"This world is dying," says a young man named Ethan in the animated "Strange World." So, yes, it's about climate catastrophe.
A little bit "Finding Nemo" and a lot "Fantastic Voyage," "Strange World" is a father/son/son story. Explorer Jaeger Clade wanted his son Searcher to follow in his footsteps but Searcher turned to farming instead. Now, Searcher wants his adolescent son Ethan to become a farmer but Ethan may have other plans. They're gradually revealed when they take a phantasmagorical, creature-filled journey into the center of their world (possibly Earth?) to discover the cause of a sickness that is killing Searcher's crops.
There's a lot of plot in "Strange World," which takes too long to get moving as a result. But the good news is that the characters are lively enough to keep us interested. Set in the present, or at least close enough to the present that they're still loving avocado toast, "Strange World's" distinctive characters behave in ways that are funny and easy to relate to. It's not hard to identify with, for instance, the horror that Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) feels when dad Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) and mom Meridian (Gabrielle Union) tease him by smooching in his presence. Lots of the "Strange World" audience will have been on both sides of that equation.
