'Elemental' Is a Solid Pixar Outing
Added 2023-06-18 18:56:01 +0000 UTC@joyonapping and I watched Elemental this weekend and we recorded our conversation about it on the way home. It's a very solid Pixar film that we both had some major problems with. Also: the trailers for this movie are terrible and don't do a very good job of selling the central premise!
Please enjoy this bonus audio, which we've tried really hard to avoid spoilers for.
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Comments
Stephen: Very fair context on Good Dinosaur and I will try to make that clear in all of my future discussions. SPOILERS FOR ELEMENTAL BELOW The scene that really rubbed me the wrong way is the moment at the end when Wade shows up at the big celebration and tries to talk Ember into basically betraying her commitment to her family. I've seen versions of this scene play out in film before but this rendition was very galling to me because Wade really overestimates his place in this story. It should be Ember that has the personal journey and realization and not Wade prompting her in such a clunky and overt way.
David Chen
2023-06-18 20:22:46 +0000 UTCI caught the premiere of this one at Cannes a few weeks ago and had a lot of love for it. I totally get the criticism it’s receiving (including yours, of course!), and even sorta anticipated it in the moment. But it is a bummer to me: in my mind, the immigrant story and the love story are two pieces of the same “diversity makes us stronger” argument, so the romance was very moving to me as an expression of that sentiment—and one which I imagine is reflective of Sohn’s marriage and his conception of love as a push and pull, a catalyst for sharpening and widening each other. The fact that it mixes its metaphors is a strength in my mind; it inoculates it from feeling cringey or didactic. But, of course, this was movie number 36 of 36 for me in a very sleep deprived 11 day period, and seeing the cast walk the red carpet always makes you want to root for something so earnest. So take my opinion with a massive, jetlagged grain of salt! P.S. When thinking about Peter Sohn’s career at Pixar, it’s probably helpful to remember that The Good Dinosaur was some other creator’s clusterfuck which he basically was brought on to salvage at the 11th hour. So Elemental is his first real time at the bat with his own vision.
Stephen David Miller
2023-06-18 19:49:10 +0000 UTC
