Plot twist: the flopped movie Strange World has become a mega hit onDisney+. The animated film even has avatar defeated.
The brand new Disney CEO Bob Chapek was allowed to pack his things at the endof last year after barely two years at the helm of the mega company. Hispredecessor, Bob Iger, is temporarily back on board to save the ship.
Disney in turmoil
The animation side of Disney in particular cheered on Twitter. Chapek, the CEOof a company that grew up with animation films, is not exactly a fan of themedium. In a controversial interview, the CEO even insinuated that animatedfilms are purely for children.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just controversial comments. He also made movies like_Luke_ and Unward skipped the theater and were dumped straight onto Disney+,much to the dismay of the teams who had worked on those films for years.
Strange World flopped
Now they can animators breathe easy. Chap is gone. However, the consequencescan still be felt on the animation front. Strange World was released incinemas last November. Normally, a new animated film from Disney is a bigevent. The House of the Mouse takes care of that: few companies are so good atcranking up the marketing machine.
The adventure movie Strange World received little or no treatment. When theanimated film landed on Disney+ on December 23, you probably thought, “Huh,funny, what kind of movie is this?” In other words, even if you wanted tocheck it out in the cinema, you couldn’t have done so because you didn’t knowabout the existence of the film. All the marketing budget seems to be in_Lightyear_ to be pumped. Did Disney bet on the wrong horse?
Whether Chapek’s fault or not, the consequences are huge. _Strange World_raked in just $18.6 million during its first extra-long weekend in theaters,which was expected to bring in $30 to $40 million. Ouch. Analysts expectDisney to lose at least $100 million on the entire project.
Most-watched movie on Disney+
Nice all those numbers and (the lack of) promotion, but that says nothingabout the film itself. Fortunately, because Strange World definitelydeserves a second chance. And that’s what the movie got. Despite the lousycinema results, the animated film has been the best viewed film on Disney +for days. Even avatar and a live concert of the animated film Encanto bothtop scorers, had to leave the field in recent days.
About Encanto spoken: that animated film also did relatively poorly in thecinemas, but after a release on Disney + it became a huge success, with acultural impact that you can carefully compare with that of Frozen. Thestory of Strange World So it’s not over yet, and that’s a good thing.
⚡(Image: Disney)
Feast for the eye
The film is, to begin with, a feast for the eyes. The animators flex all theiranimation muscles , and that produces beautiful images. The adventure movieis sort of a constant tech demo of everything the studio has learned about 3Danimation over the decades.
In terms of story, the film, which is about a family of explorers, is lessappealing. There’s not much wrong with that, though Strange World Can’tmatch its predecessors in terms of story. It’s all pretty generic. The resultis a 72 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Fine, decent, but not fantastic.
No brainer
In other words: the perfect movie to turn on at home on Disney +. You alreadypay for a subscription anyway, so let yourself be surprised by the beautifulimages and a great story no brainer. Many preceded you, if we are to believethe Top 10 of Disney +. Stream them!