Dennis Quaid, Lucy Liu, Gabrielle Union and Jaboukie Young-White have joined the key voice cast of “Strange World,” the upcoming adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and scheduled to be released on Nov. 23.
Directed by “Big Hero 6” helmer Don Hall, rolling off the success of “Raya and the Last Dragon,” and written and co-directed by Qui Nguyen, who co-wrote “Raya,” “Strange World” follows three generations of the Clade family, legendary explorers, who arrive at a dazzling land full of mysterious phenomena – shoals of flying fish, walking rock columns, and octupus-looking monsters, a recent trailer suggests.
Narrated in a retro visual style of ‘50s sci-fi B movies, “Strange World” will have granddad Jaeger Clade voiced by Quaid. Young-White voices the grandson, Ethan. Union voices Meridian, who is married to son Searcher, played as already announced by Jake Gyllenhaal. Liu is Callisto Mal, head of Avolonea, tghe magical setting to the film.
Inspired by Edgar Rice Burrows and Jules Verne, the movie incorporates other non-speaking characters, such as a three-legged dog, Legend, and a gelatinous blue blob , Splay, whim they meet on their adventure,
“He might become your favourite character,” Strange World producer Ray Conli said at Annecy presenting the movie.
The full voice cast was announced at a Walt Disney Animation Studios showcase at France’s Annecy Animation Festival , which began with the award of a honorary Annecy Cristal to Jennifer Lee, WDAS chief creature officer best known as writer-director of “Frozen,”which won her an Academy Award, and “Frozen II.”
Also producer of “Encanto” as well as “Raya and the Last Dragon” and executive producer of the upcoming Disney Plus projects “Baymax” and “Zootopia +.”
Calling animation “part of my memories, my escape, my friend, my hope,” Lee described animation as imagination in its most complex and elaborate form,” heralding “the true power of collaboration!”
’Strange World’
DISNEY
Walt Disney screens three sequences of “Strange World.” In the first, Ethan seems to have a same-sex flirtation in a field with heartthrob Diazo, the flirtation being interrupted by Searcher whose very accepting reaction embarrass Ethan.
The second sequence unveil at Annecy was an action scene as the whole family explores a x¡cavern in a lime green looking submarine which is attacked by a creature which resembles origami fuchsia stingrays.
The attack ends with the family separated, Searcher and his dog stranded in a strange new world while Ethan and mom stay on the ship.
In sequence three, Searcher and the dog explore new surroundings, the crazy landscape looking like a coral refer painted bright pink.
Meeting Splat, they get attacked by a Cthulhu-looking beast, only to be rescued by a bearded old hunter who takes off his hood. “Dad?!!” Searcher exclaims.
Walt Disney also dropped unannounced episodes of both “Zootopia +” and “Baymax.”
In “Baymax,” which has a sitcom feel and elicited lots of laughs from the Annecy audience, Baymax, the robot from “Big Hero 6” offers to run a cafe after its owner Cassie sprains her ankle.
“You can’t download what it took me years to learn,” Cassie tells the robot, but Cassie has to learn to let go and trust Baymax.
A six-episode series, each episode of “Zootopia +” weaves in and out of the original film, employing a different style: Dance talent competition, reality show etc. Each also follows a different character. The episode shown at Annecy, “The Godfather of the Bride,” is an origin story for the “Zootopia” bit character Mr Big, shot in style of Coppola’s original.