Disney is exploring a thrilling new world with the animated pulp adventure movie Strange World. Inspired by turn-of-the-century adventure stories, the movie follows the legendary Clade family on their most important mission yet. The movie features a star-studded cast with Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, Dennis Quaid as Jaeger Clade, Jaboukie Young-White as Ethan Clade, Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, and Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal. Strange World is written by Qui Ngyuen (Raya And The Last Dragon) who also co-directed the movie with Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and produced by Roy Conli (Tangled).

Conli has been a part of Disney for nearly thirty years, with his first project being the acclaimed Hunchback Of Notre Dame. Conli would go on to produce a number of projects, including Treasure Planter, Big Hero 6, and the Disney Plus series Baymax! Twenty years after Treasure Planet was released, Conli is diving back into the adventure genre with Strange World.

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Screen Rant spoke with Roy Conli about his new Disney animated movie, Strange World. Conli explains what inspired the story and which pulp adventure novels and films influenced the new animated movie. Conli also explained how hand-drawn animation is in the DNA of Disney's CG animation while giving insight into the Strange World characters Searcher, Ethan, Jaeger, and Splat.

Roy Conli On Strange World

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Screen Rant: I absolutely love this film. I don't think I've smiled more throughout a movie this whole year. It had this great mix of adventure, comedy, and heart. Beautifully balanced. The first question I have for you though is, you worked on Treasure Planet 20 years ago, which was also an action-adventure movie. Were there any experiences you brought from that to this?

Roy Conli: It's interesting because I love Treasure Planet and I think visually it's one of the most stunning films. I think when you look at this film, it's visually stunning in a different way. But no, each film is its own thing. And each director is their own person. And I love working with Don. I worked with Don on Big Hero 6, and then on this. He's a great storyteller. And so, working with him, it's really about getting his vision on screen and just as in those days it was about getting Ron and John's vision on the screen. So, it's different personalities, but the one thing in common is the phenomenal team at Disney.

Now Disney's been exploring stories without true villains for the last couple of years. What inspired that shift in storytelling, do you think?

Roy Conli: It's funny because I think filmic storytelling changes. Decade by decade it changes. I've been at Disney now, it'll be 30 years in May. If you look at the storytelling coming out of Little Mermaid and Lion King to now, you can see a different era. Just like you can [in] say, "Okay, Pinocchio was 1941." And you can see that Lady in the Tramp was in 1954. And just as you can [in] say, Sword in the Stone was [1963.] Anyway, I think filmic storytelling changes every 10 years. And I think that's something that's happening right now in terms of where we're at.

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Yeah. And I feel like we could feel that too at least the last couple of years, more so. This movie almost felt like Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Indiana Jones meets Doctor Who.

Roy Conli: And throw in Little Miss Sunshine as well.

Little Miss Sunshine. Yeah, absolutely. What were some of the fantastical adventures or stories that influenced Strange World?

Roy Conli: It was Don's concept to build this incredible story with the thematic of three generations and what are we going to hand to the next generation. This was kind of top of mind in terms of what he wanted to speak about as a filmmaker. But then, he's a major adventure film geek. He loves adventure films. Not only does he love adventure films like all of us, but he read all the great stories from Jules Verne when he was a kid, as did I, Edgar Rice Burroughs, [and] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So that was kind of the foundation.

And when you think about that, that kind of literature at the turn of the 20th century, from the 19th to 20th century, influenced then filmic storytelling down the road. You have, 1933 is King Kong, right? But that's essentially a group of explorers stumbling upon an undiscovered land, right? So that all the way through Raiders of the Lost Ark, that's kind of the spirit that he wanted to play with, with that family dynamic. And then with that wonderful message about our responsibility for generations to come.

I noticed in this film, there's not just one style of animation, because there are sequences of different styles of animation. The one that really popped out to me was almost like a sci-fi pulp comic, essentially. Can you talk about the different styles of animation that were used in this film?

Roy Conli: Absolutely. I think the interesting thing, Don and Qui came off of [Raya And The Last Dragon], which was a much more I don't want to ever say photo-real, but it was much more realistic in a certain sense. And they were very much interested in pushing style on this. As we started designing the characters, one of the things that we found was that we were taking them to an expanded design, as opposed to very real. That's going to alter your animation approach.

And one of the things that happened very early on with animation tests was our incredible heads of animation, Amy Smeed and Justin Sklar, started exploring that kind of wonderful '40s, '50s style, that hand drawn. And one of the things about Disney animation is the DNA of hand drawn is definitely in our CG animation.When you look at Splat, that's like a hand-drawn character, with the squash and stretch and whatnot. And even when you look at the characters in this film, there is an exaggerated kind of squash and stretch that happens. And at the same time, there's these amazing emotional moments that happen that are very subdued.

So, from a stylistic standpoint, we really played with that. Then visually, we wanted to tap into the idea of the pulp story, and that was some of the really pushed graphic style that is scattered in the thing. So yeah, it was very conscious, and we just wanted to make sure that we tied in the pulp, and we tied into just the expanse of animation that we could do with our team.

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You talked about Splat, and I absolutely love this character. Can you talk to me about the evolution of that character and how much it evolved from the initial concept to getting it to the screen?

Roy Conli: It's funny because we played with him, and he was just a little blob at one point. At one point he was much taller and bigger. And our character designer, who is I think one of the greatest assets that Disney has, Jin Kim, came up with that design, and we just were taken with it. And then the idea of not having a face, allowing him to be totally expressive, I think leans heavily into what animation is all about. I mean, if I look at my films, I love Maximus in Tangled, I love Pascal. I love the characters who don't talk, [they] are always the most interesting characters. And when you have animators like we have, you can do that, and create a silent world, but an expressive world

Something else that's really cool about this is, it's almost like you guys did the world-building from the ground up. Does that make it more challenging knowing that there's no point of reference essentially, that you're basing something on?

Roy Conli: It's certainly a challenge, but it's a challenge that I think we all embrace.

Right, because it feels like a lot of creative freedom would be in that process as well.

Roy Conli: And that's where I think Don as a director is really brilliant. Don does not come in with a preconceived idea that says, "All right, it has to be this way." He allows his artists to come in and join the creative process. [For] the visual development of this he invited our storyboard artist, he invited our visual development artist, the animators, the effects artist [to] bring in ideas. And literally, we had a plethora of concepts and ideas that kind of fit within. And all of a sudden, we started saying, "Okay, well this is taking place in here." We kind of drew a map of where they were going, and we knew that this space needed to be something. And Don let that all evolve, all through his tutelage as it were.

So, what do the three generations of the Clades learn from each other?

Roy Conli: Yeah, that's a good question. It's great because the concept has always been that Jaeger was the conqueror, Searcher was the controller, as the farmer wanted to control nature, and then Ethan is the conservationist. And I think if anything, they all sway a little bit more towards Ethan at the end, they understand that where they live is precious, and they have to take care of it. And I think that's the wonderful message behind this film. You combine that with what the beginning of this project was, "What are we going to leave generations beyond us?" And it's so important, I think, and so pressing right now, that we acknowledge that the world we leave should be better for the next generation.

About Strange World

The Clades in Strange World

The Clades, a legendary family of explorers, are forced on a new mission that is crucial for the survival of their home. While exploring uncharted territory, the Clades must work together to move past their differences and complete the adventure of a lifetime.

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Strange World land in theaters on November 23.