Title - Elemental
Production - Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios
Starring - Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O'Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Ronobi Lahiri
Writer - John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh
Director - Peter Sohn
Release - 16 June 2023
It's rare for a Pixar project to not include A-list voice actors, but that doesn't mean the movie won't work. Case in point, without voices that felt familiar; Elemental allowed us to just focus on the dialogue.
However, the story wasn't exactly top-notched Pixar level. Maybe that's why no A-listers were brought in?
Still, this was a rare story about an immigrant family that kept the story up with its immigrant family values that someone like me, watching from outside of America, could really appreciate whenever those values were tested.
This was more of a science-fiction since characters and population were made up of the different elements; and their individualities were based on those elements. Some of the concept worked, some were a little far-fetched and forced you to just go with it. Almost like having the need to switch off your brain and just accept what's shown.
Visually, this was Pixar. Everything looked beautiful. The high-concept worked to its favour. And the characters felt real.
But the blossoming love between the two main leads were a little quick, reminiscent of the speed in which characters fell in love back in the 90's.
Also, there weren't a lot of characters being introduced or used. So the interactions felt very small in contrast with the world that was supposed to feel vast.
One thing I personally really appreciated was at the climax of the story, it was the child that made an apology statement to the parent; instead of the other, "snowflake" way around. When was the last Disney-Pixar project that this has happened?
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