Pixar Pint #27: Elemental
It's flopping horrendously as we speak. It does not deserve to.
This review contains spoilers. If you don’t want to be spoiled and would just like to see where we put this movie in our rankings, skip to the final notes. You’ve been warned.
Welcome back to Pixar Pints, our two-summer-long journey through all 27 Pixar films in release order.
I get it. I get why everyone clowned on this movie from the jump—even before the jump. I get why it’s had the worst non-pandemic box office performance from Pixar in ages. It’s obvious.
Disney/Pixar marketed this as an extremely basic “what if X had feelings” movie long after that had gone from a meme about Pixar’s creative strategy to an unironic (and completely illegitimate) criticism of the way they make movies. Years after people were tired of seeing Pixar promote “Toy Story, but for cars or fish or internal feelings”, their pre-release marketing for Elemental was almost universally “Toy Story, but for elements”.
Well, that and a baffling fixation on an unimportant side character whom they cringe-inducingly1 tried to make a thing. They sponsored multiple hashtags for Clod on Twitter and produced a hilariously terrible viral video of people cheering for his introduction in a theatre, only for him to get, like, two minutes of screentime, tops? As comic relief, not even central to the plot. Nonsensical.
But what if we look past all that? What is the actual movie, Elemental, even about? If all you knew of the movie was what you saw in the trailers—which describes most of the audience, including me—you had no idea. Would you like to find out?
Let’s get into it.
Elemental quick facts
Release date: June 16, 2023 | Director: Peter Sohn | Music: Thomas Newman
Starring: Leah Lewis (Ember), Mamoudou Athie (Wade), Ronnie del Carmen (Bernie), Shila Ommi (Cinder), Wendi McLendon-Covey (Gale), Catherine O’Hara (Brook)
John Ratzenberger as: He’s…gonna be back for Toy Story 5, right? C’mon Pixar, don’t do me like this. I mean, don’t make Toy Story 5 either, but free Ratzenberger, dammit!
Budget: $200 million | Box office: $190.6 million and counting
Academy Awards: We’ll see, I guess.
Eli
This is the first time I’d seen this movie…obviously.
Aesthetic: 10/10 | Pixar has mastered the art of anthropomorphizing everything in the universe and making it look stunning, unique, and thought-provoking in a world choc-full of puns and visual gags. It’s no different here. Element City, clearly an analog to Manhattan, feels lived-in. It looks and feels like a city I’d want to explore and experience for myself. And the character designs here are iconic: aesthetically pleasing, instantly recognizable, and fitting for the personalities they represent.
Animation: 10/10 | Despite the “four elements” theming, Elemental centers on just fire and water, and you can tell Pixar put a ton of effort into ensuring those two elements were done well. They nailed it. The movie seamlessly blends the classic cartoonish Pixar style with depictions of these elements acting in a way that’s so natural as to look photoreal. The pièce de résistance here is the scene where Wade carries Ember (fire) in a bubble (air) through a flooded (water) subway station so she can see the Vivisteria flowers (earth). There’s very little Pixar does in this day and age that’s inventive. It’s hard not to compare Pixar’s stuck-in-neutral visuals to Across the Spider-Verse, a groundbreaking work of animation that released two weeks earlier. I think about how Pixar and Dreamworks burst onto the scene 25 years ago with their blockbusting 3D features and almost immediately gave Hollywood the misconception that nobody liked 2D animation anymore. We don’t need to let history repeat itself. Pixar’s current style is great for what they set out to do with their films, just as 2D animation wasn’t actually “bad” in the ‘90s/’00s.
Story: 9/10 | If you zoom out and don’t nitpick every little thing about how the elements interact, this is a touching story about immigration, generational trauma, institutional racism/classism, and coming of age in America. The pacing is pretty odd and it sometimes seems like the creative team didn’t know how to cleanly transition between plot events, but the bigger picture is still clear as day. Fire people are made to live in a slum, the neglect of which leads directly to a disaster striking the neighborhood. Ember struggles with whether she has any right to discard her father’s wishes for her given how much he sacrificed to build their family. Wade struggles with understanding her struggles because he grew up sheltered from anything like them, a plot point that hit me pretty hard as a minority marrying into a relatively well-off white family. This movie forces you to consider the inherent value from people from all different backgrounds and upbringings, how allowing them to blend together makes for a rather beautiful society.
Characters: 8/10 | My primary gripe with…the entire movie, really, is that the first time we’re introduced to Wade, he’s just bawling nonstop for almost a minute. Such an introduction makes me think the entire premise is going to be played for laughs, but the movie itself is super earnest, making this just a misstep in presentation. I can see how it’d be annoying that Ember loses her temper a lot in increasingly unhelpful ways, but there’s a reason for it: she’s harboring feelings even she doesn’t understand until near the end of the film. It made sense in context. Ember’s parents are good representations of well-meaning but set-in-their-ways elders.
Acting: 10/10 | I was sold on all of the characters at every point in the movie.
Music: 10/10 | They got “Kernkraft 400” lmao. Aside from that, the score is just astounding. The best moments in the movie are 100x more memorable because of it.
Final score: 10/10 | This movie’s marketing is a shame. It played into basically none of the central tenets of the film, instead opting for cheap gags on its visual premise. I went into the theatre not sure what to expect and I came out having been moved to tears.
Leah
Aesthetic: 10/10 | Stylizing water and fire is difficult to do well. I noticed the credits listed three people for “Fire Stylization Research”, and I must salute their hard work because the stylization looked amazing! The way the elements are incorporated into the character design is seamless and clever, and the setting hits the right mix of reality and the fantastical.
Animation: 10/10 | Animating water and fire is also difficult to do well, and this movie does both, incorporating those elements (heh) into character movements and the environment around them.
Story: 9/10 | I’m with Eli; the marketing did this movie dirty. From the beginning, this movie is obviously about immigration. It’s a touching coming-of-age love story about a second generation immigrant. The ending where Ember’s dad bows back to her had me crying; it was such a beautiful way to conclude her arc. The main problem people might have with this movie is the logic behind the elements and the way they aren’t a one-to-one representation of different ethnicities/cultures. The metaphor worked for me because Ember and Wade discover that touching each other doesn’t hurt either of them but instead creates something new. They aren’t actually a danger to each other; they only thought they were. There are some clear parallels between that and how prejudice functions in our world.
Characters: 10/10 | Ember was a fantastic protagonist; her arc felt realistic and satisfying. I loved Wade as a love interest; he was funny and endearing. I feel like the two of them brought out the best in each other and had great chemistry. I also really like Ember’s parents. They played a key role in the story and were fun to watch.
Acting: 10/10 | Great performances from the cast!
Music: 10/10 | The score for this movie was beautiful, helping create the unique atmosphere of this world.
Final score: 10/10 | Easily a 10. Gorgeous and touching, this movie tells a beautiful story about a second generation immigrant coming of age with a fantastical twist. Don’t write this one off yet.
Maddy
Aesthetic: 8/10 | Animation: 9/10 | Story: 8/10 | Characters: 8/10 | Acting: 8/10 | Music: 7/10
The last few Pints, I’ve talked about how Pixar has redefined their studio for modern audiences, producing some fantastic films in the process. Elemental is happily included with those films. Yet, at the same time, so much is holding back Pixar. This movie has been dogged on for months because awful marketing has made people just not overly excited for it.
But, in the end, this is a very fun and thoughtful film. I was much more invested in the immigration story and Ember’s relationship with her parents than I was in the romance between Ember and Wade, but that doesn’t mean it was poorly written or anything. In fact, though there is some messier writing here and there when working through the story arcs, I think Pixar’s writing is really hitting its stride. More than that, it’s fun! It’s a fun film that’s getting so much unnecessary flak for just existing, for being tied to Disney and Pixar.
During our time over these two summers with Pixar Pints, we’ve watched and reviewed so many movies considered the cream of the crop for Western animation. While great and all, it puts a burden on future films to live up to these unreasonable standards set by the past. And Disney, when these films aren’t reaching those heights, will just throw the film to the fire with misleading marketing (that you barely see) and hope it somehow makes its money back as budgets balloon into orbit. Elemental won’t hold a candle to the likes of The Incredibles or Coco, but it’s carving its own path: a new path for Pixar into the future, a creative-driven future with deeper and more emotional films drawing inspiration from the real world.
I’m excited for Pixar’s future. As long as it’s allowed to be free and its creatives get the chance to shine with amazing stories and gorgeous art.
Just stop fucking them over, Disney. Please.
Final score: 48/60 or 8/10
David
Aesthetic: They did the four elements pretty damn brilliantly here. I think the earth/trees are the weakest set, personally, but that’s a pretty high bar that they clear with ease. It’s a city that feels alive.
Animation: See above—unbelievable work to portray everything as beautifully as they have.
Story: Here’s my thing. The main plotline is a beautiful story about immigration and adjusting to a world that isn’t friendly to you, especially tied into the fabric of a coming-of-age story, but I also think it winds up being an Achilles heel. Too many plotlines go entirely unresolved or ignored, and it feels like a lot of cuts were made for time, but it doesn’t feel like the scissors were wielded with nearly enough care.
Characters: I think they do a good job here. Embers parents play immigrant elders that have their traditions and don’t like deviation from those traditions quite well. Ember and Wade have a great dynamic from the off, and a lot of that’s due to the way in which both are structured. I didn’t love how Wade was introduced, and I think that a lot of his character growth is left unsolved or outright ignored, but he’s lovable and a doof in the best way. Insanely strong Midwestern vibes from the entire water family, which I can’t help but love.
Acting: No complaints.
Music: Gorgeously scored. I loved that each element had its own music cues, and the way that instruments were applied only served to bolster the movie in all the right ways.
Final score: 9/10 | I am furious with how this was marketed, because they so massively undersold what wound up being an unbelievably heartwarming movie by turning every preview into a nightmare standup routine. This is one of the best things Pixar has put out in a very, very long time.
Final notes
Aaaaand we’re done! For now. After a wrap-up post later this week, Pixar Pints will return shortly following the release of Elio on March 1, 2024. Thank you for accompanying us on this journey from our childhoods to the present day.
The last 27 posts have led up to this: the final ranking. Enjoy.
Next up: Elio (but, again, expect a wrap-up post later this week)
I do not use this word lightly.