Elemental

[deepwaters]

I never seen such a disrespectful review towards Pixar’s Elemental and Pixar in general.

[UmbrellaFish]

If this movie flops, as is becoming increasingly more likely, does Pete Docter survive? It’s not his fault that Chapek sacrificed Pixar movies to feed the streaming monster so now audiences say “I’ll wait to see it on Disney+.”

I feel that's just an excuse. Disney released 3 Pixar films straight to Disney+ amid the pandemic. Universal released 5 DreamWorks/Illumination films to VOD (either with a simultaneous theatrical release or less than a month after it) amid the pandemic. If this practice made audiences used to catching animated fare straight on streaming or VOD, then why are Universal films still so successful at the box office?

But it isn’t the same thing, right? Soul, Luca, and Turning Red were included in your subscription at no additional cost. Most VODs charge a premium price for a limited time rental. Between 2020-2022, Disney conditioned audiences to expect new Pixar releases through streaming at no additional cost. They turned their prestige animation studio into a Disney+ original content farm.

I’m not saying it’s the whole problem, I’ve been on the record that I just think this movie looks bad and derivative. I think Pixar’s recent slate has been generally uninspiring. But I do think Disney+ opened a can of worms for the company and it’s affecting their box office. We have already seen Disney begin course correcting by pulling some of their offerings off the service… more course correction is probably in the cards as well.

[PatchofBlue]

‘Elemental’ Review: New Pixar Animation Is Visually Splendid, But Swamped In Syrupy Sentiment – Cannes Film Festival

What has fallen flat at Pixar? This is the innovative animation studio that pushed all before it in the first decade of this millennium, that invented a way of turning the plastic finish of digital animation to its advantage in the towering Toy Story, that was prepared to start a film with a 20-minute scene with no dialogue in Wall-E – and revealed that kids didn’t care – and that would make an adventure film with a hero aged 78 years young in UP!. Kids didn’t care about that either, as it turned out, because Carl Fredricksen was a grumpy-gramps adventurer who also didn’t care what others thought of him. Pixar always had something new up its collective artistic sleeve. And yet here they are, coming out with a film as dull-witted and syrupy as Elemental.

https://deadline.com/2023/05/elemental- ... 235381852/

I haven't read the review in full (I seldom read reviews for films as they're coming out) but quotes like these kinda give me "back in MY day ..." vibes. When a review has to lead with something vague like "it just doesn't have the M A G I C of the elder Pixar films," it starts to feel like deliberate gatekeeping.

I'll be the first to admit that Pixar is not infallible, but there's something disingenuous about trying to use Pixar's own legacy against it. The real catch is that while films like "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters Inc." had positive reviews upon release, even there the critics were insistent that this film would never be a classic like X animated film. That attitude has only gotten stronger, and that's the real uphill battle their recent films like "Onward" and "Turning Red" have been facing even though they're just as good. The ironic thing is that the most recent Pixar film that critics have actually genuinely embraced was "Soul," which I didn't care for ...

Anyways, we'll see next month whether "Elemental" has legitimate issues (again, not totally off the table since Sohn's last film was not their best) or whether critics are just a part of the problem.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yeah, Soul was as uninspired as this film is to me. Both go back to the old stale formula. I mean, I can understand why they're hesitant to leave it entirely, but it doesn't look like even it's bringing them success going by this film... I would rather they just commit fully to the new wherever it leads (even if it's occasionally lack of success) rather than having intermittent bouts of going back to the safety blanket like Soul and Elemental.

I don't think Docter is going anywhere yet with Inside Out 2 on the way and all. But I'd love Domee Shi to end up in charge eventually the way Jennifer Lee did at WDAS. Everything Shi has done has been so creative and brimming with new life.

[Patricier21]

Instead of just bashing and saying that Elemental is not gonna do very well, then do whatever you can to try to help it do well. Spread the positivity and potential that it could have, going to see it as many times as you can and tell others to do the same. If you don’t want Pixar to sink, and you actually want more “original ideas” to have a chance and successful, this is truly the way No matter what no matter how otherwise it may seem

[Warm Regards]

I checked and did not see this was posted already.

A recent YouTube ad with Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold" markets this movie as "two unlikely friends will become unexpected heroes".

https://youtu.be/6B2BlVibJls

[Woodrow Pride]

I do believe that was technically posted by D83 here:
viewtopic.php?p=764512#p764512

The American Idol sneak peek and some TV spots can be seen in this article.

Also, this article from Renderman’s website speaks the tiniest bit about Elemental under Simulation and Effects:

Stylization at Pixar
https://renderman.pixar.com/stories/sty ... n-at-pixar

[Farerb]

New Clip:
https://youtu.be/1BhQz65Zxis

[Disney's Divinity]

Instead of just bashing and saying that Elemental is not gonna do very well, then do whatever you can to try to help it do well. Spread the positivity and potential that it could have, going to see it as many times as you can and tell others to do the same. If you don’t want Pixar to sink, and you actually want more “original ideas” to have a chance and successful, this is truly the way No matter what no matter how otherwise it may seem

'm not that concerned with PIXAR to do all that like with WDAS. Anyway, I wouldn't want this one to do well. I'd rather this flop and then Elio does well to help discourage returning to the buddy road trip well.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Instead of just bashing and saying that Elemental is not gonna do very well, then do whatever you can to try to help it do well. Spread the positivity and potential that it could have, going to see it as many times as you can and tell others to do the same. If you don’t want Pixar to sink, and you actually want more “original ideas” to have a chance and successful, this is truly the way No matter what no matter how otherwise it may seem

'm not that concerned with PIXAR to do all that like with WDAS. Anyway, I wouldn't want this one to do well. I'd rather this flop and then Elio does well to help discourage returning to the buddy road trip well.

Fair point.

Speaking of Elio, I hope we get that first teaser for it in front of Elemental.

[Patricier21]

Instead of just bashing and saying that Elemental is not gonna do very well, then do whatever you can to try to help it do well. Spread the positivity and potential that it could have, going to see it as many times as you can and tell others to do the same. If you don’t want Pixar to sink, and you actually want more “original ideas” to have a chance and successful, this is truly the way No matter what no matter how otherwise it may seem

'm not that concerned with PIXAR to do all that like with WDAS. Anyway, I wouldn't want this one to do well. I'd rather this flop and then Elio does well to help discourage returning to the buddy road trip well.

Still though, you wouldn’t want this to flop so as to ruin Pixar even further and maybe having go back is something that YOU don’t like even more, eh?

[The_Iceflash]

‘Elemental’ Review: New Pixar Animation Is Visually Splendid, But Swamped In Syrupy Sentiment – Cannes Film Festival

https://deadline.com/2023/05/elemental- ... 235381852/

I haven't read the review in full (I seldom read reviews for films as they're coming out) but quotes like these kinda give me "back in MY day ..." vibes. When a review has to lead with something vague like "it just doesn't have the M A G I C of the elder Pixar films," it starts to feel like deliberate gatekeeping.

I'll be the first to admit that Pixar is not infallible, but there's something disingenuous about trying to use Pixar's own legacy against it. The real catch is that while films like "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters Inc." had positive reviews upon release, even there the critics were insistent that this film would never be a classic like X animated film. That attitude has only gotten stronger, and that's the real uphill battle their recent films like "Onward" and "Turning Red" have been facing even though they're just as good. The ironic thing is that the most recent Pixar film that critics have actually genuinely embraced was "Soul," which I didn't care for ...

Anyways, we'll see next month whether "Elemental" has legitimate issues (again, not totally off the table since Sohn's last film was not their best) or whether critics are just a part of the problem.

Saying “Onward” and “Turning Red” is just as good as “Finding Nemo” and “Monsters, Inc.” is debatable.

[PatchofBlue]

I haven't read the review in full (I seldom read reviews for films as they're coming out) but quotes like these kinda give me "back in MY day ..." vibes. When a review has to lead with something vague like "it just doesn't have the M A G I C of the elder Pixar films," it starts to feel like deliberate gatekeeping.

I'll be the first to admit that Pixar is not infallible, but there's something disingenuous about trying to use Pixar's own legacy against it. The real catch is that while films like "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters Inc." had positive reviews upon release, even there the critics were insistent that this film would never be a classic like X animated film. That attitude has only gotten stronger, and that's the real uphill battle their recent films like "Onward" and "Turning Red" have been facing even though they're just as good. The ironic thing is that the most recent Pixar film that critics have actually genuinely embraced was "Soul," which I didn't care for ...

Anyways, we'll see next month whether "Elemental" has legitimate issues (again, not totally off the table since Sohn's last film was not their best) or whether critics are just a part of the problem.

Saying “Onward” and “Turning Red” is just as good as “Finding Nemo” and “Monsters, Inc.” is debatable.

Not anymore than anything else we discuss on the internet, I'd say. People can disagree with my assessment, and that's just fine, but when I look at how either class of Pixar film is constructed, I don't think that the older Pixar films were necessarily employing any kind of storytelling trick that their more contemporary films are neglecting. What is different, I've observed, is more how Pixar as a brand is discussed.

Back when their first films were coming out, their only real competition came from Dreamworks and Disney. The former found its market as a slapstick pop-culture savvy cartoon factory, and Disney animation was struggling to keep its head above water. This gave Pixar films an easy slice of the pie as the "high art" animation studio. In the twenty-ish years since, not only have both Dreamworks and Disney stepped up their game, but there are also even more outlets for animation, which again leads to greater competition. I wouldn't say that critics have turned against Pixar, by any means, but it's also not really "cool" anymore to cast Pixar as this shining pillar of filmmaking. If anything, talking about how they've "lost their touch" makes a critic seem edgy or insightful.

These are the kinds of things I zero in on when I read a review about how their latest film "just doesn't have that Pixar touch." Like ... they can't actually articulate what's wrong with it in terms of character, narrative, theming, etc. just that it doesn't satisfy their elevated taste palette.

As it pertains to "Elemental," I worry that this film might actually have the same kind of narrative tightness and emotional intelligence as Pixar's best work, but because there's just always a reward for thumbs-down criticism, it will be left hanging, and I'll be subjected to endless Toy Story sequels until I die.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yes, every studio goes through a phase when it's en vogue for them to be crapped on. PIXAR had its rise during WDAS's own phase of that; both Dreamworks and PIXAR were succeeding in part by taking potshots at WDAS, Dreamworks through cynical jokes and PIXAR through veiled shots at WDAS supposedly having "lesser storytelling." Now Dreamworks is largely irrelevant these days (Ruby Gillman looks just awful--and that's coming from someone who could've appreciated it as a veiled shot at TLM with an Ursula-Ariel protagonist-villain flip) and PIXAR isn't the brand it was. In comparison, I think it's likely WDAS will deliver a big hit in Wish later this year (only being Moana or Frozen level is the question for me), Encanto became a part of the zeitgeist (a rare feat for an animated film these days) despite being a pandemic film, and Frozen II was a massive success likely to be repeated with Frozen III and perhaps Zootopia 2 as well.

I didn't like PIXAR (aside from a few films) before it was "cool" to not like them. I see this dark spell as an opportunity for them to come out the other side making films I actually like--consistently--for a change, provided Disney doesn't decide it's just easier to have one animation studio at some point (the same sort of thinking that ended Blue Sky). I think the thing that may save PIXAR for the time being is sequel opportunities for some of their old films (Toy Story, Incredibles, Inside Out, Nemo, etc.). I don't think Onward is as good as Turning Red, but Turning Red is on level with Monsters, Inc. and their other best films.

[Farerb]

New clip:
https://youtu.be/9ERyopFh-dw

[Farerb]

From the trailers and clips I get the impression that there's going to be someone who probably hate Fire "people" and he plans to flood the city in order to drive them away or kill them.

[deepwaters]

As someone who has been really faithful in Elemental and for Pixar’s future as a whole. I honestly hate the social media war that has been going on between The Flash and SpiderVerse to Elemental. Like, what’s so awful about a simple love story that seems to show great moments? Sure it’s not the most original thing in the world. But what makes Pixar’s original feel like they are original is how they are executed. Execution should matter more than the concept. The animation has been show to be really pretty so that’s a plus. Overall I really don’t want to see this movie have another office-box bomb and cause a ripple of sequels in the meantime. Just try to give it the benefit of the doubt at-least.

[Mooky]

Shopping at Target and ran into the Elemental Little Golden Book... I spoiled the movie for myself and I think I'll be skipping seeing it in a theater.

[Farerb]

New Featurette:
https://youtu.be/rOsIzCzquV8

[Farerb]

Shopping at Target and ran into the Elemental Little Golden Book... I spoiled the movie for myself and I think I'll be skipping seeing it in a theater.

Can you describe what you read for people who don't care about spoilers?