353: Elemental

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, this is Henry with the Film Buds podcast. Please make sure to rate, review, and subscribe.

[00:00:07] 61. Let's get to the Pixar film Elemental which is streaming now on Disney Plus.

[00:00:14] It's directed by Peter Sohn who also directed The Good Dinosaur, which I think is one of the worst Pixar movies.

[00:00:21] Sorry, but

[00:00:23] Anyways, it stars Lea Lewis, Mamadou Athe, Ronnie Del Carmen, Catherine O'Hara, which I don't even realize, and a few others. Not a huge cast.

[00:00:36] And the synopsis is follows Ember and Wade in a city where fire, water, earth, and air residents live together.

[00:00:45] So I didn't catch this one in theaters. I saw it only after it came out on Disney Plus.

[00:00:50] I love Pixar as many do.

[00:00:52] I do think as many as well probably that Pixar has sort of lost it a little bit over the last

[00:00:59] decade or so. I think their last great movie was Inside Out. The first one, I'm looking forward to Inside Out 2.

[00:01:05] I'm hoping it's good. I also like Cars 3, but I think Inside Out is the last

[00:01:09] great one that they have done.

[00:01:11] And I was definitely looking forward to seeing this because not only do I like Pixar, I'm a big animation geek.

[00:01:18] And when there's great animation, I'm loving it and I'll usually forgive a lot of flaws if the movie has amazing animation.

[00:01:25] And first off, this movie looks incredible.

[00:01:29] Like probably one of the best-looking animated films of the last decade easily aside from maybe like the Spider-Verse films and

[00:01:37] the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.

[00:01:39] I think it's one of the best-looking movies I've seen in a long, long time.

[00:01:43] Like, the lighting, the design of the world itself, like the four

[00:01:47] element societies or parts of the city, which a little bit like, I guess it's kind of a mix between

[00:01:56] Zootopia and Inside Out in a way. Not always in a good way, but that's what it reminded me of.

[00:02:03] And overall, I think I liked the movie more so than some did.

[00:02:08] I don't think it's amazing and I don't think it's one of their best.

[00:02:12] But I really thought it was charming and I thought it flowed well.

[00:02:17] I like the voice performances, the music by Thomas Newman, who's worked a lot on James Bond and

[00:02:23] done a lot of great work over the years. Very, very good score.

[00:02:27] But with all that being said, the big flaws and I think I'm in agreement with most here is

[00:02:33] the story is definitely lacking.

[00:02:35] Like the animation blows all that out of the water, unintended because it really is.

[00:02:41] It's about a year old now, but the overall story of these two elements who fire and water

[00:02:46] who aren't meant to be together because of the society norms and then they

[00:02:52] it's over like a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing.

[00:02:55] And people learn to appreciate other cultures and other parts of the civilization, whatever.

[00:03:01] Like it's very tried and true stuff, stuff we've seen many times before.

[00:03:05] So that part I can't really excuse not to say it's terrible.

[00:03:09] Like it's done competently.

[00:03:11] Like I don't think there's anything really offensive about it, but for the most part,

[00:03:15] you can really see where things are going.

[00:03:17] And the fire element girl has this conflict with her dad, who's very traditional.

[00:03:23] And then you can kind of see where those paths are headed by the end.

[00:03:27] So the story, I think that's what is most frustrating with Pixar movies as of late

[00:03:33] is generally the stories have been very lacking.

[00:03:36] The animation has continued to rise and go up and look amazing.

[00:03:40] But the stories for whatever reason, I don't know if that's just them running out of ideas

[00:03:45] or they're hiring the wrong writers or them just getting lazy.

[00:03:49] But I feel like most of the time I don't remember much about the stories or the plot

[00:03:55] in these films, whereas I feel like an early Pixar, I really did.

[00:03:58] And it felt like the ideas were much more original.

[00:04:01] So that's too bad.

[00:04:03] It's still one that I could pop on easily.

[00:04:05] It's breezy, very still good messages, you know, kind of learning to appreciate

[00:04:10] all kinds of people evolving as a people.

[00:04:14] So all that is very good things to have in a kids animated film.

[00:04:19] But looking at it from afar and in comparison to other films by Pixar and other animated films,

[00:04:26] it's not that impressive.

[00:04:29] But I think one of the best parts animation wise is the look of the water.

[00:04:34] Probably one of the best moments is when they go to the water guys.

[00:04:38] I guess Wade is his name goes to his house or his apartment.

[00:04:43] And most of it's just like a pool, obviously enough or predictably enough.

[00:04:49] That is a feast for the eyes really like the lighting.

[00:04:53] I'm a sucker for good lighting.

[00:04:55] That's one of the reasons why I love illumination entertainment films

[00:04:58] is there's something about the lighting that just grabs me and the shimmering

[00:05:03] of the city, the sunlight, the street lights, the look of fire and all that.

[00:05:09] It's really is pretty breathtaking.

[00:05:11] And I'm amazed how technology is able to do that.

[00:05:16] Not I mean, not blown away like surprised at this point, but like I'm always

[00:05:20] in awe of people who are able to create something like that and create a real world,

[00:05:25] which I think the movie does well.

[00:05:26] It's not as in depth or as creative or as fleshed out as something like

[00:05:31] Zootopia, which I love, but still very strong in a lot of ways.

[00:05:37] I wouldn't be upset if they do another one.

[00:05:39] I don't know if that's a plan or not, but still a pretty decent piece

[00:05:44] of the Pixar filmography.

[00:05:47] So that one is a four out of five.