Trivia / Strange World

• Acclaimed Flop: The film had positive reviews praising the visuals and LGBT representation even if the story was somewhat familiar, but given Disney paradoxically released it in 4,000 theaters during Thanksgiving while barely giving any promotion, many people only learned of its existence on the opening weekend, leading to such low box office numbers that analysts projected as much as a $147 million loss for Disney. Opening in between both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water also did not help matters.
• Banned in China: Disney announced that Strange World's theatrical release has been skipped (and not submitted to local authorities) in Bangladesh, China, the Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam, among many others, which was tantamount to a ban in those regions. This was due to a homosexual subplot present in the film.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $130-180 million. Box office, $73.4 million. This film is the first true box office flop from Disney Animation since Meet the Robinsons in 2007, and the worst since Treasure Planet in 2002. Strange World lost $197 million, which is the highest confirmed loss of all time before inflation.
• Bury Your Art: Disney itself forgot that it made Strange World less than a year after its release.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the Italian dub of the film, actor Marco Bocci plays Searcher.
  • In the Japanese dub, Searcher is voiced by comedian and actor Taizo Harada, who also participated in the Japanese remake of Bewitched as Joji Matsui. Also, Ethan is voiced by actor Fuku Suzuki, while Meridian is voiced by actress Izumi Matsuoka.
• Invisible Advertising: This film received very minimal marketing and had only a couple of trailers and posters at most and very little merchandise, which is unusual for a tentpole Disney animated film. The marketing was so barebones in fact, that many people didn't even know that the film existed at all until the week it came out.
• Late Export for You: Strange World skipped its theatrical release in France and instead premiered on Disney+ on a later date. This is due to Disney protesting France's strict regulations regarding putting theatrically released films on streaming services and television. At least, the film's European French dub was released theatrically in Belgium and Switzerland.
• Production Posse: Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid previously played a son and father with an estranged relationship in The Day After Tomorrow 18 years prior in 2004. For bonus points, that movie had an Aesop centered around climate change, too.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Ethan is mentioned to have a crush on another guy, much like his voice actor Jaboukie Young-White, who is openly gay in real life.
  • Captain Pulk is non-binary according to the artbook. Their voice actor, Adelina Anthony, is Two Spirit and genderqueer.
• Same Voice Their Entire Life: Jake Gyllenhaal voices Searcher not only as an adult but as the character's teenage self at the beginning of the movie.
• Troubled Production: The animation of the movie was not finished until the first week of November, just a few weeks before its theatrical release.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early reports of the movie stated that one of the characters would be named "Captain Calypso Kahn". No such character appears in the final product, though some speculate Kahn might have been an earlier name for Callisto Mal.
  • Concept art has shown the movie would have originally had a more Animesque look to it with its character designs.
  • Ethan was just going to have curly hair like his mother, but in the finalized movie he has locks.
• Word of Gay: The Art of Strange World reveals that Captain Pulk is non-binary, which is never mentioned in the movie. Pulk is also not referred to with any pronouns.
  Qui Ngyuen: When thinking about the characters who would make up the crew of the Venture, we wanted to reflect the dimensions of Avalonia. Within the team consisting of an engineer, a chef, a medic, a shipmate officer, an air traffic controller, a pilot, and more, we have people representing different racial backgrounds, body types, and gender identities, including non-binary characters like Captain Pulk.
• Working Title: The film was originally titled Searcher Clade when it was first announced in 2021.

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