Elemental (2023)

[Eric Loves Rey]

Discuss

[LegionWrex]

So I kind of loved this? It definitely takes a bit to get going - it needs to set the pieces up for it's story to work so it's a bit wonky in how it gets there - but once it does (which is basically once our couple of elements heads for the city) it gets great and stays great. What really carries this is the lead romance, which is delightful and charming in the best way. You really get to care about their relationship and it's a testament to the script as well as Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie (particularly Lewis, who is great here) that make it work. It's rom-com cliches at points but I'm a sucker for them and this is the first time I've seen them done in animated form like this, so this will likely be many kids' first exposure to the genre and I'm glad for that. 

 

The animation is stunning. Like, jaw droppingly gorgeous. Pixar is almost always good with that but this one in particular just looks like something else. They overhauled their animation systems entirely to even make the film and every drop of it's large $200 million budget can be seen on screen (most of the really beautiful stuff is left out of the trailers as well, like it's actually insane on how good some of this looks). Thomas Newman also goes hard here, and his theme for the fire people invokes a lot of Korean instrumentation and vocals which I wasn't expecting.

[filmlover]

This can definitely across as highly derivative of other Pixar movies, but even a lesser Pixar is much better than the majority of what typically comes from Hollywood animated studios. I appreciated that it was able to effectively mix a romantic comedy with a story primarily dealing with themes of immigration, family, and prejudice.

 

The use of a voice cast made up almost entirely of low-profile actors (Catherine O'Hara is the closest person to a "star" here) works well. And there is no animated studio that is capable of creating such an astounding CGI environment the way Pixar does. Element City is just as much a feast for the eyes full of detail as the world of the Cars franchise and the Land of the Dead from Coco were.

 

B

 

The Up short before the movie was only okay, nice as it was to hear Ed Asner one last time.

[abracadabra1998]

This doesn't deserve the label of Pixar's biggest flop. Very enjoyable, and I found myself caring more about these characters and world than any of Pixar's recent efforts. The world-building is frankly impressive; the first 15 minutes do a splendid job of putting you there, of understanding the characters's backgrounds, and of setting up the dynamics. The first two acts are so enjoyable, the romance is believable and fun, whilst a bit cliche. The animation is (of course) splendid, and it was a great fun time at the movies.

 

The ending brought this down a notch for me. For a bit, I really thought they were gonna do it and kill Wade off. I was crying tons at this point. When I heard his voice, while the kids around me laughed at him crying, I found myself very disappointed. But I get it; it would have been pretty dark, and not very fitting of the rom-com mood of the film. 

 

8/10

[Webslinger]

As the newest entrant in Pixar’s “what if ‘blank’ had feelings” subgenre, Elemental comes up short of the task with matching up with its predecessors in the studio’s stable, but the components that work more than outweigh the shortcomings. In its best moments, Elemental works as a sweet romance that also capably uses its backdrop to explore interracial relationships and immigration. The relationship between protagonist Ember and her unlikely love interest Wade is endearing from their first meeting on, and I found myself invested in their attempts to navigate the obstacles the narrative throws their way. They have some adorable moments together – particularly the date in which Ember discovers her talent in making glass art and a crying game Wade’s family plays – that have the resonance I’ve come to expect from Pixar. There are also some nice emotional moments in Ember’s relationship with her parents, with a particularly touching emotional payoff near the end. And as always with Pixar, the animation is stunning – and it’s especially nice to see said animation back on a big screen after so many of their recent efforts were sent straight to Disney+. If there’s a major area where Elemental falters, though, it’s in not taking as much care in crafting and developing its story and characters as deeply as other, better Pixar – and even mainline Disney – outings before it. When seeing the explanations of how the universe works early in the run time, it’s hard not to think of how this film does not distill its characters’ existences and stakes as cleverly and poignantly as, say, Inside Out, nor explore the nuances of the coexistence of so many opposing forces as thoughtfully as Zootopia in the Disney canon. The water pipe subplot, while important in getting the narrative going, also feels less important than the filmmakers might have intended, and the complications it causes toward the end feel like forced conflict that isn’t needed at a point where it feels like the film has become more interested in the characters’ emotional lives. It’s that weight of expectations and sense that it could have been more that make Elemental feel a little underwhelming, but when compared with much of the faster and flimsier material we often see in family-friendly animation, it’s a solid effort whose strengths carry it through.

 

B

Edited June 21, 2023 by Webslinger

[cannastop]

At the beginning I was cynical because it felt like a Zootopia ripoff, but then I got sucked into the characters. I really like this movie.

[IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son]

Finally saw it see what the fuss was all about and find out why it's on pace to get a 1,000,000x multiplier in Korea.

 

The plot and setting were a bit paper-thin. Don't get me wrong the setting is gorgeous but I feel like they could have done so much more with it. Even Fireland (? I think it was called that) looked stunning but I wanted a better reason for the parents abandoning everything just to come to Element City. I guess it's a representation of things out of your control (e.g. war, famine) pushing immigrants in our world out of their homes, but in Ember's parents case they could have just built a new house lol.

 

The characters were great, Ember and Wade are fantastic leads. It needed more Clod though! I'm not big on romcoms but this seemed to execute the romance elements very well which is impressive since the target audience is young children. The comedy was surprisingly good too and got a lot of laughs at my showing.

 

Emotionally it's not one of Pixar's best, but the Wade fakeout death scene at the end got me a bit. I can see why it's so huge in Korea since they love their romance stories (Aladdin, About Time etc.) so if you're down for a cute little romcom this will be perfect for you. Just don't think too hard about the setting haha. All in all a 6/10 but I'll bump it up to a 6.5 because the animation is stunning and I'm a sucker for good animation. 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son

[Morieris]

It felt very disconnected at points. Sequences felt abrupt and quite often, the next scene shows up and it has little to do with what just happened. It gets better about it, but it's jarring.

 

I'll repeat what others have said; If they had leaned more into the immigrant story (which was touching when it happened, and Ember's internal conflict) and less into the mystery, I would have been much higher about this.

 

Honestly, Wade was annoying. His family was annoying. I know kid's movies like their stereotypes, and Ember falls into them too, but her story is rooted in something far more interesting. She and Firetown are genuinely interesting characters.

 

There's so much to like - Ember is probably my favorite Pixar protagonist, and I'm not a child of immigrants or anything, the visuals, the score is beautiful  -  but so much of it is bits and pieces of a weaker A-plot instead of the strentgh of the B-Plot.

 

I was confused at one thing;

Spoiler

The big storm only destroyed ONE house? Their relatives and community didn't help Bernie and Cinder rebuild???

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Morieris

[cannastop]

45 minutes ago, Morieris said:

onestly, Wade was annoying. His family was annoying

Most audiences I see it with seem to think Wade's family is quite humorous 

[cannastop]

I do agree that the movie felt rough at parts. Like it would have been smoothed out of a stronger hand than Pete Doctor was in charge at Pixar.

 

I feel like Domee Shi didn't need any extra guidance for Turning Red. But Elemental, though I obviously like the movie a lot, seems rougher