inspiration from lots of regions of the world. Like the Alps, Himalayas or Andes. And then, post-pando Abylonia, which we really push it to the sky. Like, huge buildings and towers. The modeling and creating the environments standpoint.”
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney. )
The filmmakers made a point to make sure the worlds didn’t over power the story or the characters. Since the worlds were so elaborate, they needed the performances to be top notch in addition to the amazing animation. Thankfully they had an amazing cast to work with.
Don shared his experience working with Jake Gyllenhaal. “He brought so much to Searcher. There’s just a charm and a likability to just him as a human that, you know, he was able to bring to Searcher. And we loved collaborating with him. You know, the first recording session I remember was in New York, and we did the whole script, you know, the whole movie a couple of times. And then we got to really discuss it because he loves to just get in there and talk story and choices. And I remember, you know, we basically had a fun little story session, and then that night, Qui rewrote a couple of scenes then we came back in and recorded them the next day. And so there was just a level of investment that Jake had. And also just, you could tell he was just having a lot of fun.”
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney. )
It was so incredible to learn so much about this film from these incredible Disney artists. I can’t wait to see the final film. I ended the day with a fun ADR session where I got to try voicing a character in the film.
It was so much fun! I can’t wait to share the video of this experience with you! I also had an incredible lunch and got to take a photo with Splat! They stand out character from the film.
I’m obsessed with him and I’m sure you will be too!
Check out my Instagram Reel for more behind the scenes from the film and check out the newly released trailer below! Stay tuned for more videos from this amazing day!
Make sure you check out STRANGE WORLD open exclusively in theatres on November 23rd!
Welcome!
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