Strange World is like an “old Jules Verne” adventure, says Dennis Quaid

"It's really like an old Jules Verne-type hero's journey," he said. "And this is about a family, I'm the patriarch of the family – or the grandfather, if you want to put it that way – the greatest explorer in the world who wants to pass his legacy on to his son.

"And I think, in the end, it's about being yourself and being true to yourself, that's how you're going to make the biggest contribution, the best contribution to the world."

He added: "What I love about Disney is that it's really kind of our modern-day myths that they tell. And myths are truths – they're truths that really you don't have words for, that's what a myth is. It's something that you could point to, which is like a bigger truth in all of us."

One of the most striking things about the new film is the incredible world of the title – and the film's producer Roy Conli spoke to RadioTimes.com about how the animation team was able to craft the "spectacular" locations.

"We pulled together this amazing visual development team and really, it was about culling ideas as opposed to trying to push ideas," he explained. "So many people came up with ideas for designs and shapes and, I mean, in one sense, we eventually evolved limitations.

"We said that Avalonia, the town, was going to be very vertical. When we get to the farm, the farm was going to be kind of geometric. And then when we get to Strange World that's going to be organic. So those were kind of the three things that we started with."

When it came to the colours, Conli explained that they wanted the Strange World to look completely different from the other locations seen in the film, giving it "a lighting system of its own".

"It was really important in [director] Don Hall's mind that we didn't use green... and we didn't want to be brown, because we didn't want to just reflect the ground above. So those were kind of the big parameters.

"And then the team just started pulling together lots of references and they just started honing in on what the shapes would be. There's one incredible sequence which is a montage of travelling through different areas and it's spectacular – it's so inventive."

Read more: Strange World star on “exciting” chance to play out gay Disney character

Strange World is out now in UK cinemas. Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide, or visit our Film hub for more news and features.

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