My Review of Elemental · 9:33pm Dec 31st, 2023
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with my final movie review for this year! This afternoon, I will be reviewing Pixar’s “Elemental”. Before seeing this, I had pretty low expectations and wanted to see if it is as good as people say it is. To my surprise, this was actually pretty good! I really enjoyed this film! I never thought that an animated movie about sentient, anthropomorphic elements would actually be this good.
This story is about a family of fire elements who immigrated to Element City and set up a store as their local business. Ember is set to become the future owner of the store as she helps her father around despite her anger issues. But once prejudicial issues arise the moment Wade shows up, Ember finds herself under unusual hot water.
This movie has really great character writing and a genuinely compelling plot. It actually took the time to make our central characters relatable and, dare I say, down-to-earth. And the interesting part is that it doesn’t even have a villain! The conflict only arises between different elementals, and their drama drives the story.
Speaking of conflict, I like that it didn’t try to copy the plot of “Zootopia”. It has some similarities like the fire elementals being unkind and distrustful towards the water elementals. But of course, it focused more on the romance between Ember and Wade—two complete opposite elements. Normally, I would roll my eyes at romance stories, but this movie made it seem so intriguing and fun to me.
Ember and Wade are both great characters who show us how they manage to deal with every difficulty in life. Ember represents those who struggle with identifying their true potential and knowing exactly what they want to do in life. She didn’t want to displease her dad, but she also didn’t want to be unhappy in doing a profession she would find herself not fully enjoying.
She wanted to put her new talents to good use without lying to herself about how she really feels. Wade is always sappy and sad, but he still went through amazing character development. It’s interesting how he doesn’t care about the fire being so dangerous to him, given that he’s a water elemental. His attraction to her shows us his true colors and reveals how much he wanted her to be happy.
The animation looks really impressive. The way all the characters are colored, how they express themselves, and how they manifest their elemental nature are all flawless!
The voice acting is pretty neat as well. Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, and Wendi McLendon-Covey all did a terrific job voicing these characters.
Although I have to confess, I wasn’t too blown away by its soundtrack. It’s forgettable and mediocre in my opinion, but at least they tried.
If there’s two things to take away from this movie, they are the following: 1), it’s okay to be uncertain of what you want to do as a profession. This gives you the time to think about what you’re good at, what your skills are, and what you really want to do based on that data. And never allow anyone—be it family member or friend—to pressure you into taking a job you don’t actually like.
Because it’s very easy for parents to pass down their heritage, legacy, or dream job to their own children so they can continue that exact same path they walked in. But they must remember that children are their own agency as well and will eventually grow up to make decisions on their own. The best way to leave an impression is for the parents to encourage their children to follow their own dreams so they can utilize their full potential in life.
The second thing to learn is this: take your new relationship slowly. I love that Ember and Wade didn’t instantly fall in love at first sight (which was Disney’s thing) and took a more natural approach so their chemistry is more believable. For any young couples out there, take it slowly and get to know each other.
Overall, this is a wonderful movie that deserves a 10/10! This is ten times better than “Wish”, in my opinion, because it has much more depth of character. Watch this movie instead if you haven’t already.
Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen! Pray that 2024 will be a better year!
That is quite a surprisingly positive review of the film given its reception beforehand, but I should see it for myself at some point so I can see if it's good for someone like me.
Glad to see this movie broke the current trend of 'Modern Disney/Pixar Bad'