Since Pixar’s first film in the 1990s, when they introduced us to another mean storytelling style through Toy Story, the company engaged the audience with its unique storytelling.
Up until 2022 however, Pixar’s approach in animated films has deliberately deviated away from the tried and true formula of storytelling in favor of social criticism along with the said narratives subjected to weird experimentation via filmmaking. Elemental happens to be the latest among Disney’s odd experiments.
Nevertheless, it’s time to dive into Element City and ask this one Simple Question after we see Disney’s quality in storytelling starting to degrade. Can different Elements really mix with one another?
The Movie opens up when Bernie and Cinder immigrate to Element City, but they were already discriminated against the second they enter the city, trying to find a new place to live with their newborn daughter, Ember. Several years after the family shop was built, Ember was put in charge of the shop during the sales day but was stressed, causing her to lose her temper.
As a result, she accidentally sucked Wade up through the pipes, who happens to be a city inspector. He was investigating the leaks but wound up at the shop and ends up writing citations and sends them to city hall. Throughout the chaotic romantic comedy craziness, Wade and Ember must work together to save Ember’s shop from being closed down.
I have noticed that Pixar has been using more computer power in an attempt to perfect the CGI animation for each bit among the four elements, especially the more expressive emotions emanating from each of them, along with the interaction of two different elements .Such as Air showing a darkened cloud along with lightning with anger or even water shows a lot of crying even though the performance is over the top.
I also noticed the juxtaposition when it comes to the lovers’ quarrel between Ember and Wade along with a back and forth with the glass-breaking scene symbolizing a relationship about to break.
The computer graphics might take visual development to near perfection when it comes to more computers giving out more pixels to the point of perfection.
I actually find the film rather boring – recycled from previous Disney and Pixar Films, mixed in with less than stellar romantic comedy films. For example, I have seen the main character having a clear goal in Lightyear, but wind up changing his mind at the very last second when nearing the climax of the film, resulting in a muddled story. No different from Ember trying to take over her family’s shop but winds up struggling with what she really wants to do with her life. Or even Ember and Wade Arguing what she really want with her life which I have already seen in several Disney films and romantic comedy movies with such conflicts being recycled.
As for the themes and narratives, I can easily compare Element City’s immigration with the historical immigration to America via Ellis Island, where the staff changed their names to an Americanized version. The same situation where Bernie and Cinder wound up like that as well – being persecuted for their difference from the others.
Speaking of which, the Fire People’s cultural roots are very vague, especially the written and spoken language. It’s rather difficult to determine whether the origins are Middle East, Southeast Asia, or even India. Even the background music for the fire people sounds rather similar to Middle Eastern let alone Indian Music. In my view, Pixar has been relying too much on the generalization for the social commentary storytelling within the film while not going further for the research from the staff team.
The movie had a very interesting concept for the anthropomorphic form of the four elements and the visuals kept me rather intrigued, however, the recycled plot points from Disney, Pixar, along with several romantic comedy films have greatly degraded the flow and the tone of the film’s narrative. Especially where they used the Disney Death trope where said character was brought back to life at the very last minute. As a result, the film is just plain boring and I’m not motivated to watch the film for a second time, aside from the short: Carl’s Date.
As a result, Elemental gets 5.1 out of 10 due to the recycled plot point from previous Disney films, which also results in a degrading Disney Formula that need to move away from social commentary and weird experiments. When it comes to this film, elements cannot mix after all of this time. I have a couple more films I plan to review so look forward to it.
1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
AugieH
Walt is rolling over in his grave.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023 Report this