Elemental

MOVIE #1,262 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 12.01.23 I saw this in the theater with my brood (there’s only two of them so I guess they are my twood, sorry). And I thought I wrote a review for it at the time when I slotted it in for this 1st of December, but I can’t find it anywhere. So now I have to write the Elemental review, a film which I’ve seen in pieces since then no less than 100 times. It’s Disney Pixar’s first Disney Pixar ROMCOM, folks: a meditation on race and love, a $200-million dollar cartoon. Putting my innate cynicism aside, I will say that this is good even if it’s been deemed as a half-a-billion-dollar failure by some weirdos out there. The thing about Pixar that you don’t get from other childrens tentpole content is that it’s going to be original. It’s not a sequel or a remake or based on some existing, dying I.P. This is at once obvious and essential. That means something.

It’s twenty minutes too long and the clear socio-cultural ELEMENTS can feel hamfisted even though the intentions are good. But the animation and soundtrack are really nice, and I liked the look of the world they built here: there’s something relaxing about it despite its bright and shiny bigness. I think I mentioned in another recent kids movie review that I would no longer be judging them on a curve (the curve being how much my own kids enjoyed them) but I simply can’t ignore that given the fact that I’m often inundated with repeat ‘viewings’ (I’m mostly just looking at my phone) at home.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,261 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,263 ⫸

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Elemental is a 2023 American animated romantic comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream, it was written by Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh. The film stars the voices of Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Catherine O'Hara. Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows fire element Ember Lumen (Lewis) and water element Wade Ripple (Athie), who spend time together in the city while trying to save a convenience store owned by Ember's father, Bernie (Del Carmen). It was released on May 27, 2023.