Elemental

[Farerb]

I don't expect them to change the formula considering Pete Docter's films have been the most formulaic of them all.

[Woodrow Pride]

Why does no one seem to care about this movie?

I mean, it kind of seems like Pixar ripped of Romeo and Juliet, like thousands of other animated and live-action movies. I agree with UmbrellaFish, it's kind of "been there, done that."

[Farerb]

A friend told me that it looks like a bland Netflix romcom but it's animated.

[Disney's Divinity]

Why does no one seem to care about this movie? It's so weird to me given it's based on a very typically-Pixar concept and a return to form for the studio. Not only there's very little interest here, but elsewhere online as well. I follow a lot of Disney and animation accounts on social media and there's no chatter or buzz about this. What's going on? Is this another case of a movie not generating interest online but performing well at the box office or should Disney be worried?

It just looks very bland to me....

I agree, there's been little talk about it. It sort of reminds me of how little discussion there was around Strange World. That doesn't necessarily mean a flop though; I remember Zootopia generated little interest online but then made a billion, so... Who knows. I

[D82]

D23 magazine cover:


Source: https://twitter.com/Pixar/status/1649081110360657920

As far as I know it has something to do with their summer vacation.

Oh, OK. That makes sense. Its release has also been postponed for a week in Brazil. And I've just found out the movie will open on July 14 in my country, almost a month after the domestic release. I'm not sure if it has been delayed here too or if this is the first date they announce. In the Spanish trailer it just says "coming soon", but I'd swear in the video description the same US date was there before. The good thing about the past few Pixar films being Disney+ exclusives was that it was always a day-and-date release with the US. Now I guess we're back to the old system. Well, perhaps like in the UK, there's a reason for the delay. If the movie will do better on this date, then I understand it.

By the way, I've seen that in Spain Ember and Wade will be called Candela (candle or candela) and Nilo (Nile, like the river), respectively. Candela is actually a female name here, so I think it's quite a clever idea. And I've just seen Nilo as a male name exists here too, but I've never met anyone called that.

Pixar Animation Set for Cannes Film Festival Comeback with ‘Elemental’ on Closing Night
https://variety.com/2023/film/global/pi ... 235588478/

I'm surprised Elemental will premiere at Cannes. The previous Pixar films that did so (Up, Inside Out and Soul) all went on to win the Oscar. I guess that means Pixar is quite confident in the movie. Could it actually be really good? It does have social commentary, but it doesn't look that strong to me.

[Farerb]

So far I've seen that the date here remains the same (June 15), but I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it too.

Their names in hebrew have also been changed here to "Eshly" ("Esh" means fire) and "Peleg" (which means rivulet).

[D82]

It's interesting that they're adapting the names to other languages.

[Avaitor]

I don’t know if Disney should be worried or not. But the movie looks very been there, done that. I personally am not excited for it. It looks like the Pixar formula distilled in its most “elemental” form. Other people have said the logline sounds like a parody of a Pixar movie and I agree. I think the Pixar brand still has a lot of cache, but they have a recent history that proves they can disappoint audiences and push out derivative products to make a quick buck— which was not the popular perception of Pixar even 10 years ago. Lasseter is gone and I think both Disney and Pixar would do well to leave his formula behind and be creative again. Keep letting Domee Shi do her thing.

I agree with this take. I honestly enjoyed Luca and Turning Red more than most Pixar films in a while due to how different they felt. Even Lightyear I had fun with more than some others, even if it's really more of a MCU flick than the 90's blockbuster it claimed to be, it still wasn't the same old tired buddy road trip, which this appears to be to a T. Elemental even feels like a throwback to the "what if X had feelings" kind of movie people used to joke about Pixar making, which I thought we already hit their limit with in Inside Out.

But Pete Docter loves the formula and Soul is probably their biggest hit of the decade so far (at least critically), so *shrugs*.

[Farerb]

I saw someone mention that clouds are made of water so it doesn't make sense that they represent air.

[Farerb]

[D82]

I saw someone mention that clouds are made of water so it doesn't make sense that they represent air.

I hadn't realized that. That's a good point. I guess it would've been difficult to animate them if they were made just of air. They would've been invisible like Gale from Frozen II. But in that movie it was just one character, here there are lots of them. It doesn't make much sense, though. Didn't they say "elements cannot mix"? Although, come to think of it, I guess earth characters need water. So perhaps air ones do too, and that's why they'll explain they're clouds?

[Woodrow Pride]

I saw someone mention that clouds are made of water so it doesn't make sense that they represent air.

This is just my opinion, don’t take it as truth:

If you look closely, the Air characters aren’t typical clouds. I don’t think they have any water in them. Normal water-and-dust clouds that you see in the sky have a reflecting-effect on the edges of the cloud that (usually) reflects the blue of the sky. As you can see with the Air characters, there is no complex refraction which makes them look a lot fluffier and drier (and would also save on render time).

The only problem is that Air without water can’t be seen, at least not as a gas. In order to be able to see anything there would have to be little particles of dust/dirt. Still then, you could argue that Earth (dirt) and Air have to mix in order for Air to be seen . Also, the only reason why clouds are white is because of their water content. The Air characters are pink, so either the water in them (if any) has to be colored pink, or the particles of dust have to be pink. (EDIT: Not all Air characters are pink. Sorry about that.)

But still, none of this should matter; Pixar strives for believability, not realism (although some of that is needed to generate believability).

[D82]

It's true that some of the air characters are pink. I was trying to find some article that explained the doubts we had about these characters, as I remembered we got explanations for why the water and fire elements look like they do, but I only found this. Your theory is not bad, Woodrow Pride, but it sounds more like they were inspired by clouds after all.

Pixar’s Elemental trailer also revealed cloud figures among the floating objects Ember sees when she enters the train. These cloud-like figures resemble the clouds from the 2009 Pixar short, Partly Cloudy, which was written and directed by Peter Sohn. Sohn shares how the short was instrumental to him in developing the air characters: “I love the weather, I love nature, and that concept of an air character was just something that I thought hadn’t been animated before. We didn’t have the technology at that time to really get that quality, but we do now. And so it was really trying to anthropomorphize air. We had designs that were more wispy and clear, but these sort of puffy characters really came to life with our team, and yeah, I love them.

Source: https://www.guide4moms.com/2023/04/pixa ... s-day.html

[D82]

New still and article from Total Film:



Elemental producer talks making Pixar's most ambitious movie yet
https://www.gamesradar.com/elemental-pi ... movie-yet/

[Woodrow Pride]

I find it strange that in that picture Wade doesn’t intersect himself (his fingers and his chin). If he’s touching his chin wouldn’t his fingers go into his face a little bit? Water tends to stick together anyway, so shouldn’t Wade be able to stick his whole hand straight into his face with no problem?

Your theory is not bad, Woodrow Pride, but it sounds more like they were inspired by clouds after all.

Okay. I still think the Air characters don't have water in them, though.

[Farerb]

Elemental will be 1 hour and 50 minutes long:

[D82]

The Japanese trailer features some new footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZOsjobew8k

Elemental will be 1 hour and 50 minutes long

That's longer than I expected.

I find it strange that in that picture Wade doesn’t intersect himself (his fingers and his chin). If he’s touching his chin wouldn’t his fingers go into his face a little bit? Water tends to stick together anyway, so shouldn’t Wade be able to stick his whole hand straight into his face with no problem?

You're right. I think this film is a bit like Cars in that regard. You can't analyze things too much if you want to enjoy it.

I still think the Air characters don't have water in them, though.

Well, who knows, maybe you're right. They said they made water less transparent than usual, for example, so we don't see the characters' full eyeballs or see through them, so maybe the reason the air characters have those shapes and colors is just so we can see them and there's no other explanation.

[Farerb]

Elemental will be 1 hour and 50 minutes long

That's longer than I expected.

I only now realized that perhaps the running time includes the short as well, so the movie may actually be 1 hour and 43 minutes.

[Farerb]

It's been confirmed that the runtime is 1 hour and 42 minutes, which means that the short is approximately 8 minutes.

[Farerb]

https://twitter.com/Disney/status/16537 ... sxmrQ&s=19