Marc Miller

This is as much a fun movie as it is a cautionary tale. I'll try to be careful not to spoil anything. It parallels the real life popularity of social media (with lightly veiled references to Instagram and Facebook, with an Apple "hip" vibe), correctly highlighting the good and the bad of kids sharing their lives with strangers online. In the wrong hands, social media can be very bad, and the film illustrates this very well. Controlling private information posted is a serious responsibility, with consequences for our heros when things didn't go the way they expected. The film contains good role models, light cartoon violence but is quick to point out that violence is bad, and the protagonists/heros ultimately win out with the help of friends. Although marketing of this film was poor, it deserves high praise. Recommended for preteens and up.

It's not a kids movie, obviously. Our titular character attempts suicide four times. And fortunately, that never works out for him. But it's sad, sweet, and funny all at the same time. A retired, grumpy old man, whose wife has died, decides that life is worth living, and that he's still needed. There are a lot of similarities to Pixar's Up, and much like Carl Fredricksen, you'll grow to love Otto Anderson for his grumpy attitude, and cheer for him when he finally turns a corner and realizes life is still worth living. I recently read, "Tom Hanks is good in everything, but not every movie he's in is good." Which I can't argue with. This is one of his best.

This movie gets poor reviews because people don't understand what it's really about. But let me start from the beginning. This is an action adventure animated movie aimed at somewhat older-ish kids, preteens and teens. It does have a somewhat liberal spin on it (biracial family with a homosexual son), strong female characters, and there is a "dad doesn't understand me" trope throughout the movie, focused on the grandpa, dad, and son. Although the inclusivity of this film seems to intentionally poke the (conservative) bear, my interpretation of this was that, "America, this is you." Other reviewers criticize that the characters and their story have no depth. But everything these characters do is predictable because that's not what this film is about. In the opening scenes we learn that Searcher (dad) discovered an energy source and decided to part ways with his father and develop it. So much that the community began to depend on it for everything. But now, that energy is running out. The whole movie is about the attempt to restore that energy source because the community has become dependent on it. Spoilers follow What they discovered is that the world they live on is actually a giant organism. Any living body is made up of many unusual organisms, designed to work together harmoniously. The body is designed to fight infection from intruders. Much as environmentalists talk about Earth as a giant organism, this movie treats Earth as a giant body, and all the creatures within it represent microorganisms within our bodies (e.g. the digestive tract). The thinly veiled allegory here is that the energy plant that is killing the world in this movie is supposed to represent fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are killing our planet, and running out. We have become dependent on fossil fuels not only for cars and airplanes, but as a source of electricity. It powers our tractors, airplanes, delivery infrastructure, and even our coffee machines. Every industry relies on fossil fuels in our world just as the movie's world relies on these plants. In the epilogue of Strange World, we find that it took about a year of living with no power before things could gradually return to normal and alternative sources of energy could be found that don't hurt their world. Strange World attempts to start a dialogue about switching from fossil fuels to clean energy. But the message is so buried below the action sequences and uninteresting characters that most people have missed it, or maybe don't care. Overall it's a fun distraction, seemingly designed to anger conservatives, but hits all the right buttons for liberals that are concerned about the environment.