Elemental (Pixar - June 2023)

[TheMaxRebo]

We just got back from seeing it and the whole family really enjoyed it.

I will say the marketing really didn't do it any favors though. To me the most important parts of it were about the family and how they were immigrants and the challenges they faced (seemed specifically reflecting how it was for Jewish immigrants) and the relationship with their children and the pressure their children have to make them proud, etc

The love story was fun - tough a little hit or miss. I liked the world created and the music was good ... The main song "Steal the Show" is really cute

My kids all really enjoyed it and all said they hope there is a sequel (I think a Disney+ series set in the world, exploring more folks that live there could be good).

Overall, not top tier Pixar or anything but definitely a rather good family movie

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

I'm excited because the one common positive statement I'm seeing everywhere is the 'world building'. That's what I've been missing from Pixar lately.

 

[MrPromey]

I'm excited because the one common positive statement I'm seeing everywhere is the 'world building'. That's what I've been missing from Pixar lately.

They definitely do that.

Without any real spoilers, how the cloud people arrive on a blimp was cute.

 

[dreday3]

They definitely do that.

Without any real spoilers, how the cloud people arrive on a blimp was cute.

Cloud people on a blimp pretty much sums up my life goals and now I must see this movie.

 

[Tiggerish]

I don't think that argument even has to be made.

If streaming weren't a thing, I'd be saying to wait to Red Box it.

We continue to go because the slate of animated movies is few and far between and we enjoy the disconnect from the outside world that watching something at home lacks.

We've seen everything Disney and Pixar has put out in theater since my son was born 11 years ago. (he slept quietly through Brave in his carrier while his mom and I watched) Onward is the last one from either studio that we've seen in theater that wasn't a disappointment and, If I'm being honest, I wouldn't say that one was great, either.

As for D+, we loved Luca. I liked Soul but he thought it was boring and I completely understand why. If I weren't closer to the protaganast's age, I probably wouldn't have liked it, either. I feel like Turing Red was saved a bad theatrical release by being put on Disney+ to shield it since I don't think they were ever going to get enough of the 25-35 female crowd showing up to compensate for the family audiences that would have avoided it.*

Instead, they can lament how good it might have done without having to answer for how it probably would have done.

They just don't seem to have it like they used to and others are stepping up to fill the space.

Heck, I love the Tom Holland Spiderman movies but even Sony, who'd been putting out stinkers before striking a deal for the MCU made what is in my opinion, one of the best super hero movies of all time with Into the Spiderverse only to top it with the sequel.

It's inventive and creative and touching in real ways that feel earned rather than contrived - everything I used to expect from Pixar.

Disney+ didn't cause that.

*as a reminder for everyone who loved it, that one doesn't even show up on kid's accounts on D+ which seems like a pretty strong admission from Disney about the audience they felt it was made for.

I loved Brave. Probably because I could totally relate to the red headed rebel.

I also loved Luca, because what feeling human being couldn’t? Totally enjoyed Soul. Didn’t care for Onward, and I was much too old for the Turning Red demographic. If I was a tween, I probably wouldve loved that movie.

 

[mickEblu]

I'm excited because the one common positive statement I'm seeing everywhere is the 'world building'. That's what I've been missing from Pixar lately.

Yeah it definitely got that right. It looks like I may be a little less critical of these animated movies than most here. I’m usually happy with something that looks good, feels good and sounds good. If I left the theatre feeling something that usually lingers and is more important to me than a few tiny plot holes or inconsistencies. Especially in movies with things like anthropomorphic elements. I think a few of us may be forgetting how to suspend disbelief and just go along for the ride. Watching it through kids eyes can help with that. I think that IGN review was terrible.

I think at a certain point the level of expectations people have for Pixar movies got so high that the odds of matching or exceeding them became extremely low. Which is a testament to how great they were for so long. Even Walt Disney Studios has had a lot of ups and downs. I think Elemental was good step in the right direction.

 

[Tha Realest]

I don't think a project being personal to a director is bad.

It can certainly add a degree of authenticity.

I think the problem is if it becomes an auteur-like project where others don't come in with a critical eye.

That's what feels like has been lacking recently to me.

I’m all for it. But, budget it accordingly.

Spielberg made a deeply personal film in the Fabelmans. He also has produced timeless, classic films in each of the last five decades, and some of the greatest movies of all time. And he made his personal film for $40M.

They gave the guy that made The Good Dinosaur $200M to do the same. See the problem here?

 

[MisterPenguin]

The reason Disney is better positioned than all of them is only because their IPs and networks make so much money that they can swallow $100m losses in ways the others can't. The question is, if streaming ends up never making money, when is that no longer the case?

Netflix is making a profit. And with the number of subs Disney has, if they charged Netflix sub fees, it would be making a profit. But they're bumping up the sub fees slowly.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Deadline Saturday am update:

“Disney/Pixar’s Elemental was neither fire nor glamorous ice with an estimated $30M 3-day after a Friday around $11.6M. 4-day could be $33M. We always knew after the sour reviews out of Cannes this Pixar movie about denizens in a fire and ice world wasn’t going to wow. The entire concept has been hard to win kids and families over with, but even more so, the film feels like a diluted version of the spirited existential stuff we’ve seen from the Emeryville, CA studio with Inside Out and Soul. Very same old, same old. You knew this was going to be bad when we heard about all those layoffs. Who knew we would be living in an era where Illumination would trump Pixar in grosses? Pixar and Disney Animation are indeed still looking to fill the creative hole left behind after John Lasseter’s exit.”

Hey, Deadline, did you see the movie? ""Ice???""

I'm seeing the movie tonight, I'm assuming there's no ice world based on the trailers.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Disney+ didn't doom Doctor Strange or The Way of Water.

This isn't a Disney+ curse, this is a "making sucky movies" curse.

Nor No Way Home, Love and Thunder, Wakanda Forever, GotG Vol3

 

[MrPromey]

Cloud people on a blimp pretty much sums up my life goals and now I must see this movie.

For all my complaining here, it wasn't an awful movie. In fact, there were elements (no pun intended) that felt like true classic Pixar.

I think that's my problem with it. So much is good and then there are these aspects of story/character that feel out-of-place and amateurish. That's okay for a kid's movie but Pixar has been pretty direct in their assertion that they aren't making "kids movies".

They market it like this is a story about Ember and Wade but really, it's a story about Ember and her father. Wade and his family and really all other characters are just plot devices and that would be perfectly fine if they'd written the plot devices a little better but since Wade's only role is to motivate/push Ember, it doesn't feel like they spent as much time developing his character or on considering his own motivations so he's written like a manic pixie dream boy who has zero growth through the course of the movie and the other characters are equally devoid of apparent realistic motivation or behavior and are able to flip on a dime to push the story forward when needed.

That's all fine for a kid's movie but Toy Story has always really been Woody's story and yet none of the other characters come off as simple plot devices to me. Coco is chock full of characters who only exist to provide exposition in their one scene but they're all fleshed out (also no pun intended) so as not to feel that way unless you really analyze it.

All of Pixar's best work is like that where you can close your eyes and imagine many of these character's existences off-screen.

This one felt like a magic trick where I caught something a few times hiding in the magician's hand that I wasn't supposed to see. In the end, I couldn't tell you how the whole trick was done but I caught enough to have the suspension of disbelief ruined.

My son, I don't think, caught any of that and therefore, I think, liked it more than I did.

I don't want to discuss it with him because I don't want to make him like it less. (I apparently, have no problems crushing the hopes and dreams of strangers on the internet, though - sorry )

Anyway, it wasn't awful, at all.

Maybe it really is just a kid's movie?

 

[Disstevefan1]

I also heard good things about this movie from reviewers I trust on YouTube.

I have told my stone carvers to pause on the headstone.

As I now do for all movies good or bad, I am waiting for it to come on streaming.

Side note - I am on my third try to watch Avatar 2 on streaming, I just keep Turing it off, but I am trying.

 

[TalkingHead]

Saw $29.5m as the opening 3-day weekend domestic tally. Amazing that Spider-verse made almost as much in its third weekend ($27m).

 

[MisterPenguin]

I also heard good things about this movie from reviewers I trust on YouTube.

I have told my stone carvers to pause on the headstone.

As I now do for all movies good or bad, I am waiting for it to come on streaming.

Side note - I am on my third try to watch Avatar 2 on streaming, I just keep Turing it off, but I am trying.

It could be both a good movie and lose money.

 

[Slpy3270]

I'm going out on a limb to say that positive word-of-mouth means nothing if the main headliner of the weekend is such a pile of dog crap that it drags the whole slate down with it.

Which seems to be what happened here.

 

[Ghost93]

I'm going out on a limb to say that positive word-of-mouth means nothing if the main headliner of the weekend is such a pile of dog crap that it drags the whole slate down with it.

Which seems to be what happened here.

Yeah, once people see that a movie flops opening weekend, it negatively taints their view of the movie even if it has decent reviews. I think there is often a "fear of missing out" element with movies. If a film is making a lot of money people may check a movie out just to be part of the conversation. But if they see that a movie isn't doing well, there is no "fear of missing out" element to drive them to the cinemas, as they don't think any of their friends/family/coworkers will be talking about the film.

 

[Slpy3270]

Yeah, once people see that a movie flops opening weekend, it negatively taints their view of the movie even if it has decent reviews. I think there is often a "fear of missing out" element with movies. If a film is making a lot of money people may check a movie out just to be part of the conversation. But if they see that a movie isn't doing well, there is no "fear of missing out" element to drive them to the cinemas, as they don't think any of their friends/family/coworkers will be talking about the film.

I was talking about The Flash and how it likely drove people away from Elemental by keeping them away from cinemas entirely.

 

[mickEblu]

I was talking about The Flash and how it likely drove people away from Elemental by keeping them away from cinemas entirely.

I’m having a hard time following this logic. If I want to go see a movie how does another movies bad performance dissuade one from doing that?

 

[Slpy3270]

I’m having a hard time following this logic. If I want to go see a movie how does another movies bad performance dissuade one from doing that?

Transformers is dropping almost 70% on weekend two.

The Flash is keeping people away from theaters.

 

[erasure fan1]

Side note - I am on my third try to watch Avatar 2 on streaming, I just keep Turing it off, but I am trying.

You got farther than me. I can't seem to even start it. Every time I think, I'm going to try and watch it, I then say, maybe another time as it won't be over until 1:30am. I know if I start it, it will take 3 attempts at least because I'll keep falling asleep. Lol