Pixar's Elemental Review: Can opposites attract?

 Pixar's Elemental Review

In this day and age we have seen a lot of animation studios become a challenge against each other to prove themselves to be the very best against all the other studios with long running companies like Disney still pushing for new animation every year (even when most of their focus goes towards running everything and remaking their old films in live action form), Dreamworks who may be seen as the more wild child but can male some decently good films and even great ones as well. Sony started off with a rough patch and now set a standard for a style of animation, Aardman proves you can still make stop motion a reasonable animation style (as seen with last years winner Pinocchio) and while they may advertise something to death, Illumination can make some decent films and respectful box offices. But today we are talking on the studio that defined a generation and paved the way for the creation of CG animated films and this of course with Pixar. Now they have been set up since 1986 but it was not until 1995 when they released the first full length CGI film of Toy Story and from their the success continued with classics like Bugs Life, Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Wall-E, Inside Out and my personal Favourite of mine Monsters Inc. Now it is to say to some people out there lately that they see Pixar as losing its charm and sure we did have a lot of sequels from them over the last decade and to others some of the films from the last year or 2 have been a little mixed to some, but to me personally I really enjoyed all of their film library (even their lower scoring or less popular ones have stuff I enjoyed and will talk on them in my eventual Re-watchathon) and today we are here to talk about their most recent film release of Elemental. Now I also know there was a small short before hand which was on Carl's Date and to summarise, that short was funny, wholesome and somehow something that is less then 10 mins made me cry hard. But now we have their most recent film and the question I have to ask is if it is good or not, Well to me personally I think it is another very charming funny and still has that magic and Heart that Pixar always seems to have and I'll explain why?

This review will not have major spoilers, maybe some small mild ones but nothing major

A story Grown from the Earth as an idea

Now most stories made from the Pixar universe always follows a path of a basic idea and usually goes like this "what if "Certain person, thing or object" had feelings", which can be used to describe most of the movies, but they would have a building off point with that like "what do toys do when humans are not around" or "what if the monster hiding under the bed or in the wardrobe does this as their job" or "what if a robot alone on an ruined earth wanted to find love" and a lot of the time they make it work very well. This one does take a bit of the form with the love concept but on a bit of a unique concept with the plot being as follows:

"In a city where, Fire, Water, Earth and Air residents live together in harmony, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common"

Now this does not sound like the most original of plots (but then again most stories are from the basis of a small handful options of plots in general) but it had that sense of a forbidden love kind of vibe and done with a deeper theme of Opposites attracting and also more of a personal story from the director as their is an underlying theme of community for people moving from a far away foreign land and being ostracized as while many live in harmony, there is a sense of uncertainty and some aggression against fire people just cause they could cause problems for all of the others. But I think with how they tackle it with their deeper themes and concepts help to make it work a lot more.

Story score: 7.5-9

A cast for every elemental occasion

Now for a world of characters made up of the different forms of elements there is a few to go through and some may have more of a focus compared to others and I will try and give as much as I can here:

Ember

So we shall start with the fiery young woman of Ember Lumen. Now she has always respected family and her family's legacy in their shop of the firepit and she wants to one day run the shop from her ailing father but with her short temper from pressure it makes it seem difficult to do so and when she meets Wade and shows her a life outside of the shop, she discovers that maybe there is more that she wants to do with herself and maybe she may learn who she really wants to be. Now I do like her role that would symbolize the ideal path in life that someone else may have set out for them to follow but along the way with coming into their own self that they may find that this is not what they want to be at all and want to chart their own path forward but also learning from those that helped them along the way. She can be a little placed into she has a temper and is set off easily but when she learns more about Wade she finds that more calmer side to her and I think that it works well for her character.

Wade

As for the other half of this love story we have Wade Ripple, the go with the flow water element. Now he would be one that is more outgoing, someone that would find the good in everyone and who also would be totally fine with showing their emotions (as he tends to cry a lot) and he is the one that shows the possibilities of the world outside of her Fire sanctuary and even care for her and what she wants to do and personally for a love interest, he feels more real then most love interests in other animated films as he is someone who cares for others and their goals, will try and make things right and show a more emotional and honest side of things (and personally I see myself a lot in Wade) and I think having some more characters like this in the future seems like a positive to me and I think what they do with his character and what they do with the connection of out 2 main leads is very charming and I personally really enjoy how it plays out.

Ember's Parents

For the last characters that I feel get the most screen presence in this it would have to be with Embers parents of Bernie and Cinder. Now Burnie and his wife left their old home to start a life for themselves in Element city and to gain the respect of his own parents and to see them go through hardships and working from the ground up with building their own home, having a child and starting a successful business with Burnie as the shop owner and Cinder as a fortune teller like medium and showing how much they care for their community and everyone around them (beside their distrust to the other elements) that those moments of focus with Ember and her parents is really sweet and there is a moment near the very end with them that actually made me choke up a little from the way it was done and I appreciate them doing a focus of a family dynamic that seems more put together instead of family trauma that some of the other films from the studio that owns this studio seem to have been creating recently.

Wade's Family

As for the other family we meet Wade's family a little bit into the film and I think their is a nice dynamic where they seem to be really close and caring for one another and would be supportive of their goals and help Ember see more to herself then just her life running the shop and I live the design they do with each of the characters to make them more distinguished which helps to somewhat know who is who (also in this family, the one named River, is confirmed to be the first Non Binary character in a Disney film or a Pixar film and I am all for that and representation like this should be more of a prominent thing). Now they are not in it much as most of them appear mainly in this one particular point of the film and then we see them pop up maybe 1 or 2 more times afterwards and feel like we could've learned more about them but I am sure if we return to this world in the future it would be nice to learn ore about them to develop them further.

Gale

Now for this character I really cannot say much as they do not have the biggest of screen presence besides maybe 3 or scenes but she seems like an interesting character if they developed it more with the elements of Wind and Earth but she helps a little near the end for Wade and Ember for one particular nice scene of beautiful animation and most other is that we see she can have quite the thunderous mood appear out of nowhere when pushed to a limit similar to the fiery temper of ember. I am sure if developed more we may get to know her better but what we got was ok.

Clod

Now the last of the characters is one that pops up a few times in the film and was used for one of the weirdest promotional campaigns for the film (give quick context, you ever see those clips online of the cinema reaction to the scenes from Endgame or No Way Home, well they did that when Clod appears in the film and it was so weird), but anyway Clod is that small kid character that tries to woo Ember and get her for the dance and all and he gives off a little bit of a s**p energy and it is kind of weird but thankfully it only really happens once, twice at most and like Gale,, his element doesn't really get much of a focus but I am sure we may return to this world soon and hopefully see a bit of a better development to the other 2 forgotten elements of this film.

Overall I think the use of the characters is a decent batch where I think the stand outs are the 2 main leads of Ember and Wade and some of the others like Embers parents are a very nice addition and how they were approached. Now it does get affected by some of the others not getting much of a focus and 2 of the other elements are seen but not giving much of a focus in this film but can hopefully be shown in the future but I think at least the main leads save it just enough

Characters 6.5-7

presentation that creates a spark of imagination

Now let us move from the focus of the characters established in this and talk about the world and how it is presented to us with the animation. Now I will say that if there was one thing that always impresses me with Pixar is that they always seem to really find something new to improve with their craft that they formed the start of CGI animated films then they made better physics with hair or water or even materials on the clothes of a character or object, it shows that they can create something unique and colourful and bright or show it through their use of colours that you can have slightly bright colours to show a sense of warmth, brown and harsh light to show things left in disarray and there is many ways to show from colour and lighting to make a world feel exciting or grim or whatever they want to express. Now in Elemental we do this presented in the world of Element City where we see the difference of the main part of the city, compared to the likes of Firetown that are a slightly not as colourful in its palette but has that sense of glow with the characters show a sense of warmth and community with that small sector. The rest of the city that we see from the busy streets, to the transport systems around the town to even the high stakes wind tunnel stadiums, there is always something to be seen and helps make things feel unique for the different elements. I do see some say that this has a similar look to the likes of Zootopia where there is different districts for the different animals but I think both have their issues of seeing small parts of it and could hopefully be explored more in a possible future film or series. But I still think that some will say this animation looks too similar to other Pixar films but I don't think their is much of a problem with that and that their is noticeable difference with each of their films in some capacity where some are smaller differences compared to others that are more noticeable but that is the charm and creative power that Pixar can bring with it for every film they create.

The same can be said about the design of the characters and how they work in their focus like each being represented as something different like Earth elements represented as trees, shrubs and sprouting earth matter, wind being shown with clouds, Water in the form of Droplets and fire having a form of a flame shape that can be formed with different emotions like when Ember is sad her light would dim and her head would get smaller like she is fading out or hitting off a large blast of fire when annoyed or stressed out, or the likes of Wade being able to be transported through the pipes or at a game create a massive wave of fans cheering for their team and how they show it can be a little gimmicky but they don't overdo it and having it be seen and represented in their styles that feel close to what most would symbolize these elements with and I got to give Pixar great praise for their focus in keeping it unique while feeling familiar.

Presentation: 9-9.5

Writing and humour that goes with the flow

Ok I will not delve too much into this section as I feel this one can go by quick but I think the likes of the writing for this movie is good, it does flow well and it has some nice moments and explanations of the world and the characters and everything and for what its worth it is a very decent effort on that end. One thing that I did notice in this film and was expecting that they were going to have in this was a lot of jokes or puns relating to the elements and some work well and some feel a little bit iffy but its not to a level where its in every line and it doesn't cross a point that it becomes annoying so I think it is at a level that is a fair balance of it all

As for the humour side of things, there are some well good jokes in there from the sight gags or even from some of the puns but some I can see that focus of a joke being attempted and not being executed properly but their is an attempt made, I think it is not to the level where every joke will have you rolling your eyes but some are done well and for what its worth they made a valid effort in the jokes so I can't falter on it and some of those jokes will be funny for kids (and some noticeable more adult ones that are either subtle or they straight up say something not so subtle) and I think finding that balance works well in their favours.

  

Writing and Humour: 8

Music to make you float on Air

Now this one I am also going to keep brief as well but we are talking about the music for this film which I do like for its more unique cultural sound to it and is done well from the films composer of Thomas Newman. there is a mix of some tracks that have a bit of a tech beat to it while mixing it with a sort of the tone of "in an unfamiliar land" kind of tone as it has that blend to the theme of the film which was relating to the directors background of moving to a new city and feeling lost that a sense of the music tone could feel a sense of familiarity and reminds them of where they are from (I could be wrong but that is how I see the music). While I could be overthinking it and be wrong but I think the music for the film is really well done and I may listen to some now and again if it pops up in my feed or I am working away on some stuff

Music: 7.5

Some Critiques that will snuff out a flame

Now of course like a lot of other films or media there is bound to be some problems and critiques and each section has some form of issue with it that comes along with it and I will do my best to give my own reason as to what I give the critique with:

Story: This one is more in the case of feeling similar to some other forms of love story but I give this more of an exception as it is done with the concept of elements can't mix. Maybe the case of a little one sided with mostly focused on Fire and Water (more the former as well) compared to the other 2 element types but I guess they can work with what they have but I guess they will hopefully be more of a better appearance in a follow up film or series

Characters: Like I mentioned, I feel some of the characters of this film feel underutilized as we barely get any focus with Air and Earth characters compared to Fire and Water and I am sure they probably had a plan with them but had to reduce it down for the basis of better structure to the love story but I am sure they may get a chance in the future

Presentation: Similar in tone to characters that it may be the case that we don't see a lot of the city, we see hints of it, mainly with Fire Town and most areas focused with Water and a little with Air but could have potential to see more of the world created of element city.

Writing and Humour: Mainly the case of some of the jokes not really landing now and again but the other aspect is with the likes of the puns boarding on a little overdoing it but it doesn't reach that far and I think it is fine as it is

Music: Mainly on the side of just some tracks are good and some are alright, the soundtrack is good with its blend of music but the track can be hit or miss with some compared to others.

All have their forms of nitpicks but most are just the minor aspects and can happen with any of them and most of the complaints I have don't really affect it that much to make it a bad movie and are only the small points that may get deducted

Burning bright or Left in the rain.

Overall I think that Elemental is a very charming and wholesome little twist on a love story told with the heart and soul of that Pixar charm they are known for. I know to some that they see "Pixar has fallen off in quality" or "they make everything look the same" or "stop trying to be progressive" (these are some point I have seen on the internet from those that see Pixar Dying) but to me I think them being more forward in telling stories with their messaging and how they tell the stories is what is the more charming aspect of them is and is the reason why I am always excited for their newest release or releases are every year. Is it perfect, not fully as it does have its flaws but I think its worth the watch if you are still a Pixar fan and can see that this studio still has creative original ideas in mind from talented creators and this is one of the more known success stories of the year where it had one of the weakest openings for a Pixar film, but it turned it around and is now one of the biggest success stories for Disney (outside of Marvel) and the highest earning animated film for the company since the beginning of the Pandemic. I would reccomend to check it out now as it is available on Disney+ and experience Pixar's unique take on this forbidden love story and find out for yourself if Opposite really can attract.

Final Scores

Story: 8.5

Characters: 7

Presentation:9

Writing and Humour: 8

Music: 7.4

Total: 40/50 or 80% (B+)

If you have enjoyed this review and my ramblings and you have seen this film let me know down in the comments if you agree with my points I have made in my review or what I may be wrong about instead you can let me know down in the comments of your own thoughts to it all. As always I hope you enjoy and until the next blog  hope you stay being wonderful People and have a great day every day :)

Signing off

Sam H