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Elemental (2023)

Elemental is a 2023 American computer animated romantic comedy drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Peter Sohn. The film features the voices of Leah Lewis, Mamamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Catherine O’Hara. Set in a world occupied by anthromorphic elements of nature, the story follows the element of fire, Ember Lumen (Lewis) and water element Wade Ripple (Athie), who meet and fall in love after Wade is summoned to by a plumbing accident at a convenience store owned by Ember’s father Bernie (Del Carmen).

Fire elements Bernie and Cinder Lumen relocate to Element City, where they face xenophobia from other elements and struggle to find a home. They have a daughter, Ember, and eventually set up a convenience store called The Fireplace, setting up a Blue Flame that represents their heritage and traditions and attracting many fire element customers over time. Bernie intends for the store to give the store to Ember to run the shop on her own, she becomes overwhelmed by the customers and runs to the basment. Her firey outburst breaks a water pipe, flooding the basement and ordering Wade Ripple, a water element and city inspector. Wade talks about the faulty pipe and unwillingly leaves for City Hall to send the violation report to his air element employer, Gale Cumulus, who will have The Fireplace shut down. Ember persues Wade but it’s too late.

Taking pity on Ember he takes her to Cyclone Stadium to convince Gale to be more forgiving and reconsider shutting down her father’s store. When Wade mentions he was investigating recocurring floods before ending up at The Fireplace, Gales gives the two of them a tight deadline to find the cause. If they are able to seal the leak, then the violations will be forgiven. While searching the canals for the cause of the leak, Wade remembers that Ember’s temper comes from her trying to tell herself something that she is not ready to accept, but Ember denies this. They then find a hole in a dam that allows wave runoff from ships to flood the city’s plumbling, so they close the hole with sandbags. Meanwhile, Bernie deals with water leaks all over The Fireplace.

Wade and Ember spend time together in the city and learn more about each other. Later, Wade tells Ember that the sandbags did not hold, so Ember uses her glassmaking ability to create a sturdier seal for the hole in the dam. Meanwhile, Cinder suspects Ember is seeing someone and follows her. Ember visits Wade’s family at a luxury apartment, where she uses her fire to fix a broken glass pitcher, impressing Brook, Wade’s mother, who recommends her for a glassmaking internship. Gale then calls Wade and give her approval of Ember’s glass seal, thus saving The Fireplace from closing down. Ember then realizes that she does not want to take over the store.

Bernies announces his plan to to retire and give The Fireplace to Ember. Wade takes Ember to Garden Central Station to see Vivisteria flowers, which she was denied seeing as a child. Gale gives her an air bubble for safety while Wade pushes her underwater through the station. Afterward, Wade and Ember discover they are able to touch without hurting each other and share a romantic dance, but Ember reminds herself of her duty to The Fireplace and her family’s prejudice against water elements and leaves, upsetting Wade.

As Ember is about to take over The Fireplace, Wade shows up and confesses his love for her, while spilling that she caused the broken pipes. Ember rejects Wade, but Cinder senses genuine affection. Disappointed, Bernie decides not to retire and denies Ember the store. When the new seal on the dam breaks, the fire district floods. After saving The Blue Flame, Ember and Wade become trapped in a room in The Fireplace, causing Wade to evaporate from the enclosed heat. When the flood subsides, grief-stricken Ember tells Bernie she does not want to run the store and expresses her love for Wade.

Pixar has had mostly great movies, but this one is only good, not great. It has a creative plot and relatable characters. It teaches about family, disasters, acceptance, and love, as well as following your heart. Conservatives may compare the fire and water elements being romantically involved to an interracial relationship and maybe that’s what Disney and Pixar were going for. Also, some may not like the rebellious nature of Ember and how she sneaks around to see Wade.

This is a film with such heart and emotion. It is a truly great story for the most part, but it does focus a bit too much on Bernie’s store and Wade and Ember’s relationship, than much of anything else. At times it does feel much like an animated teen rom-com with a bit of drama, so it’s definitely not Pixar’s best film, but no their worst either. It is a very sweet movie that tugs at the heartstrings and reminds you of the power of family, true love, and following your heart.

This is an entertaining film for most part, but older children will enjoy it more than younger ones. The plot is a pretty predictable, so not Pixar’s or the screenwriter’s or director’s best work. This movie comes off largely as overly sweet, which almost makes you miss the metaphor of racial acceptance within it’s storyline. Despite great messages within this film, it does not have the wow factor of other Pixar films. Some viewers will likely get bored, others may genuinely enjoy it and bawl their eyes out, children will likely get bored with it fast, as it is not as action packed as most animated films these days.

Overall, this film is filled with emotion, mostly romantically and family-wise. The metaphor of the elements of nature characters representing different races is is a smart idea, but that is about the only smart idea of the plot. Maybe the studio’s running out of ideas, who knows? Let’s hope not. This is a charming movie, but it it falls flat in entertainment factor, especially when up against others like the Toy Story films and Up. This one is not a complete win with the studios, but not a complete failure either. 3.5/5 8+

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WALL-E Becomes First Pixar Film to Join The Criterion Collection —

Criterion and Pixar are collaborating for the first time with the iconic animated film Wall-E now set to join the prestigious Criterion Collection. The collaboration will see Wall-E get its own 4K UHD and Blu-ray special edition release on November 22, 2022, complete with a 4K digital master approved by director Andrew Stanton. Additional features […]

WALL-E Becomes First Pixar Film to Join The Criterion Collection —
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Disney+ Debuts Trailer For Disney Original Documentary’s ‘Mickey: The Story of A Mouse’ —

Today, Disney+ released the teaser trailer for Mickey: The Story of A Mouse from Disney Original Documentary. The announcement comes out of D23 Expo in Anaheim, which launched the official kick-off to the 100th anniversary celebration of The Walt Disney Company. The feature documentary will premiere globally on Disney+ on November 18 – Mickey Mouse’s…

Disney+ Debuts Trailer For Disney Original Documentary’s ‘Mickey: The Story of A Mouse’ —
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Is Cinderella Weak or Strong?

Cinderella or The Glass Slipper is a folk tale with thousands of adaptations and no one really knows where the story comes from or when it was first written. The protagonist is a young woman living in poor circumstances that are suddenly changed to surprising serendipity. There are many different origin stories about this story, all claming to be the real one. 

The story is often said to be a folk tale for children, though many versions are anything but child friendly. In many versions of the tale, Cinderella is a teenager with fairly wealthy parents. First her mother dies of an illness, then her father remarries and suddenly he dies, but we are left questioning whether he died of a disease or if his second wife murdered him. In the Grimm Brothers’ Aschenputtel, which came out in their fairytale compilation  in 1812, Cinderella goes to her mother’s grave every day and weeps, but remains pious and good, despite her circumstances. It has the same story of her stepsisters ripping her homemade ball gown to shreds and her godmother giving her a new one and telling her to go and have fun at the ball, but the spell is broken at midnight, but with darker parts. 

In one scene, one stepsister cuts off her toes to make the glass sipper fit. Also the stepsisters and stepmother are more than just verbally abusive to Cinderella, they are also physically abusive and only feed her enough to keep her alive enough to abuse more. In the scene where Cinderella marries the prince after the slipper fits her, she rides off in the carriage to the castle with her new husband and though the stepsisters and stepmother are invited to the wedding, the birds claw their eyes out, pull their hair and rip up their clothes and scratch their faces bloody as well. How is this a children’s story? 

In the Chinese version, the godmother is replaced by a fish and Cinderella doesn’t mope around waiting for her happily ever after, she is actually a witch who can disappear. Charles Perrault’s Cinderella, is the closest to what we know and what Disney used as the basis for the 1950 animated movie. But Grimms read his tale and added their own twists of Germanic folktale tradition and came up with an equally weird and more disturbing version. 

But there have been arguments for decades and centuries about whether Cinderella is weak, strong, a feminist character, or not. In the Perrault version of the story and Disney films, she is nineteen years old and maybe that was still considered a child in that day and age, but by today’s standards, that’s legally an adult. Actually eighteen means you are finally legally an adult in today’s society (at least in America). So if that had been case and she were legally a grown up, why didn’t she get her share of her parents’ money and get her own place? Why did she choose to stay behind with her evil stepmother and stepsisters? Why did she allow them to abuse her? Why didn’t she stand up for herself? Why didn’t she run away when she had the chance? 

If she was legally still a child, I guess she didn’t legally have a choice, orphanages didn’t exist then, so she couldn’t have just gone and gotten adopted by a hopefully loving family. I guess living with her steps was better than being homeless, at least she got a roof over her head, a bed, food and water. But even if she was rightfully a woman, women in her time had little to no rights. Only men could be lawyers, judges, rulers of kingdoms and oftentimes married first. Women usually did whatever men told to them do without question. Men also made more money. Women seemed to only be there to be wives and mothers, maids, seamstresses or governesses. Cinderella maybe valued herself more or just had no choice but to stay at home with the three devils. 

Oftentimes Cinderella is said to be strong and a role model character for females. But how is she a role model if she doesn’t even stand up herself and/or fight back or go get herself some help? What screams heroine about her? She just stands there taking all their mistreatment of her, she is pretty much a human punching bag. Either she was weak, stupid or both. She doesn’t enjoy the treatment she goes through, but does nothing about it. It makes no sense at all, because a real hero doesn’t take crap from anyone, but she does. 

She accepts sleeping in a cold dirty attic without a bed, no soap, only freezing cold water to bathe with, eating scraps and doing chores all the time and being taken advantage of badly. I’m sure, had she gotten out of that situatuation, someone would have taken her in and given her a better life. But I guess the strong can come from how she takes all the abuse and still remains strong, nice and hopeful. But can she be both fierce and weak? In my opinion she is. She remains tough through the daily bullying she receives, but doesn’t do a damn thing to stop it at the same time. 

Cinderella isn’t exactly a positive role model, especially for girls and young ladies, but she isn’t exactly the worst either. She’s not one that I would want my daughter, granddaughter, niece or even friend’s daughter to be like. I’d want them to not take any crap from anyone. I’d want them try and avoid abuse and if they can’t to get help immediately. There are positive messages that come from the story we know of Cinderella, like being positive and staying strong, but there are negative ones too like, it’s okay to be miserable and do nothing about it and you can only find true love when you’re dolled up, because they won’t love you any other way. 

Overall, this story is not one that should be used as a teaching lesson in staying strong, feminism or finding your soulmate, but can be used cautiously to teach being positive. Don’t use her full blast since she does let herself get hurt 24/7, until her fairy godmother comes along. But why then, why wasn’t the godmother there earlier? Why just for the ball and why just until midnight? Who knows. This is another twisted folktale that makes little sense. Is Cinderella strong, weak, or both? What’s your opinion? 

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Soul (2020)

Soul is a 2020 American computer animated fantasy comedy drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Kemp Powers. The film stars the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alicia Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove and Angela Bassett. The movie follows the story of middle school music teacher named Joe Gardner, who tries to reconnect his soul and his body after they are accidentally separated, just before his start as a jazz musician.

This is definitely one of Disney’s darkest and deepest films. The main themes of this movie are death, afterlife, finding purpose and the meaning of life. These themes were executed well, though far from perfect. Too much time is spent in the “Great Beyond” and “Great Before” (AKA Heaven) with the soul creatures, a lot of mature themes, is quite slow much of the time and just really depressing until the end. I like the message of finding purpose, but the rest are heartbreaking and almost sacrilegious.

The animation is phenomenal, as well as the soundtrack that both Jamie Foxx and Trent Reznor composed. I found myself both bored, a bit offended and appalled at times and not really entertained by this film at all. Being a Disney and Pixar fan I was hoping to really like this movie like majority of critics and viewers, but I really didn’t. The story seemed push religion, philosophy and psychology, to the brink at times to offensiveness. With an all-star cast and production companies, you’d expect an outstanding motion picture, though like I said I didn’t care much this one.

I’m all for a black lead character, but this film seemed to do like so many films and do black against white, like when 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), an unborn white girl switches body with Joe (Jamie Foxx), it just feels really uncomfortable and a tad racist by some of the remarks made the two lead characters. There’s lots of adult humor, talk about death, souls and the meaning of life and finding your spark. Young children will not understand this movie at all. Just the fact Joe is killed within the first 10 minutes, is not the message you want to send to kids. Yes, kids do need to learn about death and all, but not like this.

You can do a film about death and the meaning of life, without it being so dark and not going quite so deep into these subjects. Even a family movie can use these themes and not confuse and/or frighten children. I’m sorry but Disney took this one too far. The best scenes to me aren’t in the “Great Beyond,” which the most of the movie’s setting, but when Joe’s playing music. I’m just dumbfounded that this story ever got green lit. Yes, Disney has a percentage of darkness in all it’s films, but it’s usually not for the majority of the movies’ runtime.

I wish the movie had focused more Joe’s own life rather than his adventures with 22. More about his childhood, education and things like that would’ve made it more fascinating. Overall, this film had me scratching my head as how this ever got made and why people love it so much. A movie that is pretty blasphemous and heavy-hitting and very sad. I guess you can call this Disney’s “Anti-Disney” film. Whether you believe in afterlife and heaven or not, it’s blatantly obvious what they were going for here. I’m all for pushing the boundaries and a little controversy, but don’t sell it for kids.

Overall, the animation is spectacular, so is the soundtrack, but I really didn’t enjoy this film much at all, it was lacking far too much and kept me scratching my head. While I normally cry at Disney movies, this one didn’t do that to me, like it did the others I watched it with. Conservative Christians may or may not like this movie. At the same time for older children, it will give grown-ups an opportunity to talk about God, Death, help them find their “spark.” Younger viewers will be bored and confused, as this movie is very complex in the themes and there are two different settings.

Do I hate this film? No. But do I like it? A little bit. Maybe Pixar’s next film will be more exciting and not offensive. Nice try guys, but you struck out on this one. 10+ 2.5/5