Elemental (Pixar - June 2023)

[Animaniac93-98]

Heard a non-Disney podcast’s review which was mildly positive. But the most interesting thing was the reviewer’s feeling that it felt like a tired Pixar formula, especially compared to the maximalist newness of Spider-verse. Food for thought.

After watching Spider-verse it's hard not to look at current Disney and Pixar and feel they are underwhelming in comparison.

And it's not just the visual freedom or exciting action in that movie, it had the emotion you'd expect out of top tier Pixar title and the diverse cast of characters Disney wants in their movies now too.

If anything it should be call to action for Disney to go back to their hand drawn roots to differentiate themselves.

 

[LittleBuford]

What if, and some folks here should sit down for this, Elemental does even worse than Lightyear? What then?

The silver lining would be that we could finally abandon the silly notion that a two-second gay kiss is what caused Lightyear to fail.

 

[TsWade2]

Heard a non-Disney podcast’s review which was mildly positive. But the most interesting thing was the reviewer’s feeling that it felt like a tired Pixar formula, especially compared to the maximalist newness of Spider-verse. Food for thought.

I’m worried for Pixar, but I think you made a very interesting point. I mean, after all, Disney is doing a hybrid film with their upcoming film, Wish. I just hope Pixar could step it up a little bit.

 

[Tha Realest]

After watching Spider-verse it's hard not to look at current Disney and Pixar and feel they are underwhelming in comparison.

And it's not just the visual freedom or exciting action in that movie, it had the emotion you'd expect out of top tier Pixar title and the diverse cast of characters Disney wants in their movies now too.

If anything it should be call to action for Disney to go back to their hand drawn roots to differentiate themselves.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and its sequel were mesmerizing. How many times have you looked at concept or development art for a film (or attraction?) and thought, why couldn’t the movie look and feel more like THAT? So inventive and bold that it felt fully realized from an artistic sense in a way few films have.

(Mitchells vs the Machines had a similar feel)

 

[DKampy]

I'm aware, lol. Soul was better recieved than Luca, and Luca was better recieved than Turning Red. I never saw Turning Red, nor did I see Luca or Lightyear, so I'm not giving my opinions on those films. Just documenting the reality of the situation. Elemental getting good critical reviews won't significantly change Pixar's predicament. It didn't for Soul and it probably won't do it here either.

what predicament was Pixar in before Soul….Soul was the 1st movie to go straight to Disney plus instead of theatrical due to Covid

 

[BlakeW39]

what predicament was Pixar in before Soul….Soul was the 1st movie to go straight to Disney plus instead of theatrical due to Covid

in whatever predicament caused them to release Finding Dory, Cars 3, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2, Onward and the Good Dinosaur all in a row, with Coco thrown in the middle as a rare throwback gem almost.

 

[TalkingHead]

After watching Spider-verse it's hard not to look at current Disney and Pixar and feel they are underwhelming in comparison.

And it's not just the visual freedom or exciting action in that movie, it had the emotion you'd expect out of top tier Pixar title and the diverse cast of characters Disney wants in their movies now too.

If anything it should be call to action for Disney to go back to their hand drawn roots to differentiate themselves.

You read my mind. It’s a level of exhilaration that Disney/Pixar haven’t touched in quite some time. Hoping this summer inspires some soul searching in Burbank and beyond.

 

[Willmark]

I order to fix a problem, one has to accept there is one.

I think there are more financial disasters and falling stock price ahead before we get there.

This is a stubborn, oblivious group.

WALL-E and Up (likely) represent the zenith of Pixar, from there it’s been a long slide IMO.

Those two movies had all the things that made Pixar, Pixar. From Brave onwards everything has been uneven.

For some folks YMMV With that statement.

As far as Elemental it looks interesting to me as a concept and will be curious to see if it reverses the trend as of late.

Like you my guess is Pixar and Disney will not heed the warnings of where their business is at.

Interesting times ahead.

 

[DKampy]

in whatever predicament caused them to release Finding Dory, Cars 3, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2, Onward and the Good Dinosaur all in a row, with Coco thrown in the middle as a rare throwback gem almost.

so this is your own personal opinion….except for cars 3 and good dinosaur… the rest was well received

 

[BlakeW39]

so this is your own personal opinion….except for cars 3 and good dinosaur… the rest was well received

they're mostly critically inferior sequels and middling original films. Onward has a lower metacritic critic score than The Good Dinosaur.

 

[MisterPenguin]

they're mostly critically inferior sequels and middling original films. Onward has a lower metacritic critic score than The Good Dinosaur.

For most franchises, the drop in critical score is insignificant. And Toy Story 3 got a critically higher score than Toy Story 2.

And those middling originals include Ratatouille, Wall*E, Up, Inside Out, and Coco, which got excellent ratings. The rest from good to very good.

You seem to like to imply there is this giant corpus of failed Pixar films, and that's not true at all.

 

[BlakeW39]

For most franchises, the drop in critical score is insignificant. And Toy Story 3 got a critically higher score than Toy Story 2.

hence why I said 'mostly,' which remains factually true

And those middling originals include Ratatouille, Wall*E, Up, Inside Out, and Coco

No, they don't. I was specifically referencing the string of Pixar films directly preceding Soul including Finding Dory, Cars 3, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2, Onward, the Good Dinosaur, and yes, Coco. My point being that Pixar went from being an industry innovator to being a "solid" animation studio but absolutely nothing more than that.

You seem to like to imply there is this giant corpus of failed Pixar films, and that's not true at all.

I don't "like" to "imply" anything. I didn't say or "imply" there was a "giant corpus" of failed Pixar films. that's a ridiculous strawman. But, the Pixar of 2019 was not succeeding critically/creatively on the same level as the Pixar of 2009. Elemental won't change that on its own, good, bad, or in-between. Although I'm sure you'd rather address the arguments you put in my mouth rather than the one I'm actually making.

 

[DKampy]

they're mostly critically inferior sequels and middling original films. Onward has a lower metacritic critic score than The Good Dinosaur.

Well most studios would love to have such ”middling” films as those

 

[BrianLo]

Honestly, I don't get why so many people are hoping this movie does poorly or is bad. I just don't see how that meaningfully leads to any change that people want. Elementals failing leads us more to Toy Story 6.

 

[BlakeW39]

Honestly, I don't get why so many people are hoping this movie does poorly or is bad. I just don't see how that meaningfully leads to any change that people want. Elementals failing leads us more to Toy Story 6.

if you're referring to me, I don't hope the film does poorly. I just don't think that this film's success will make or break pixar. But hey.. prove me wrong. Anything is possible I suppose

 

[BlakeW39]

Well most studios would love to have such ”middling” films as those

I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I think with successful films like Across the Spider-Verse, Super Mario Bros, and Puss in Boots 2, I doubt Pixar's competitors are super envious of Finding Dory and Onward right now.

 

[Trauma]

Elemental Review - IGN

Visually, Pixar is in absolutely top form with Elemental. Unfortunately, the story is way too thin and none of it makes any sense.

www.ign.com

Even Disney shill sites don’t like it.

Uh-Oh!!

 

[LittleBuford]

Honestly, I don't get why so many people are hoping this movie does poorly or is bad.

It’s a weird form of schadenfreude. To judge from all the repetitious posts across multiple threads, some individuals seem to thrive on it.

 

[DKampy]

I a

I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I think with successful films like Across the Spider-Verse, Super Mario Bros, and Puss in Boots 2, I doubt Pixar's competitors are super envious of Finding Dory and Onward right now.

That makes 2 of us… I don’t understand how the films you listed have anything to do with any “predicament” that Pixar found themselves in before Soul.. Pixar is arguably the most successful Studio in Hollywood history

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Honestly, I don't get why so many people are hoping this movie does poorly or is bad. I just don't see how that meaningfully leads to any change that people want. Elementals failing leads us more to Toy Story 6.

It’s a weird form of schadenfreude. To judge from all the repetitious posts across multiple threads, some individuals seem to thrive on it.

Yes, I find it very strange.

With some other recent films, there were not-so-hidden reasons people wanted them to flop that I could at least discern. With Elemental, though, I'm not sure why people are rooting for an original Pixar feature to flop. There seems to be this weird strain on here of people cheering on every bit of bad news for Disney, and I can't quite tell if this is part of same kind of pathological hatred toward Iger and Disney leadership more generally. It doesn't seem like a very intelligent hatred if that is the case, though, as people seem to cheer on every piece of bad news even if it is more likely to lead to a doubling down on all the things they don't like at the company. This includes original films flopping (which will likely lead to less creative risks) and the share price going down because profit margins are not high enough (which will likely lead to more cost cutting and price gouging).

There may also be people on here who don't actually like Disney, though, and for them I guess it makes sense to cheer on the company's decline.