Elemental movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Elemental

Disney’s newest animation releases in theaters June 16, 2023. Yay!

This is the first Pixar film to premiere in theaters since the pandemic began. There truly is something magical about watching a movie in a packed theater, hearing the audience’s reactions, smelling that yummy popcorn, and being around a group of people who are focused on one thing.

RATING: PG (for language)

LENGTH: 1 hour 43 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

I had the delightful privilege of watching this movie in a press screener in a theater filled with kids and their parents. It was insightful to hear their reactions and see which parts of the movie were their favorites. At the end of the movie, the audience clapped enthusiastically.

The movie features a land of animated characters that are either earth, wind, fire, or water. Lessons are learned about life and love.

The movie was directed by Peter Sohn. The writing team includes John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh, and director Peter Sohn. The director has explained that the movie is based on his life as an immigrant, moving to the USA from Korea.

THINGS I LIKED:

The cast of voice talents did a fantastic job: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, and more!
The color palette of this animation is bright and energetic.
The world-building is quite clever and entertaining. Because the pandemic prevented the art team from visiting a bunch of countries, they watched a lot of movies about Amsterdam and Venice for inspiration. I love both of those cities!
There is so much visual and spoken humor, especially after Act 1.
If you watch this in theaters, you’ll get to see a new short called “Carl’s Date” about Carl, the old man in the darling movie UP. Surprisingly, it’s been 5 years since Pixar has shown a short before one of their films!
The animation, as expected, is excellent. The water, especially looks amazing. Pixar bought more computers in order to make this movie, filling three rooms on the studio campus with over 151,000 cores! The movie took 7 years to make. Wow! Because of the pandemic, the story team and animators had to work from home during the quarantine to keep the project moving forward.
I love it when a movie gives you so many details to sink your teeth into. Sometimes, the details provide important insights, but sometimes they just entertain you in a specific frame. One example is a character who simply walks by wearing a T-shirt that says, “Kiss me. I’m Fireish.” ha ha
The names of the characters were clever and really matched their element theme. For example, the main water character’s name is Wade. Believe it or not, when I was in Kindergarten, there was a boy in my twin sister’s class whose name was Wade A. Shore. His sister’s name was Sandy. I’m not even kidding!
Pay close attention to the nature of each of the elements and how they’re represented. For example, the main fire girl, Ember, is very hot-tempered and needs to control her anger. I love how her nose moves like a flame would.
Thomas Newman’s musical score perfectly adds the bounce and drama to each scene.
Keep watching during the final, rolling credits. There are some cute images that extend the story a bit further.
I love Wade’s emotionally-free family. They easily shared laughs and tears together. They were also immediately accepting of Ember (the fire girl) and quickly accommodated her unique needs. I love that Disney showed such a kind, healthy family, since so many Disney movies feature dysfunctional families. They say that the director actually teared up when the movie wrapped, something that Wade would do for sure!
One of the characters in the movie is named Ghibli to honor the Japanese animation studio Ghibli. When I took my family to Japan, we were able to visit Studio Ghibli. It was as awesome as you would hope it to be.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The movie took quite a while to get started. The audience didn’t laugh for about 20 minutes but eventually reacted enthusiastically.
We don’t get to know all of the elements. We see land and wind, but the movie really focuses on water and fire.
Have you ever noticed that the men in movies are often portrayed as carefree and fun, while the women are uptight and serious? Such is the case with the leading couple in this movie.
In 2006, the Walt Disney Corporation purchased Pixar Animation Studios. Does that mean Pixar has now gone woke? This movie definitely has some messaging about that. At the surface, the themes of the movie featured problem-solving, standing up for one’s self, and love: all good messages. I know there will be parents who disprove of an ulterior agenda that promotes the “me first” philosophy. So many children’s movies in recent years have shown duty and responsibility as a negative thing so much so that being selfish appears as a superior attitude.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

No profanity. In fact, they used theme-related words instead. For example, the audience laughed when someone said “ash” instead of “ass.”
The mother (Cinder Lumen) is a fortune teller.
There is some talk of “hanky panky.”
When 2 characters shared a romantic kiss, almost every kid in the audience I sat with groaned and moaned.

THEMES:

“Take breath. Make connection.” – Bernie Lumen (Ronnie del Carmen)
Anger management
Family
Responsiblity
Duty
Proving one’s self
Trust
Sacrifice
Fear
Father/daughter
Respect
Living your dream
Romance
Immigration
Interracial relationships
Discrimination

FUNNY LINES:

“Winner, winner, charcoal dinner!” – Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis)
“I’ve never been punched in the face with beauty before.” – Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie)
“Thought bubble!” – Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) The visual humor that went with this line got a huge laugh from the audience.

INTERESTING LINES:

“Embrace the light while it burns because it won’t always last forever.” – Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis)
“Why does anyone get to tell you what you can do with your life?” – Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie)
“You don’t have forever to say what you need to say.” – Leah Lewis (Ember Lumen)