Strange Word, Disney’s big holiday animated feature, introduces their first out teenage hero, Ethan Clade, voiced by out comedian Jaboukie Young-White.

The Jules Verne inspired sci-fi adventure is pure Disney magic and is the company’s way of demonstrating its commitment to LGBT rights and representation. With Strange World the studio leans into its legacy just as it prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023. In fact, legacy is the theme of this film about a racially mixed family of explorers venturing into uncharted territory.

Director Don Hall (the Oscar-winning Big Hero 6) has said that Strange World was influenced by pulp magazines of the ’30s, authors Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and some of his favorite action-adventure movies. He even likened it to Raiders of the Lost Ark — but with a wacky family right out of National Lampoon’s Vacation. He acknowledged that Strange World looks forward as well as back with its core idea of saving the environment.

Here’s #StrangeWorld breakout star, Jaboukie Young-White on why he’s proud to be breaking new ground as the first out gay teenager in a Disney animated film. pic.twitter.com/vlmv7ebP8s

— Ethan Alter (@ethanalter) November 16, 2022

“It’s good to acknowledge that your film has to sit up there with [the classics],” Hall told IndieWire. “But you can’t have it top of mind. It can inhibit you. You have to have that restless spirit in terms of what’s next. I think this film does that. It wasn’t like I came in and said, ‘Let’s do this.’ We want to push and go a little bit more broad with our character designs and in terms of the physicality of the comedy. There was a test of Searcher that had a musicality. It evoked my love of Johnny Appleseed and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and those post-World War II Disney movies through the ’50s, when the studio was at its peak of performance in animation.”

“I thought that was pretty cool,” Young-White told Yahoo. “It was a beautiful thing to be a part of, and something I wish I could have seen when I was that age.”

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE? — Walt Disney Animation Studios’ original action-adventure “Strange World” journeys deep into an uncharted and treacherous land where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades, a family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest—and by far— most crucial mission. Helmed by Don Hall (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Raya and the Last Dragon”) and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer “Raya and the Last Dragon”), and produced by Roy Conli (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Tangled”), “Strange World” releases November 23, 2022. © 2022 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

The story is a classic hero’s journey. Ethan is a son of the Clade family of legendary explorers and scientists like his grandfather, Jaeger (voiced by Dennis Quaid),  his mom, Meridian (Gabrielle Union), and even his dad, Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal).

Born into greatness, Ethan has to find his own path.

“This isn’t a coming out story, and it’s not him looking for acceptance of his identity,” the former Daily Show correspondent says. “That’s just who he is, and it’s not underlined or made to be a big deal. It’s an aspect of Ethan and one of the many things that makes him who he is. I thought that was amazing.”

Strange World is in theaters November 23rd.