{"id":6319,"date":"2024-10-19T23:22:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6319"},"modified":"2024-10-19T23:22:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:22:49","slug":"elemental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/19\/elemental\/","title":{"rendered":"Elemental"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Elemental<\/strong> (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some peril, thematic elements, brief language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Sohn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Thomas Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O\u2019Hara, Ronobir Lahiri, Wilma Bonet, Joe Pera, Matt Yang King.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $154.4M (US)\/$496.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pixar isn\u2019t even trying anymore. Their latest \u201ceffort\u201d Elemental<\/strong> is proof of that. It\u2019s yet another computer-animated movie in which human traits are assigned to things that aren\u2019t human (e.g. toys, cars, monsters, etc.). In this case, it\u2019s the four elements of nature- i.e. fire, water, air and earth. They all live together in state of disharmony in Element City. Right off the bat, it brings to mind Inside Out, the one about the preteen girl\u2019s tumultuous emotions. That one was brilliant! Elemental <\/strong>is just lazy hence the quotation marks around effort in the second sentence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur), Elemental<\/strong> doesn\u2019t explore any new territory. It covers the same themes as Pixar movies past. It gives us a heroine who (a) feels like she doesn\u2019t belong and (b) secretly wants to do her own thing rather than follow in the footsteps of a well-meaning but clueless parent. It also gives us a mismatched couple forced to put aside their differences and work together to save their city from some impending disaster. It\u2019s set in a sprawling metropolis with a clear distinction between social classes. The privileged water people reside in luxurious high rise buildings while the less-privileged fire people (mostly immigrants) form a tight-knit community united in their dislike for water-based beings. In case you haven\u2019t yet realized it, Elemental<\/strong> is also a thinly veiled metaphor for racial prejudice. More about that later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ember (Lewis, The Half of It) is the daughter of immigrants Bernie (Carmen) and Cinder (Ommi, Tehran) from Fireland. Upon their arrival, they got hit with prejudice from all directions. None of the other elements wanted them in their neighborhood. Eventually, the couple found a place to call home, named it Firetown and opened a bodega. Ember is born soon thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Years later, Ember is constantly told she\u2019s not ready to take over the family business. It\u2019s because of her fiery temper. She\u2019s not the most patient fire being in the world. When pushed, she goes from red hot to purple which typically results in property damage. One day, the day her dad leaves her in charge of the shop for the first time, she\u2019s pushed too far by all the PITA customers. She goes to the basement to vent and ends up breaking a water pipe which causes a flood. The flow of water brings with it Wade Ripple (Athie, Archive 81), a health inspector who threatens to have the place shut down due to unsafe conditions. Ember tries to stop him and a chase through the city ensues.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Forced to plead her case to Wade\u2019s air element boss Gale Cumulus (Covey, The Goldbergs), Ember is told her father\u2019s store will not be shut down if she helps Wade find and fix the source of a leak that threatens the safety of everybody in Element City. Along the way, the two opposites fall for each other despite knowing full well that fire and water don\u2019t mix. Or so they\u2019ve been told all their lives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the past, Pixar consistently set the bar high with titles like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Up and Inside Out, all of which made my top ten lists in their respective years. Lately, we\u2019ve been getting lesser movies like Onward and Lightyear in addition to the deluge of cash-grab sequels like Cars 3 and Finding Dory. You can add Elemental<\/strong> to the list. It\u2019s not a terrible movie per se; it\u2019s merely a flat and unoriginal one that bears a very close resemblance to Disney\u2019s non-Pixar billion-dollar hit Zootopia. Instead of anthropomorphic animals, it\u2019s the elements. Both films deal with prejudice and xenophobia. It\u2019s clear early on what Elemental<\/strong> is up to, but it really shows its race card in the scene where Bernie tells his daughter to keep an eye on the water elements that just entered the store. It\u2019s an all too familiar scenario. But here\u2019s the thing. The writers fail to develop this theme beyond a superficial level. They let us know what the movie is really<\/em> about without actually exploring it in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now let\u2019s set aside the film\u2019s loftier intentions and talk about it as entertainment. I have no doubt little kids will enjoy Elemental<\/strong>. They don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a rehash of other movies they\u2019ve probably watched a million times. They\u2019ll like the colors and that it\u2019s constantly in motion. I\u2019ll grant it has a few imaginative moments like the game of Air Ball played by cloud-shaped air elements, but scenes like this are few and far in between.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the most part, Elemental<\/strong> bored me. I didn\u2019t think the animation was all that great which is especially bad given Pixar\u2019s rep for quality CA. I thought the story and characters were uninvolving. I found Wade and his family incredibly annoying; in particular, their tendency to weep torrents of tears. The only voice talent that stands out is Covey and she\u2019s not in it that much. I also found the whole thing predictable. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Elemental<\/strong> was written by an algorithm rather than actual humans. It has a noticeably manufactured feel to it. It may as well have been titled Pixar Movie #27 in how it doesn\u2019t stand out at all.<\/p>\n

If your kids insist on seeing Elemental<\/strong> at the movies, make it a little less painful on the credit card by taking them to a matinee (in 2D). You\u2019ll be bored, but at least you won\u2019t have spent a fortune on mediocre product.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elemental (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some peril, thematic elements, brief language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Sohn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Thomas Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O\u2019Hara, Ronobir Lahiri, Wilma Bonet, Joe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Elemental-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6500,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions\/6500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}